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Rangers Look to Take Down Padres

By Ric Dickens

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The Texas Rangers (68-62) roll into Petco Park to face the San Diego Padres (64-67) in game two of this three game series. Every game is pivotal as we are entering the stretch run and the Rangers will most definitely be ready to go for tonight’s matchup. The Rangers will turn to Yovani Gallardo (11-9, 3.14 ERA) and the San Diego Padres will counter with Andrew Cashner (5-13 4.05 ERA).

Gallardo has arguably had the best season of his career, and he will look to continue his great season tonight when he goes for his fourth win in a row. Gallardo pitched exceptionally well in his last start against the red hot hitting Blue Jays, collecting his 100th career win while tossing 5 1/3 innings of shutout baseball. He’s the hottest pitcher the Rangers have, or anyone in the MLB for that matter, as his scoreless streak has reached 14 2/3 innings, which is the longest in the MLB. If we were being picky, he hasn’t been able to go deep into ballgames with a high pitch count, but hopefully he can buck that trend tonight.

For the Padres, they turn to struggling starter Andrew Cashner. Cashner has had a rough go in 2015, but playing the Rangers might give him a spark. Cashner is originally from Conroe, Tx and played his college ball at TCU, so you have to think he’ll be a little bit more excited for this game at the very least. His last outing saw him give up nine hits and three runs in 5 2/3 innings against the Nationals, so hopefully the Rangers will repeat that kind of success and chase him from the ballgame early.

Rangers manager Jeff Banister has released the following lineup for tonight’s contest.

 No Moreland Again

Mitch Moreland is out of the lineup again tonight as they are without a DH because they are playing in an NL park with NL rules, and Banister wants to give him some rest. With the rosters expanding today Banister didn’t get cute, and he is using the lineup that has been working for him recently. I wouldn’t expect to see much change in the lineup from here on out, as the best lineup needs to play and the Rangers absolutely need every game they can get. Rougned Odor played for the first time last night since his gruesome fingernail injury, going 0-for-4, and hopefully he can pick things back up in the five hole tonight.

Pick To Click

 My pick to click tonight is Delino DeShields out of the lead-off spot. I love what he brings to the lineup and how he sets the table for those Rangers hitters behind him, and I think that is exactly what he is going to do tonight. Look for DeShields to get on base three times tonight, going 2-for-4 with a walk and a run scored.

Final Score Prediction

The Rangers need to bounce back tonight after taking the loss last night, and I think they will do just that tonight. The Rangers have the right guy on the hill tonight in Gallardo and I think he will shut the Padres bats down. I predict the Rangers to win a close one tonight, 4-2.

Next: Rangers Sweep the O's

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