After walking in a run in the third, Cole Hamels found another gear and coasted to his best game yet as a Ranger.

The Rangers acquired Cole Hamels for one reason: Games like this.

Coming off a series loss in Toronto where the starting pitching was bush league, generous to a fault and unable to hold any kind of lead, the Rangers needed Hamels to be good.

He was very good.

Eight innings. One run, Two hits. Ten strikeouts. It was a crisply played two-hour-and-twenty-three-minute game.

That’s about as good as you can expect from a starter wearing a Texas Rangers uniform.

Cole Hamels is now 2-1 as a Ranger, and getting better every time out.

He has pitched five games for Texas. Here are the number of earned runs per game:

G:  ER:
1     5
2     4
3     3
4     2
5     1

It appears that Hamels is where he needs to be right when the Rangers really need him to be there.