Rangers Steady The Boat Tonight

came up big Tuesday night against the Phillies, driving in both the tying and winning runs.  Mandatory Credit: Jim Cowsert-USA TODAY Sports

We’re only two games into the season, but tonight was a nice win for the Rangers. Martin Perez showed what I think we all wanted to see, pitching a strong five innings before running out of gas in the sixth. The Rangers are going to need Perez to do that a lot more, especially in the first half of the season.

After falling behind it would have been easy for Texas to get down again, but they showed no quit tonight. Shin-Soo Choo did exactly what he was brought in here to do.  He got on base three times, scored twice. Adrain Beltre, who has been overshadowed a bit by the two new guys, drives in the tying and winning runs. This offense is going to be fine once everybody gets in the swing of things.

I think it was important for the team to keep battling tonight.  There’s already enough negativity surrounding this team with the disastrous spring training they had.  Yesterday’s opening game was a big let down for everyone.  Lesser teams might have let all of that carry over and beat them again tonight.  The veteran leadership on this club is going to be tested sorely.  Nice to see those veterans come through big tonight.

The bullpen deserves a lot of credit as well. Jason Frasor, Neal Cotts and Joakim Soria just shut down Philly in the last third of the game. If we can get to the seventh, we should be in good shape. Middle relief is still a work in progress, though.

Finally, nice use of the replay tonight. I definitely thought we had the pickoff at first glance. I’m sure that there will be plenty of controversy around replay during the course of the season, but tonight it helped get a call right and it might have been the turning point of the game.  Nice call by Ron Washington on that one.

All in all, a good win. Most importantly, it helps wash away some of the bad taste left over after yesterday’s game. I’m anxious to see what Robbie Ross has in store for us tomorrow.