Thoughts on a 10-5 Rangers win

Rangers 10, Angels 5

• Hey, its a win!
• At least the two Rangers wins this year have both involved thumping the other team.
• It was a weird outing for Dane Dunning. A command guy who gets ground balls, and generally doesn’t fan a lot of people, Dunning gave up a lot of loud contact to Anaheim on Thursday. But he also struck out 7 of the 18 batters he faced, which is unusual.
• Dunning ended up giving up a pair of runs in the first, because, you know, he has to always give up a run or two in the first inning, then kept the Angels off the scoreboard after that. But he allowed six hits and two walks, and ended up getting pulled with two outs in the fourth, having reached 86 pitches.
• John King finished out the fourth and threw a scoreless fifth, facing just four batters despite giving up a walk in the fifth by virtue of eliciting a GIDP. King has not looked real sharp in the early going, for what it is worth, but again, it is early.
• You know who has looked sharp in the early going, though? Brock Burke. In his second outing of the year, Burke went two innings, allowed one hit and struck out five. He has now struck out ten of the fifteen batters he has faced this year.
• Garrett Richards made his first appearance of the year, having just been activated from the injured list due to a blister, and gave up a home run, allowed a pair of runs, and walked a couple batters. That could have gone better, but the Rangers were up by a bunch. We can chalk it up as a “shake off the rust” outing, I guess, but one has to hope we’ll see some improved command from Richards going forward.
• Brett Martin finished things out and allowed a run on a walk and a pair of hits. Martin, like King, has not been sharp to start the season. He’s been a solid, reliable bullpen arm making the roster to start the 2019 season, so it isn’t something I’m going to be too concerned about just yet, but it is worth keeping an eye on.
• Dunning’s 3.2 innings pitched matched Angels’ starter Shohei Ohtani’s outing, though Ohtani gave up three times as many runs as Dunning did. The Rangers jumped on him in the second, with Nathaniel Lowe and Adolis Garcia leading off the inning with singles. After Kole Calhoun struck out, Willie Calhoun worked a seven pitch walk, loading the bases for Jonah Heim.
• Heim, you may recall, reportedly got the nod over the since-traded Jose Trevino due to his offensive upside. Heim has gotten off to a good start offensively, but got into an immediate 0-2 hole to Ohtani. Heim had swung through a splitter on 0-1, and Ohtani went back to his splitter on 0-2 in an effort to get Heim to chase and get a quick three pitch K.
• The splitter was left up, however, and Heim hit a laser beam that felt like it was only in the air about a half second before landing in the right field bleachers for a grand slam home run. Just like that, the Rangers had turned a 2-0 deficit into a 4-2 lead.
• Heim got to Ohtani again his next time up. In the bottom of the fourth, after Willie Calhoun led off the inning with a double, Heim rifled a single into left to drive home Calhoun. After a Brad Miller ground out and a Marcus Semien K, Corey Seager went deep for his first home run as a Ranger. A Mitch Garver single and a Nathaniel Lowe double brought home the eighth run of the game.
• The Rangers tacked their final two runs of the game on in the fifth, once again fueled by Jonah Heim, who had a one out single to start the rally. After a Miller K, a Semien single, a Seager single, and an E-6 on a smash by Mitch Garver brought two more runs home.
• Every Ranger starter had a hit, with the team tallying 13 in all to go with three walks. It was a productive offensive day for the Rangers.
• Dunning topped out at 91.4 mph on his sinker, averaging 89.7 mph on the day. John King’s sinker hit 92.2 mph. Brock Burke touched 96.4 mph with his four seamer. Garrett Richards hit 95.1 mph with his fastball, and Brett Martin hit the same mark with his sinker.
• Jonah Heim’s home run had an exit velocity of 107.8 mph, while one of his singles hit 103.4 mph. Brad Miller had a 104.7 mph single and a 105.3 mph ground out. Adolis Garcia had a 105.7 mph groundout. The smash that Mitch Garver had in the fifth that resulted in him reaching on a throwing error left the bat at 103.7 mph. Corey Seager’s home run was 102.7 mph. Nick Solak, who came into the game for Willie Calhoun at around the halfway point, had a 102.2 mph groundout.
• The Rangers are now 2-4, though they have a positive run differential, if you care about that sort of thing. They now head into a bullpen game on Friday, though with a 12 man bullpen currently, they should be able to have the arms to get them through that.