Rangers
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6, Braves 5
- That game was scary. And then it ended well.
- Not a great start from Kumar Rocker, who battled his command and struggled to put away batters, ultimately needing 95 pitches to get through just four innings and 19 batters faced.
- Three runs allowed by Rocker, which, with the way the Rangers are playing right now, whatever, we can deal with that. This isn’t the early season Texas Rangers, where three runs allowed in the first four innings meant doom.
- There’s a certain amount of frustration that I feel with Rocker, due to the inconsistency from start to start. Then I am reminded that he has a total of 147 innings since being drafted three years ago, almost half of those coming at the major league level.
- Jacob Latz, for the second game in a row, wasn’t feeling it, coming in in relief of Rocker and loading the bases with one out on a couple of walks and a double, though a 5-4-3 GIDP allowed him to escape unscathed.
- Bruce Bochy wasn’t going to walk that Latz tightrope beyond the fifth, however. Jon Gray was asked to go three innings, and allowed just one hit in that stretch, but the evil Michael Harris II had the one hit, and the one hit was a homer, and that meant a tie game.
- Harris led off the ninth against Shawn Armstrong needing a single for the cycle, and it looked like he had accomplished that with a line drive into left field. Wyatt Langford dove to try to make a catch, missed, and the ball bounded on behind him, with Harris making it to third, giving up two triples and no cycle. A Sean Murphy pinch hit sac fly brought him home, and now Atlanta was up 5-4.
- The offense, however, was up to the task of avoiding a loss. Texas had scored a pair in the second to tie up the game at 2, and then took the lead in the third with two more runs. In the ninth, after Josh Jung drew a one out walk off of Braves closer Raisel Iglesias, Sam Haggerty pinch ran and stole second. Jonah Heim laced a double down the line in right to tie the score, and even a subsequent Josh Smith line drive double play to end the inning couldn’t kill the positive vibes.
- The fascinating “baseball giveth, baseball taketh away” ebb and flow of overall fortune was illustrated in the top of the tenth. Matt Olson as the Zombie Runner advanced to third with one out on a fly out, and then Drake Baldwin hit a roller to first base that Rowdy Tellez fumbled, recovered, and got the out on. I was sure that Olson had scored.
- But no...Olson held up, hesitated when the ball was misplayed, and ended up staying at third. An Austin Riley 3-2 K then ended the inning with Olson stranded.
- The Rangers ended things quickly in the tenth. Corey Seager was walked intentionally to start the inning. Marcus Semien, who had been hit in the head with a pitch earlier in the game in an episode that had us wondering initially not if he would stay in the game, but if he would be going on the injured list, lined a 1-0 single to left field to score Josh Smith from second.
- Game over. Walkoff Rangers win. Everyone is happy.
- Its the type of game that you feel like bodes well. The type of game that the team would have lost earlier in the year. The type of game that, by virtue of snagging the win, has you feeling optimistic about the club, has you feeling that maybe things are meant to go well.
- Kumar Rocker’s sinker topped out at 96.8 mph, averaging 95.1 mph, while his fastball topped out at 96.0 mph, averaging 94.9 mph. Jacob Latz touched 95.6 mph with his fastball. Jon Gray’s fastball hit 95.3 mph. Shawn Armstrong’s sinker maxed out at 95.0 mph.
- Josh Smith had a 104.1 mph ground out. Josh Jung had a 102.9 mph lineout and a 102.4 mph single. Marcus Semien’s walkoff single was 102.7 mph off the bat. Corey Seager had a 102.4 mph fly out and a 100.9 mph single. Evan Carter had a 100.9 mph triple.
- Texas can sweep on Sunday. Let’s keep this going.
