Lance Lynn earns 100th career win on the Rangers way to sweeping the Angels out of Arlington. Lance Lynn labored through 5 innings throwing 109 pitches – 63 for strikes. Along with his 100th career win, Lynn moved to 2-0 on the season with a 1.16 earned run average. In his five innings he allowed 2 runs on 4 hits, 3 walks and struck out 6. The two runs allowed came from a 2-run home run that Tommy La Stella hit.
“When we’re here we’re all family and we’re all pulling for each other…”
Lance Lynn speaks after his 100th career win.#TogetherWe | #MoreThanAGame | @Rangers pic.twitter.com/WAEZsfMMZs
? FOX Sports Southwest (@FOXSportsSW) August 9, 2020
The Pen
The bullpen was better this series against the Angels than they have been. The only hiccup from the bullpen came from Edinson V?lquez in the top of the 6th. Ohtani hit a lead-off double, then moved to third on a fly out and then scored on a ground out. There are a few guys that make me nervous coming in from the pen and V?lquez is one, along with Ian Gibaut.
Joely Rodr?guez allowed gave up a hit, a walk and struck out 2 in his scoreless inning.
One of my favorites, Brett Martin, was off a little today. He pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up two walks and striking out one. He owns a 2.45 earned run average.
Jimmy Herget pitched 2/3 of an inning. He walked one and struck out two. Leaving the Angels stranded with the bases loaded.
Jonathan Hernandez has been a pretty solid guy coming out of the pen for the Rangers. He’s been the most reliable guy in my opinion. He pitched a scoreless 9th inning striking out one in the process and he’s got an earned run average of an even 2.
Swinging bats
The Rangers offense has been struggling. They even had a rough time during this series. Take the game yesterday’s game for example. The Angels were practically gifting the Rangers runs by commiting 2 errors in a row but the Rangers were hard headed and declined the Angels generosity.
Nick Solak and Elvis Andrus were the only Rangers with multiple hits and they each had two.
Scoring plays
Isiah Kiner-Falefa had the 1st RBI of the game in the bottom of the 3rd, when he hit a double to right, scoring Rob Refsnyder. IKF has been pretty hot of late. After going 1-4 he is batting .333 which ties Jeff Mathis to lead the team.
Rougned Odor has been a hot topic amongst Rangers fans for what seems like several years now. He is struggling once again but did go 1-4 with an RBI in the 4th but he struck out in his other 3 plate appearances. His average sits at .114 and he may need to take a day or two off.
Elvis Andrus singled to center which scored Odor. Andrus has been struggling as well and that’s why both Andrus and Odor were a little further down the line-up today. Andrus is now batting .189.
Shin-Soo Choo singled and scored Elvis and Jeff Mathis and that capped off a 4 run bottom of the 4th for the Rangers.
The strangest play came in the bottom of the 5th when Nick Solak hit a ball that Jo Adell, one of the top prospects in baseball, seemed to have caught but the ball bounced over the wall. It was ruled a four base error and Solak came around to score.
I?. pic.twitter.com/bhfYqxhq5V
? Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) August 9, 2020
Nick Solak was part of the last scoring play for the Rangers as well in the bottom of the 8th, when he scored after a wild pitch from Ty Buttrey. Solak ended the game going 2-4 with 3 runs. His average sits at .233.
Before this weekend series against the Angels, the Rangers had a 3-8 record and were staring up at everyone in the standings. Now they are 6-8 and are currently in 2nd place behind the 12-4 Athletics. What a difference a weekend can make. And finally Lance Lynn earns 100th career win.
The Rangers start a new three game series tomorrow night against the 6-11 Seattle Mariners. Let’s enjoy this sweep tonight.
