Thoughts on an 8-5 Rangers win

Rangers 8, Mariners 5

• Your first place Texas Rangers. Feels like June again, doesn’t it?
• We have seen this movie before…bats put up a bunch of runs, shaky bullpen scares us, Rangers ultimately take home the win,
• Dane Dunning was great through five innings, allowing just one hit and seemingly being on cruise control. Then a single, a HBP, and a homer made it an 8-3 game. A ground out and then a single led to the hook, with Chris Stratton asked to finish out the inning.
• That plan didn’t work. Walk, K, single, bases loaded walk forced home a run and saw Stratton kicked to the curb for Andrew Heaney.
• And we got good Heaney. 6-3 to end the sixth. No hits or runs allowed as he got the Rangers through the eighth. I was hoping Heaney would get a shot at a three inning save.
• But no, Bruce Bochy went to Aroldis Chapman. And Chapman terrified us all, allowing a run and loading the bases with two outs, bringing the go ahead run to the plate, before a grounder that Josh Jung made a diving stop on ended the game.
• Call the Rangers bullpen C+C Music Factory, because they’re going to make you sweat.
• The offense was more fun. Corey Seager homered in the first. Evan Carter hit a three run shot in the second. Texas scored four more in the fifth to make it 8-0, then put the bats on ice the rest of the way to save some runs for the rest of the weekend.
• This win gives Texas a one game lead over Seattle, which is really equivalent to a two game lead, since Texas owns the tiebreaker. And with Houston losing to Cole Ragans and the Kansas City Royals, Texas has a half game lead on the Astros in the division. Importantly, Texas is up a game in the loss column over Houston, as well.
• Theres still…well, I was going to say a lot of ball left to play, but really, it’s just nine games left in the regular season. Six of those are against the Mariners, though, and beating Seattle is the best way to ensure a playoff spot.
• Dane Dunning reached 92.6 mph on his sinker. Chris Stratton hit 94.8 mph with his fastball. Andrew Heaney touched 95.1 mph with his fastball. Aroldis Chapman’s sinker hit 101.7 mph.
• Corey Seager had a home run at 107.4 mph and a ground out at 106.2 mph. Adolis Garcia had a 105.4 mph groundout. Evan Carter had a home run at 103.6 mph. Josh Jung had a 103.1 mph double.
• Cross our fingers, and let’s see if Texas can keep it going.