A re-post from the Tim Bogar era, September 18, 2014. Enjoy.

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With last night’s late-inning rally against the stinking, shrinking A’s, the streaking, thinking Rangers have won five games in a row and go for their second consecutive sweep tonight.

Can we just call the first one-hundred forty-six games of this season practice?

The victory raises Tim Bogar’s managerial record to 6-5, giving him the second-highest winning percentage of any manager in Texas Rangers history.

Oh, sorry, he’s an interim manager.

The big blow last night was JP Arencibia’s three-run game-deciding home run with one out in the ninth inning of a game in which they were being totally dominated by Jeff Samardzjia.

But, in typical modern baseball pitching management, you always take out the pitcher who is throwing a gem for a lesser pitcher. And Bob Melvin did just that. He removed a guy who had giving up just four lousy hits with ten strikeouts for a guy who just came off the disabled list.

Because he is the closer. That’s what you do.

The Texas Rangers thank you, Bob Melvin, for managing by the book instead of by the brain. Rangers fans thank you. The Los Angeles Anaheims thank you by celebrating clinching the West with that loss.

Tim Bogar said he was thinking about pinch-htting Luis Sardinas for Arencibia because Arencibia had struck out in all three of his previous at bats in the game.

But those came against Samardzjia, who miraculously threw over a hundred pitches. That’s one hundred. In a single game. That might be a major league record. He may need four days to recuperate before he can ever pitch again.

Bogar reconsidered, though, and let Arencibia hit for himself, reasoning: “Sardinas is a contact guy, but I felt JP was a good matchup against Doolittle. Sometimes your stomach is smarter than your head.”

Since Ron Washington allegedly let another part of his body do this thinking, Tim Bogar’s stomach is getting a chance to see what it can do.

I’d say his stomach seems to have the guts for the job.