Thoughts on a 2-1 Rangers win

Rangers 2, Twins 1

• The Rangers are now 3-1 in one run games in the Tony Beasley Era.
• Cole Ragans’ fourth major league start was a mixed bag. He only made it through four innings, needing 89 pitches to get that far, but he only faced eighteen batters, averaging almost five pitches per plate appearance. Ragans threw strikes and didn’t give up much hard contact, but he couldn’t put the Twins away — Minnesota batters had 25 foul balls off of Ragans, which meant a lot of lengthy at bats.
• While he only went four, Ragans allowed just one run in those four innings, which we will take. And really, given that he was approaching 70 pitches after three, and had had some high stress at bats, I wasn’t expecting them to send him out for a fourth inning.
• A.J. Alexy, recently moved from a starting role in the minors to a multi-inning relief role, got a chance to show what he could do when asked to go through the order just once. Alexy faced eight batters, giving up an infield single (which was erased on a double play) and a walk, retiring everyone else he faced. In contrast to Ragans, he only needed 30 pitches to get through eight batters, and was only lifted when the Twins sent up Gary Sanchez to pinch hit with one on and one out in the seventh.
• Brett Martin came in and made quick work of Sanchez, and then Luis Arraez, stranding the runner and preserving the lead. Good ol’ Brett Martin.
• Jose Leclerc gave up an infield single before getting a fielder’s choice and then two Ks to close out the eighth. His ERA is down to 3.19 on the year.
• Jonathan Hernandez went two innings on Saturday. With the Rangers protecting a one run lead, one would have expected Hernandez to pitch the ninth, but Matt Moore got the nod instead. Moore was fine and closed it out, but I’m curious as to whether Hernandez needed an extra day, couldn’t get loose, or what.
• The Rangers were hammering the ball today, but had no luck with balls falling in, resulting in the game being closer than it maybe should have been. Nathaniel Lowe epitomized that with a couple of rockets that found gloves, including a line drive to first base with no one and and two on that turned into a triple play.
• I have to say, triple plays are more fun when you are the team turning them, as compared to the other way around.
• Adolis Garcia hit a home run that went a long way for the first Ranger run. The second run was courtesy of a Corey Seager RBI single that brought home Brad Miller. Seager was two for three with a walk, representing one-third of the Rangers hits tonight, as well as 100% of their walks.
• Cole Ragans topped out at 93.5 mph with his fastball, and averaged 91.8 mph. A.J. Alexy maxed out at 96.9 mph. Brett Martin’s sinker hit 93.5 mph. Jose Leclerc touched 97.5 mph with his fastball. Matt Moore’s fastball hit 95.3 mph.
• Adolis Garcia’s home run was 107.8 mph off the bat, and he had a 103.0 mph fly out. Nathaniel Lowe’s triple play was 103.3 mph, and he had a fly out to Byron Buxton that was 104,7 mph. Leody Taveras had a 103.0 mph groundout. Marcus Semien had a 102.8 mph fly out. Brad Miller had a 102.2 mph fly out and a 99.4 mph single.