Well, that was an interesting game. I meant to have this post up last night, but I kept getting distracted watching .gifs of the pitching.
I actually started watching this game with a really good feeling. Having seen Yu Darvish's improvement across his other starts, I thought that he could at least have a good night. I, however, wasn't even remotely prepared for the wonderful baseball sight that I was about to behold.
I'm no pitching expert and I will be the first to admit that. I've watched baseball my whole life, and everything I know comes from that (and independent study of internet resources, usually around finals time). Last night was some of the best pitching I've seen my entire life, and yes, I'm counting watching Cliff Lee with the Rangers.
Honestly, I didn't know that baseballs could do what they were doing last night*. After the scary top of the 3rd, he just seemed to get better and better and better. I could tell just watching him how much more poise and confidence there seemed to be. As someone intimately acquainted with nerves, his first two starts looked jittery. This time, however, I could tell there was a difference when he took the mound in the first. Even from out here in Waco I could tell there was a calmness-and that showed in his command.
Yes. Yu Darvish has found his command, and according to him he can still get better. How terrifying that must be to everyone else.
On to the other side of the game. For some reason our offense seems to be cooling off a bit, though that could simply be the effect of facing some elite pitchers in a row. I'll be interested to see how they fare tonight, as well as nervous about how the Yankees fare against Scott Feldman. Ian Kinsler's 429-ft homer in the 1st was a great start, and Josh Hamilton's RBI single in the 3rd inning added a run that would turn out to be all the insurance the Rangers needed.
Elvis Andrus deserves everything for his performance at shortstop yesterday. I might drop a link in here later to the gif of his amazing spin-off-balance-no-look-throw-to-first, because it seriously is that good. I want him to be a Ranger for a very long while. He's gone 50 games without an error, a streak that is ridiculous to even think about.
It's too early to be worried about our offense, honestly, even though they've only scored 11 runs over the last four games, as opposed to 44 in the four games before that. They've faced some very impressive pitchers in these last four games, and I have no doubt that things will begin to pick up again soon. In the same vein, I will plead neutrality on the subject of Mitch Moreland, for the time being. I don't think that it's quite time to be calling for his replacement, but I do wonder who that substitute could be.
Tonight's game is the last in this series, and starts at 7:05 CT. The Rangers have tomorrow off, and play the first in a 3 game series against Tampa Bay on Friday at 7:05 CT.
*I knew, I just didn't quite believe it.
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