Young Stars Shine
Two guys that have been labeled as parts of the Rangers young core had big games. Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford showed out.
Langford went 2 for 4 with a home run and 4 RBIs. He also drew a walk.
Carter went 1 for 4 with 3 RBIs and drew a walk against a lefty, which is great to see from a guy who needs to improve against lefties.
The two of them put the Rangers out front and helped manufacture the win. Langford came up with the bases loaded in the fourth inning with one out.
He gave the Rangers the lead on the first pitch he saw and smashed one past the third baseman to score two on a double. That was his first extra base hit since June 18th against the Royals.
He add another extra base hit when he swatted his team-leading 14th home run of the season in the eighth inning. It did come off a position player, but it still counts
Carter up right after him and hit a ground rule double to left to bring in another pair of runs. He would add onto his day in the following inning with a bases loaded walk against a left handed pitcher.
That goes a long way in getting him everyday playing time and becoming a bigger part of the future.
Langford swatted his team leading 14th home run of the season in the eighth inning. It did come off a position player, but it is still good to see it from him.
Big Innings lead the way for the Rangers
For the first three innings, the game was going the way most games had. The team had no hits and had struck out four times. It looked like offense would not show up again.
Then they started to rally and that started with no other than Corey Seager. He took a seven pitch walk after battling after starting down 0-2.
His middle infield partner Marcus Semien followed suit with a walk of his own. The bases would become loaded with one out and Langford and Carter capitalized.
Jake Burger would add on with a RBI single to give them a 5-1 lead.
They would rally again in the fifth inning and again it would start with Seager as he led off the inning with a single.
The bases would be loaded again, this time with two outs, Carter would take a walk followed by singles from Burger (two RBIs) and Kyle Higashioka (one RBI) pushing the score to 9-1.
Seager would cap off his day with a solo home run to right. He would end the game 2 for 3 with a home run and a RBI.
Burger hit his own solo homer in the seventh inning. He finished his big day with a team high three hits and tied Langford for the lead with four RBIs.
We have seen this before when they explode for a lot of runs then go back to not being able to hit. Hopefully this a sign of things to come for the offense and they can be hitting to their potential.
Only time will tell, but we can hold onto hope.
Big Game Nate shows up for the Rangers
Nathan Eovaldi showed up big for the Rangers and stifled the Angels offense.
He was brilliant with six innings of one run baseball. The run was unearned with Zach Neto getting to second on a Josh Smith throwing error and he would score on a Nolan Schanuel single.
This seemed to make Eovaldi mad as he ended up striking out more hitters compared to the hits he let up. He ended the game with six strikeouts compared to allowing five hits total.
This effort brought his ERA down to 1.62. That would make him first in the MLB ahead of Paul Skenes who boasts a 1.94, though he doesn’t qualify due to lack of innings from earlier injuries. Hopefully that is behind Eovaldi and he can continue to dominant with deGrom.
This performance saved the bullpen. When he left the game the Rangers were up 10-1. That allowed Bochy to go to long man Dane Dunning who pitched the 7th and 8th before turning it over to utility man Ezequiel Duran for the 9th.
That gives another day of rest to the high leverage arms of the Rangers and can help them be ready for the next two games of this series as well as the upcoming series against Houston.
As a fan you will never complain to see your bullpen arms getting a day off, so they can be ready for when their names are called in a big situation. Big tip of the cap for Nathan Eovaldi.
