Something weird happened in baseball last night.  It must have been a full moon or something. The Milwaukee Brewers scored 19 runs. The Atlanta Braves scored 29. 

And the Texas Rangers scored seven. 

Offense was breaking out all over.

The Rangers hadn’t won back-to-back games since August 14 and 15. They hadn’t scored five runs in an inning since July 29. Five is the most the Rangers have scored in any inning this season.

It helps when they play a team that is nearly their equal in overall ineptness. In their division, Texas is 1-5 against Oakland, 2-8 against Seattle, 1-2 against Houston, and a glorious 4-0 against Los Angeles.

The Angels are the Rangers’ Free Parking and Pass Go and collect $200 all rolled up into one. 

The Rangers have certainly lost their share of ugly games so it’s nice to see them win one. It’s nice to see them win any game. 

After Eli White broke an 0-for-19 to begin his major league career (the record is 0-for-34 by Cleveland’s Lou Camilli from 1968 to 1970) with a game-tying double, Angels pitching couldn’t find the plate. They walked Leody Taveras, then the Rangers equivalent of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig—Jeff Mathis, Rougned Odor—only opposite, bringing a run, then hit Ronald Guzman to bring in another run.

But hidden in all that walking was a brilliant RBI single to left field by Joe Gallo. That is not a typo. Left field. 

The Rangers scored seven runs without the benefit of a home run, which makes for fun baseball game watching.

Manufacturing runs, sustaining rallies, taking what they give you, going the opposite way. After a spring training, a summer camp, a pandemic, and 42 games of this regular irregular season, baseball finally returned to the Texas Rangers.

It’s wonderful to have it back. I sure hope it stays.

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TODAY’S GAME:

Dylan Bundy (4-2, 2.49) vs. Kyle Gibson (1-4, 5.91)

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