Thoughts on a 2-0 Rangers win

Rangers 2, Guardians 0

• That was a nice little win, wasn’t it?
• Andrew Heaney has done a Jekyll and Hyde act much of the season. He allowed no runs on Saturday after allowing 8 runs to the Nationals his last time out. The outing before that, he struck out eight Astros in five shutout innings. The outing before that, he gave up six runs to Detroit.
• So there’s a Katy Perry song that you could apply to Heaney this year. The good news is hot Heaney pitched against Cleveland, going 5.1 innings without allowing any runs. Bruce Bochy pulled him at 87 pitches, one of his lower pitch counts on the season, but there were also runners on the corners with one out and a righthanded batter due up, so replacing the lefty fly ball pitcher with a righty ground ball pitcher probably was a significant factor.
• And it worked, with Anderson getting a GIDP to end the inning.
• Anderson, Will Smith and Aroldis Chapman combined to get the job done in relief, with Smith being asked to get five outs while Chapman picked up his first Ranger save with a scoreless ninth. The bullpen came through. Huzzah!
• It’s a good thing the bullpen came through because the bats didn’t do much. Gavin Williams looked shaky early, with the Rangers going single, double, walk to start the bottom of the first, but scored just one due to a fielders choice and a DP. In the second, Texas loaded the bases with one out, got a run home on a sac pop fly down the right field line that a great catch was made on in foul ground but that resulted in a run coming home, saw the bases load up again on a walk, but ultimately saw them get left loaded on a Nathaniel Lowe K.
• Texas only got one more hit after the second inning, and really didn’t threaten again, but two runs ended up being enough. So I’m not going to complain, for now.
• Andrew Heaney topped out at 94.3 mph on his fastball. Grant Anderson’s sinker hit 93.1 mph. Will Smith reached 92.4 mph. And Aroldis Chapman ended the game with a 102.5 mph sinker — the fastest pitch thrown by a Ranger in the Statcast era.
• Marcus Semien had a 104.8 mph single. Mitch Garver had a 102.4 mph line out. Corey Seager had a 100.8 mph ground out.
• Two in a row to start the second half. Not bad.