2014 Plays of the First Half: Texas Rangers Edition

PITCHING:

Considering all the injuries and changes to the Texas Rangers pitching staff we’ve still been treated with a few memorable and even some historic moments in the first half of 2014.

Nick Tepesch threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings on 6/13 at Seattle Mariners.

On 4/19 Colby Lewis earned his first win since July 2012 by throwing 5 1/3, one-run innings versus the Chicago White Sox.

tossed 5 1/3 scoreless innings on 5/8 versus the Colorado Rockies that helped the Texas Rangers become the

first

team to shutout the Rockies in 2014.

We were treated with two unique relief pitchers in the first half.

First baseman-turned designated hitter-turned first baseman Mitch Moreland treated us to a perfect inning of relief and even reached 94mph!!

Catcher Chris Gimenez tossed a perfect inning of relief on 7/10 against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in his first Major League appearance as a pitcher.

On 4/18 Martin Perez pitched his first career shutout against the Chicago White Sox, striking out 7 and giving up only 3 hits.

Perez earned his second shutout on 4/23 at Oakland Athletics once again giving up only 3 hits while walking 2 batters.

In his first start this season (4/6 at Tampa Bay Rays) Yu Darvish whiffed Wil Myers marking his 500th career strikeout, becoming the fastest starting pitcher in MLB history to achieve such a feat.

On 5/9 against the Boston Red Sox, Yu Darvish came close to pitching another no-hitter, walking only two batters and striking out 12.

On 6/11 against the Miami Marlins

earned his first career complete game shutout, giving up just 6 hits with 10 strikeouts.

The Texas Rangers have treated us to some fun moments along with some “please baseball gods let us forget this ever happened” moments. But, being a loyal Rangers fan means you’ve got to take a lot of bad to enjoy the great moments that have already come and will continue to come. And with that said, I’ll leave you with this:

True baseball fans do not cheer for their teams to win; they cheer for them not to lose. Victory does not come with joy, it comes with relief. Losing causes pain. ~ Will Leitch