Rangers win big on Guaranteed Win Night 145 comments


Nomar Mazara punctuates a six-run inning with a three-run homer, and a season high five-RBI game.

 

It was Guaranteed Win Night at the Ballpark last night. All fans in attendance were assured of witnessing a victory.

Pretty bold move for a last place team playing the team with the best record in baseball.

But the Rangers were facing David Price. Against the Rangers, Price folds like a cheap lawn chair. Coming into last night’s game, Price was 4-6 with a 5.63 ERA against the Rangers. His ERA at the Ballpark was 7.42. All that is in the regular season. Playoff David Price is 1-4 against the Rangers.

The Rangers own Price. Thank goodness they don’t have to pay for him.

It doesn’t seem to matter who is wearing the uniform, the Texas Rangers jersey becomes an automatic invincibility cloak when David Price is on the mound.

The Rangers jumped on him early again last night, with two in the second and two in the third.

Then there was the fourth inning. That might have been one of the more important innings in this young Rangers team’s development. Having jumped out to a 2-0 lead, then a 4-1 lead, the Rangers allowed the Red Sox back to narrow it at 4-3, and averted a jam that would have put the Red Sox on top. This is where the Rangers have usually faltered.

But last night, they looked up in the bottom of the fourth, saw the six-foot, five-inch lefty Price and his bloated salary on the mound, and knew all was going to be okay. Two walks and four singles later, it was 6-3, with bases loaded, when the Red Sox Manager had seen enough.

Only that wasn’t enough. His non-David Price pitcher threw a wild pitch to let in the seventh run of the game, then a three-home run ball to Nomar Mazara to cap a six-run inning, to make it 10-3, pinning nine runs, seven earned, on David Price.

The Rangers eventually scored one more run, for their highest run total of the year, their first time reaching double-digits.

Rangers fans think they have seen their team saddled with bad contracts. Not too many are a horrible as what the Red Sox bestowed Price: seven years, $217 million. He is the poster boy for the general manager restraint we have seen the past few off-seasons.

But $217 million is a small price to pay to give the Rangers and their fans a guaranteed night of happiness.

Thank you, Boston.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Rick Porcello (4-0, 2.23) vs. Bartolo Colon (1-0, 2.87)
Game time: 7:05

How the Red Sox hit against Colon.
How the Rangers hit against Porcello.