Thoughts on a 5-0 Rangers win

Rangers 5, Tigers 0

• That was a win. Another Ranger win in the books. Ho hum.
• You know, given the standard he has set of late, Nathan Eovaldi’s outing against Detroit was almost disappointing. No Quality Start, as he went just five innings, the first time in over a month that he didn’t go at least seven. A season high in walks, with three. A season low in strikeouts, with four.
• Five shutout innings is just a run off the mill outing for Nathan Eovaldi at this point, I guess.
• Eovaldi had a stressful inning in the second. He started the inning with back to back walks then allowed a line drive single to Akil Baddoo. The single was to right and Adolis Garcia and his arm are such that there was no effort to send the runner home, but the Tigers had bases loaded and no one out. It was a time for worrying and anxiety.
• Briefly, anyway. Eric Haase bounced into a 3-2 fielder’s choice. Andy Ibanez grounded into a GIDP. Inning over, no runs in. Rangers fans were happy.
• Eovaldi going five meant the bullpen had to go four, and as you can see from the goose egg in the final score, the bullpen did its job. Perhaps most remarkable is that two of the problematic bullpen guys, Jonathan Hernandez and Jose Leclerc, combined for three of those innings after Brock Burke’s 1-2-3 sixth. There was a nervous moment or two with them — Hernandez had a 1-2-3 seventh, then walked the lead off batter in the eighth and gave up a single. Jose Leclerc walked the first batter he faced in the ninth, but then got a couple of weakly hit ground balls for a GIDP and a regular old ground out to end the inning.
• Hernandez and Leclerc locking down a win with late inning zeroes, just as we all expected before the season.
• Texas didn’t get on the board until the fifth, when Corey Seager launched a two out, three run home run to give Texas a 3-0 lead. More runs were added in the seventh on a Marcus Semien sac fly and a Corey Seager single.
• Corey Seager? Pretty good.
• Leody Taveras had three more hits today. I don’t even know what to think about him any more.
• Nathan Eovaldi topped out at 98.2 mph, and averaged 95.8 mph on his fastball. Brock Burke maxed out at 95.1 mph. He averaged 92.7 mph with his fastball Monday, compared to a season average of 94.5 mph, which is something to keep an eye on. Jonathan Hernandez hit 99.2 mph on his sinker. Jose Leclerc reached 95.9 mph on his fastball.
• Corey Seager’s home run was 102.9 mph off the bat, and he also had a 108.8 mph groundout. Leody Taveras had a 104.7 mph single and a 102.7 mph double. Josh Jung had a 104.7 mph single. Adolis Garcia had a 100.8 mph fly out. Jonah Heim had a 100.5 mph single.
• Two more against Detroit to finish off the road trip, then an off day.