Thoughts on a 5-3 Rangers win

Rangers 5, Angels 3

• And the Rangers win their first series in…I don’t know how long. A pretty long time, I’m pretty sure.
• Another quality start for Martin Perez, who had one bad inning and five good ones. All three Angels runs scored in the third, when Perez allowed four of the five hits he gave up in the game, as well as one of the three walks he issued.
• Perez was only at 90 pitches through six, but he was a couple of batters away from facing the top of the lineup for the fourth time, plus he wasn’t missing bats — just five swings and misses on the day — so you can see why Tony Beasley would go to the pen.
• An inning apiece from Jonathan Hernandez and Matt Moore kept the game tied at 3, and an opposite field two run homer by Corey Seager have the Rangers a late lead, setting the stage for Jose Leclerc to pitch the ninth.
• I really love Jose Leclerc’s stuff. He has legitimate closer stuff, and when his command is on, he’s an elite reliever. Today, he threw 12 pitches. He gave up a double to Shohei Ohtani on a cutter. He threw one ball. The other ten pitches were five swinging strikes, three called strikes and a pair of foul balls. He ended up retiring the three non-Ohtani batters on swinging Ks.
• I truly hope the Rangers exercise their 2023 option on Leclerc, and we get the chance to see what he does next year, with the TJS recovery under his belt.
• Only six hits for the Rangers today, two of them by Marcus Semien, who also drew a walk, continuing what has been a strong finish to the year.
• Josh Jung was hitless again, but he didn’t strike out, which is an improvement.
• Martin Perez had a fastball that hit 93.9 mph. Jonathan Hernandez had a 99.3 mph sinker. Matt Moore hit 93.9 mph, and Jose Leclerc topped out at 98.2.
• Corey Seager’s home run was 109.0 mph off the bat. Jonah Heim had a 106.2 mph single. Nathaniel Lowe had a 103.5 mph single and a 101.5 mph groundout. Marcus Semien had a 101.1 mph double and a 100.1 mph single.
• The season is almost over. Enjoy the games we have left in 2022. Especially the wins.