It was a monster shot.

Joey Gallo is continuing his remarkable transformation from oddity to All-star, with three walks and his tenth home run of the year. That’s good for second in the American League. But what’s even more amazing is his on-base percentage now sits at .404.

Shin-Soo Choo is proving what the term lead-off hitter really needs with his thirteenth first-inning hit in his last fifteen games. His OBP is .414.

The bottom of the Rangers order continues outperforming the top of most other team’s lineups, with Gallo, Asdrubal Cabrera and Logan Forsythe going a combined 4-for-12 with all four runs batted in.

Adrian Sampson pitched nearly six shutout innings as a starter, in what was easily the best start of his career and the best start of the Bottom Three all season.

Oh, then something happened in the ninth inning that was a punch in the gut and washed away all the good things this game had generated and left Rangers fans with a bad taste in their mouths and left the Rangers with more questions than answers and showed that the Rangers are no longer invincible at home and proved once again there is nothing more fickle than a bullpen and nothing more interchangeable than a closer.

Yes, there was that ninth-inning incident.

When you are constantly flirting with disaster, every once in a while disaster has had a little too much to drink and goes home with you.

Since Jose Leclerc’s first blown save in Arizona back on the ninth of April, Leclerc has been dancing on the head of a pin. He’s gotten away with it a few times. Not last night.

When it’s all said and done, it was just one loss. The Rangers, even in the best of years, would have sixty-two of those, or more.

They fixed Gallo. Now it’s time to fix Leclerc.

Other than that ninth, oh and that eleventh, it was a pretty good game.

*****
TONIGHT’S GAME:James Taillon (1-3, 4.06) vs. Shelby Miller (1-1, 7.52)
Game time: 1:05