Nick Martinez is the ace? Mitch Moreland is batting second?  And the Rangers won?

You cannot make this stuff up.

Jeff Banister juggles the lineup. The result? Offense.

Rangers fans are used to the lineup card being printed in April and then turned in every day for the rest of the season, without change.

But Banister saw what he saw, and didn’t like what he saw.

So Rougned Odor led off, rather than hit last. Mitch Moreland batted second. And the Rangers offense, which had been in the Witness Protection Program, showed up and dominated.

While the offense news is huge, bigger news is the continued dominance of Nick Martinez, now 2-0 with zero runs given up this year.

In this up and down season, yesterday was an up.

The Rangers are 4-5. Tomorrow they go for their first series win.

But last night was a huge step forward. No matter that it was against a pitcher who had never started a game in his career. A win is a win. A dominating win is even better. Andrus getting a home run is nirvana.

But Jeff Banister’s first big step in his young managerial career was in the right direction.