Rangers 4, Angels 0
Rangers 4, Angels 0
- And the losing streak is over.
- Tyler Mahle — the much-maligned Tyler Mahle — had an excellent start with six shutout innings. He is now the major league leader in ERA, at 0.92. He has allowed just two runs this season.
- Now you may be saying, just two runs? That can’t be right! After all, he had that horrible first start of the season, and gave up a bunch of runs then.
- But Mahle gave up just one run in 1.2 innings pitched his first start of the year. He was bad in that outing, but got an early hook and avoided giving up a big run total.
- And Mahle was legit dominant on Monday night. He struck out nine batters against two walks and three singles in six innings. He generated 18 swings and misses on 93 pitches, 11 of which came on his fastball. Think about it…Tyler Mahle generated 20 swings on his 92 mph (on average) fastball, and only nine made contact.
- Robert Garcia, Chris Martin, Jacob Webb and Luke Jackson combined to handle the final three innings. Luke Jackson allowed a one out double in the ninth, one of only two baserunners the Angels got as far as second base in the game.
- The offense spent much of the evening doing little and causing us stress and making us think it was going to either waste a great outing from Mahle or barely eke out a run or two. Heading into the bottom of the sixth, only one Ranger had gotten past first base — Kevin Pillar, on a second inning double.
- All the small ball aficionados, though, had something to be happy about in the bottom of the sixth. Leody Taveras dropped a bunt down the first base line for a single to lead off the inning, stole second (his league-leading sixth stolen base of the year), and advanced to third when the throw went into center field. Marcus Semien followed up with a fly ball to deep left that I thought was gone, but was instead caught at the wall for a sacrifice fly, giving the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
- In a weird but ultimately non-material incident later in the inning, Corey Seager, who had reached on a single, was called out for interference on a pop out by Josh Jung, as he made contact with whoever it was (I don’t remember and am not going to go look). The result was that Seager was called out and Jung was awarded first, instead of Jung being out (since the pop up was caught) and Seager being awarded first. And that’s fine with me, as we don’t want Seager straining a hamstring or something running the bases if it can be avoided.
- The previous inning, Jonah Heim, who had drawn a leadoff walk, had seemingly stolen second base. However, he was called out due to Kyle Higashioka, who had struck out on the pitched, being called for interference. If Heim comes up one stolen base short of the record for most stolen bases in a season by a catcher, we know who to blame.
- That opened…well, not the floodgates, but a nice stream, shall we say. Texas added a run in the seventh on back to back doubles by Heim and Higashioka. Then in the eighth, Corey Seager doubled, was brought home on an infield single + E6 on the throw off the bat of Josh Jung, which was followed by Pillar singling home Jung.
- Before the game, when the lineup was posted, there was much griping and complaining about Josh Smith and Jake Burger both sitting. What was wrong with Bruce Bochy? Why was he sabotaging the team? Why is he starting Ezequiel Duran (who went 0 for 3 and is still hitless on the season) instead of Burger or Smith?
- As it turned out, Burger was dealing with a stomach bug, and Smith with a jammed thumb. It is a reminder that, when someone is not in the lineup for seemingly inexplicable reasons, the reason is often explicable, whether it is publicly revealed or not.
- Tyler Mahle topped out at 95.4 mph with his fastball, averaging 92.0 mph. Robert Garcia hit 94.2 mph with his fastball. Chris Martin reached 94.8 mph with his fastball. Jacob Webb’s fastball hit 93.4 mph. Luke Jackson maxed out at 94.8 mph.
- Corey Seager had a 112.2 mph single and a 107.4 mph ground out. Kyle Higashioka had a double at 106.7 mph and a 104.5 mph line out. Kevin Pillar had a 104.7 mph double. Jonah Heim had a 101.2 mph double.
- Texas could use a stretch of several of these solid wins strung together. Let’s see if they can keep this going.