Holland again! 6.2 innings pitched, seven hits, two runs, three stikeouts. He actually kept the Sox under control. The two runs he allowed were two solo home runs (Bay, Martinez). He’s starting to feel to me like Cole Hamels did for the Phillies last year. Man, he’s good.
The big story for me this game was the speed on the bases. Elvis Andrus & Pedro Borbon were running all over the place. The two of them had a combined seven steals, and Ian Kinsler also had one. The eight steals sets a Rangers franchise record now for number of steals in a game. It was almost like videogame baseball, where you jack the running speed up to max on your guys, and push down the arm strength of the opposing catcher. Varitek had no hope. A friend of mine who is a Sox fan says it’s been that way all year with Varitek – he can’t throw anyone out, apparently. But MAN was it nice to see these guys run all over the Red Sox.
Ian Kinsler was back in the game, but wasn’t batting leadoff (Borbon was). Kinsler homered in his return to the lineup. He was also hit in the head with a pitched ball later in the game – not something that looked good at all, but at least it was’t Hiroki Kuroda of the Dodgers.
Overall, the Rangers had 12 hits. Just two were extra base hits (the Kinsler HR, and an Andrus triple). Everything else was a single. So not a lot of power, but way more than enough to hang a seven spot on the Boston pitching staff.
But the important part was that we beat the Red Sox, and are back to just half a game out in the Wild Card race.