Usually, you can count on Yu Darvish to give you a chance to win against Detroit. However, you don't necessarily expect a depleted lineup to jump out to a 9-0 lead that Detroit can't recover from en route to a 9-2 Texas victory.

As for my pick for player of the game, I'll take catcher Chris Gimenez, who had a 4-hit game while going 4-for-5 with an RBI. Those 4 hits gave him half of the total that J.P. Arencibia had (8) throughout 66 plate appearances before being sent to the minors earlier this week. I don't expect that Gimenez will necessarily be an offensive force going forward, but if he can at least be significantly better than Arencibia, I figure that the Rangers will certainly take it.

With two more games remaining in Detroit, it figures to be important that Texas managed to run through the Detroit bullpen early and often, hopefully giving them at least a minor edge over the next two games.

One more win tomorrow gets the Rangers back to .500.