Ranger pitching was the star of this one. Kameron Loe came off the DL, and threw five innings of shutout ball. It wasn’t the most crisp outing I had ever seen (three hits and five walks), but it was enough to get the job done. The Rangers turned three double plays this game, so that helped a lot. Loe was followed up by Mike Wood (2IP), Frank Francisco (1IP), Joaquin Benoit (1IP). Of the three relievers, there was only one walk issued (Francisco), and no more runs, so Ranger pitching was pretty well today.
It’s nice to see because of the quote that came out in the paper over the weekend from Thad Levine (I think, I can’t recall for sure as I write this) saying that the free agent pitching class this off season is going to be rather thin, now that Zambrano is off the market. The quote said something about if there’s a great deal available, they’ll get involved, but wouldn’t be surprised to see the Rangers make no free agent pitching moves. We’ll need a lot more days like the one we got today before that will be swallowed without complaining by knee jerk radio call in Ranger “fans”, swallowed by the Ticket, and especially Randy Galloway.
Boof Bonser (my vote for silliest name in all of the mlb) was not good. In 4.2 innings, he gave up 7 hits, 5 earned runs, and 3 walks. Of the hits, two of them were home runs. One to Saltamacchia, and one to Marlon Byrd. Byrd had a great night. Went two for 4 with the aforementioned home run. He drove in four runs in all.
Michael Young was 2-3 keeping his average at .305. He has 149 hits, and with about 40 games left, he won’t have much time to go cold if he wants to hit 200 again. It would be a nice feat considering how horrendous the start of the season went for him.
Always nice to see a shutout thrown by our boys.