Totally dominating.


Rookies lead: Jack Leiter (L) struck out ten, walking none, while Cody Freeman (R) hit his first big league homer.

When you win a game ten to nothing, there are two stories. The ten. And the nothing.

First, the nothing. Jack Leiter pitched the best game of his young career last night. He’d gone seven innings in a game only once before. He did that last night. He’d never struck out ten batters in a game before. He did that last night as well. With no walks and only two hits allowed. 

Leiter has been great at getting two strikes on a batter. Then, he falls apart and can’t find the strike zone. That’s been his downfall. 

Last night, at least for one game, he solved that. You can’t ask for a much better pitched game than that.

At the same time, the Rangers offense was firing on all cylinders, which is something it rarely does.

The Rangers got production up and down their lineup. Every starter got a hit except for Corey Seager and Kyle Higoshioka. Ezekiel Duran drove in three. Josh Jung came back from being benched, after being sent down earlier, and picked up three hits, including a two-run homer. Adolis Garcia came back from the I.L. and from his offensive freefall and smacked a two-run homer. 

This wasn’t one of those big bang theory game where they score a ton of runs in one inning then limp through the rest of the game. The Rangers scored early and often. Two in the second, three in the third, two in the fourth, two in the fifth, one in the sixth.

The offensive onslaught was highlighted by Cody Freeman getting his first major league home run, a two-run shot in the second to get it started. 

All in all, it was one of the more dominating games the Rangers have played all season. And while it’s encouraging to see them win two in a row, which is the smallest of all winning streaks, the only way to take this seriously if they can run off seven in a row, nine out of ten. Do it on the road. Do it against lefties. 

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, at least bask in two wins in a row and a 10-0 stomping of the Cleveland Guardians. 

*****