Nick Martinez collects his second win of the season in win against the Angels

The Rangers ended their first losing streak of the season with an 8-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and improved their record to 4-5. Nick Martinez picked up his second win of the season as he continued his strong start with 7 innings of 1 run baseball. Jeff Banister having changed up the lineup again saw his team score 8 runs and hit 2 home runs. I guess this says that he needs to be changing the lineup everyday. It was a good team win though. The pitching was solid, the offense was great, and the defense helped keep the Angels off the board in key situations. Jeff Banister could not ask for a better win in the given situation. Lets get to what actually happened in the game though.

It was Nick Martinez going up against Drew Rucinski, who was making his first major league start. Martinez got off to a tough start. He allowed Erick Aybar a sharp single into the right-field corner, but Choo came up firing and was able to throw Aybar out at second. Mike Trout followed with a double and Albert Pujols walked putting runners at first and second with 1 out. He was able to get out of it with a lineout from Matt Joyce and a ground out from Rangers nemesis David Freese. In the bottom of the first the new Rangers top of the order was able to produce a run. Roughned Odor walked, stole second, and Mitch Moreland singled up the middle to get him home. They functioned as the top two hitters should and I loved Moreland’s approach with two strikes in that at-bat. He shortened his stroke and was able to hit a sharp grounder up the middle. It was nice to see him thinking there about just getting a base hit, rather than continuing to try for the home run. It looked like the lead would be short-lived though in the bottom of the inning as the Angels once again put pressure on Martinez. They were able to load the bases with one-out and their fastest runner coming to the plate in Erick Aybar. I thought for sure it would be difficult to get a double play grounder, but sure enough they did. Aybar hit it sharp enough at Odor that he was able to turn it quick enough to get Aybar out at first. Through two innings Martinez was up to 38 pitches. As I am watching this I am thinking that he may only be able to make it through 5 innings.  From there though he was able to calm down. It helped that the bats woke up in the bottom of the second inning.

The Rangers were able to put 3 more runs on the board all with two outs in the inning. They finally got a break to go their way when Mike Trout and Matt Joyce were converging on a drive to left center off the bat of Robinson Chirinos when neither one of them were able to catch it even though both were in position to catch it. That allowed two runs to score and allowed the Ranger players to be able to take a deep breath and just relax from that point forward. Odor followed up Chirinos’ double with one of his own that landed right in front of a dive from Mike Trout. That allowed the Rangers to be able to put 3 on the board that inning and extend the lead to 4-0. It was certainly an inning the team really needed and it allowed Martinez to settle in and pitch his game.

After the big second inning, Martinez retired 12 of the next 14 hitters from the third through the sixth inning and the score expanded from 4-0 to 8-0. The Angels didn’t even really pose another threat till the 7th inning. That is when the first two runners reached due to a single and throwing error from Adrian Beltre. After that though he was able to get out of the inning with only one run allowed. There could have been more, but Carlos Peguero was able to track down and catch Mike Trout’s drive to the wall. All in all Nick Martinez threw 7 innings. allowing 1 run, but 0 earned runs, 5 hits. 3 BB’s, 1 K. That makes it 14 innings he has thrown so far without giving up a single earned run. His ERA is still 0.00. He showed a lot of poise and maturity out there being able to get out of those first and second inning jams. Right now I feel decently confident about 3/5 of the rotation. I feel like Martinez is poised to be a really solid member of this rotation. He will have his bad starts from time to time, but he is continuing that success he had down the stretch of last season. The Rangers are going to need that if they have any dreams of competing. If they can get solid starts from Martinez every fifth day that will go a long way toward keeping that dream alive.

Other Game Notes

• Robinson Chirinos had his first big game of the season. He caught a break in the second with that deep drive double to left center that landed between Trout and Joyce. The home run though was no joke. He drove that to deep left center field. It was a no doubter and gave him 5 rbi’s on the night. That was good for Robinson as he was in a 1-13 slump entering this game and had not had many quality plate appearances so far. He looked confident at the plate and the double in the second may be what he needed in order to get going. With it being a day game today I expect him to get the day off today and Carlos Corporan will be behind the plate.
• Elvis Andrus has left the building. All Spring Training they talked about how Elvis had worked on changing his stance and tried to get stronger in order to be able to drive the ball into the gaps and into the outfield. In the past it looked like any hit he got was just a soft hit line drive. Last night he was driving the ball. He had two hits, but easily could have had 3 if not for Erick Aybar making a fantastic play with the infield drawn in. One of those two hits was a home run. It was Elvis’ first home run since May 21st of last year and snapped a string of 481 at-bats without a home run, the longest active drought in the major leagues. If he continues to get the bat behind the ball and driving it, the next drought will not be anywhere close to as long. The Rangers don’t need him to be a home run hitter though. They survived last season having Alex Rios hit 6th and only hit 4 home runs. What the Rangers need is for him to be getting on base, causing havoc on the bases, and helping to drive people in.
• Prince Fielder strikes again with two more singles in his 4 at-bats, but he almost did hit a home run though. Jose Alvarez left one hanging in the fifth and Prince thought he had it, but he just got underneath it and flew out to right-fielder Collin Cowgill. He gets his average up to .405 though and for the first time this season, we did not see a massive shift from the Angels in his at-bats. Word is getting around that Prince is not pulling the ball anymore. That actually allowed him to get his second single when he hit it right back up the middle where the shortstop normally would have been.
• And can we please calm down the talk on Carlos Peguero being like Nelson Cruz. Peguero has looked good so far, don’t get me wrong. I think he has been very solid and is filling in for Ryan Rua very nicely. He needs to do it longer than 5 games to be considered Nelson Cruz. Cruz even had to prove he could do it longer than 5 games. I remember back before he became the monster he is today that everytime the Rangers called him up he would hit two home runs in the first game he would play and then would go into a massive slump. Peguero is doing good, but lets calm down the Nellie Cruz talk until May or June. Lets see what he does over these next few weeks. For now I prefer the comparison to Kevin Kouzmanoff prior to his back injury from last season. A veteran who was given another shot and excelled until he got hurt.
• It is an afternoon game today as it will be Anthony Ranaudo making his first start for the Rangers going up against the Angels Hector Santiago. Ranaudo was called up last night and Phil Klein was sent down after the game last night. Santiago will be looking to continue his success in Arlington from last season when he went 3-0 with a 2.22 ERA against the Rangers in their home ballpark. Ranaudo will be looking to make a good first impression on the Rangers coaches and management as he tries to keep in the rotation. Ranaudo will likely be given a short leash as Anthony Bass will be ready and waiting in the bullpen should Ranaudo falter. The game is today at 1:05 and will end this stretch of 10 straight days with games to open up the season. The Rangers get their first day off tomorrow before heading to Seattle to face the preseason division favorite Seattle Mariners. Go Rangers!!!!!!!!