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Replies to post #178213 on Baseball Chat (BASEBALL)
On a night when:
Five Rangers had multiple base hits . . . .
And five drove in runs . . . .
And eight scored, helping give Texas the second-most runs in the American League for the season . . . .
And the lineup hit .389/.522/.639 for the night . . . .
And scored seven times on plays that didn’t involve a ball sailing over the fence . . . .
And another seven times on two balls that did . . . .
Both of which came in an explosive eighth . . . .
With two outs . . . .
Featuring Shin-Soo Choo amassing seven of his eight total bases in his first-ever start in the nine-hole . . . .
And seeing Ryan Rua display majestic opposite-field power in blasting his first career grand slam . . . .
Helping Cole Hamels improve to 10-3 in starts for Texas following a club loss . . . .
While logging just his second win even though he’s exited with a lead in all five of his 2017 starts and has yet to permit more than three earned runs . . . .
And giving Texas 5 of 7 from Kansas City and Minnesota at home, which sounds a whole lot more than one game better than 4 of 7 . . . .
On a night when all that happened . . . .
I present you . . . .
(wait for it)
(or get out while you still can)
De Lino’ de year for one player, and maybe for this team:
2 for 3 . . . .
Plus three walks . . . .
Three runs scored . . . .
One driven in . . . .
Two stolen bases (and one poorly risked caught-stealing) . . . .
35 pitches seen in six trips . . . .
Which included one swing-and-miss . . . .
Delino DeShields looked last night like the Rule 5 pick (not worthy, in Houston’s estimation, of a 40-man roster spot and an option to the farm) that ignited this offense in 2015 . . . .
When, by the way, Texas at this point on the schedule was 7-15 and 8.5 games behind the 16-7 Astros . . . .
Which puts 10-12 and 4.5 in back of the currently 14-7 Astros (whose run differential exceeds the Rangers’ by a mere +4) in some perspective, given that Texas caught Houston late in that 2015 season . . . .
In part, by trading for Cole Hamels and others . . . .
Look . . . Texas 14, Minnesota 3 was one of 162. That’s it. On one night the Rangers took their run differential from neutral to +11 (fourth in the AL, tied for eighth in MLB). Lots of really good things happened, and it would be a bit reckless to make too much of one game, and certainly of one inning.
But it was a night on which the leadoff hitter, getting just his second such assignment of the season, reprised what had been a breakout spring training, and flashed some of that 2015 magic he provided this club.
He saw a ton of pitches and he had a feel for the barrel and he constantly found ways to get on base and he wasn’t satisfied with just one at a time and he created offense all night, reaching in his first five plate appearances, all of which took place with the game still competitive.
He set a tone, and created pressure, and that’s what leadoff hitters do. The really good ones, at least.
It was the line of the night, whether you took in the win by watching the action unfold, or by engaging the box score, or by fighting through a report featuring what (I hope) was the year’s worst poetic license from the blogger to whom you’ve just committed a few minutes of your precious time.
Slow clap, Lino. See ya when you’re kicking off the bottom of the first Friday night.
