My weekly TV game came on Friday night. So I settled in rather late, and started watching the game.
The game started off in a way that I thought it would. Rangers would pound out a few, and our starter would hold ’em down. We got half of that. Colby Lewis started off well, and kept the Mariners down (not that that’s too hard anyway).
The Rangers picked up a run in the first, and in the second. The third inning started off with Elvis Andrus walking. That was the last time a Ranger got on base until Endy Chavez started off the eighth by singling. Doug Fister, who threw something like 42 pitches in the first two innings calmed down, and was lights out there from innings 3-7. It was a good old pitchers duel, with Texas up 2-0 in the lead.
Given the way the Mariners (do not) score runs, they had some odd defensive plays. In the first inning, they had the infield in, something you almost never see. Pretty strong indictment of their offense that they had the infield in during the first. They also threw home in the 8th to stop a run from scoring where you wouldn’t normally see that kind of play.
That rundown in the 8th allowed the Rangers’ runners to get up to second and third while Chavez was stuck in the rundown. Those two guys scored later. In fact, the first three of the four runs the Rangers got were on sacrifice flies. Don’t see that too often, either.
Going into the bottom of the ninth, Colby Lewis was still out there. He managed to get the first two outs, but sandwiched in there were two singles, to put two guys on. Which then invoked the really weird rule that says a pitcher is eligible for a save if the tying run is on the on deck circle. I never agreed with that, but it did allow Feliz to come in, get the final out, and get a save.
But this was really about Colby Lewis. I would have loved to have seen the complete game, but I get why Wash took him out there. Still, it was another shutout, which was our ninth straight win, and our third straight game with a shutout. Most impressive.