The Rangers are 29-27, Gallo Exits with Left Oblique Injury
That’s pretty much how I’m feeling right now, in spite of another Rangers win.
Lance Lynn took the mound for Texas, and had another solid outing. He tossed 6.1 innings on 102 pitches with 7 strikeouts, while only giving up 2 runs on 6 hits and no walks. It’s hard to not be impressed with the way he’s managed to become an innings-eater for Texas. Between Mike Minor, Ariel Jurado, Lance Lynn, and Adrian Sampson, the Rangers have a nice group of guys that have been giving their team a chance to win when they take the mound.
The highlight and lowlight of the game both came courtesy of Joey Gallo. In the bottom of the 4th, Gallo hit a 2-run home run as part of a 4-run inning for Texas.
Of course, by the time Joey came back to the plate in the bottom of the 5th, he appeared to grab his left side on consecutive pitches, prompting Chris Woodward to come out of the dugout. Gallo attempted to stay in the game, but was eventually convinced to exit. The injury is being termed left oblique tightness, so hopefully this is the sort of injury — with a day game tomorrow and off day on Monday — that will resolve within a few days. It would be a huge blow if it ends up being the month-plus variety.
Another multi-hit game for Hunter Pence. It’s almost become routine at this point. Shin-Soo Choo, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Nomar Mazara also added two hits apiece. The offense piled up 11 hits and 4 walks on the way to another 6-run game, so overall a pretty good day for the lineup.
After Lynn exited with one out in the top of the 7th inning, Jose Leclerc came on and struck out two Royals, continuing his trend of stringing together solid outings. The 2-run home run to Seattle on the last road trip aside, he’s been very solid lately.
Chris Martin came on and worked a scoreless inning, leading the way for Shawn Kelley to handle the top of the 9th.
Kelley came on and worked a clean 1-2-3 9th inning to preserve a 6-2 Rangers win. The Rangers avoided dropping back down to .500 this time, and will have an opportunity to win a series tomorrow afternoon.