Derek Holland pitched OK to start off this game. Not great. Not even a “quality start”, but I look at this game, and didn’t think he was so bad, despite the numbers being “meh”. It’s an odd contradiction, as I’ve blasted some starters in the past for numbers like this. Derek went 5.1 innings, threw 92 pitches, allowed 7 hits, 3 runs, walked two. But.. All three runs he gave up were on the longball. Chicks still dig the longball, but I don’t for the opponent.
Holland came out and was followed by Alexi Ogando, who didn’t pitch long (just 1.2 innings), but pitched well. He recorded four outs in his time on the mound, but all four of them were strikeouts. He also walked one, and allowed a hit, but a 1.000 batting average for strikeouts is impressive, to say the least. Mike Adams & Joe Nathan finished out the pitching for Texas, with Nathan getting his 12th save of the year. Solid outing from the pen, which we need given the now unstable situation with the starting rotation.
Offensively, we had a nicely spread out offense. Of the 11 hits the Rangers had total, every batter had at least one, and two guys (Kinsler & Young) had two. Decent amount of extra bases here. Young had a triple, and four guys had doubles. That left six singles scattered around the rest of the offense. Mike Napoli walked (twice), as did Nelson Cruz (once). Was a nice balanced attack, with a three spot in the third, single runs in the fourth, fifth, & ninth.
Kinsler stole a base (his 8th). It just seems to me that the Rangers are running less this year. I didn’t bother to look up the stats, just one of those “feels like” things.