Texas Rangers Win 12-10 In Shootout: One Big Thing

The Texas Rangers found themselves in an offensive shootout against the Yankees and pulled out an impressive 12-10 win.

The Rangers were able to battle out a much needed win on Wednesday beating the MLB leading New York Yankees, 12-10. The win moves Texas to 20-31 on the year and also served as the series winner. Here’s our One Big Thing from the game Wednesday.

Texas Quietly Has Developed An Elite Closer

Through all the offense we saw on Wednesday, you probably wouldn’t expect a pitcher to be the big positive taken from the game. But if you got a chance to watch this game, you saw Keone Kela absolutely dominate the bottom of the Yankees order in the 9th inning. Kela struck out the side showcasing a powerful fastball and a buckling breaking pitch.

This was just more evidence that Keone Kela has grabbed his opportunity as the Rangers closer and run with it. This was Kela’s 10th save in 10 save opportunities. He’s now struck out 22 batters in his appearances this season as well. Now if you look at his season ERA it’s over 4.00 which may raise questions. But that takes into account all of his appearances this year. In save situations, Kela has yet to allow a run in 9.1 innings and is holding opponents to a .138 average.

Beyond the stats though, Keone Kela looks like a closer. His demeanor in the 9th inning is the right mix of arrogance and reserve that you want from someone you lean on to slam the door. Even with the all the struggles the Rangers have had this season, Kela pitching like this is a huge positive as this team looks to rebuild.

Recap

The Rangers and Yankees battled each other offensively with neither teams starting pitcher making it out of the 5th inning. New York jumped out to a first inning lead on the back of a 2-run homerun from Didi Gregorius. Texas answered back in the 4th inning with both Nomar Mazara and Ronald Guzman belting homeruns. Hope looked lost in the 5th inning as the Yankees scored 6 runs to take a 10-5 lead. The Rangers were able to get 2 runs in the 5th and 4 runs in the 6th to take the lead and held on from that point.

The bullpen was able to hold a lead for Texas late in the game which was a promising sign. Doug Fister started for the Rangers and struggled though giving up 6 runs on 11 hits. After Tony Barnette gave up 2 runs, the rest of the Texas bullpen allowed just one hit to the Yankees on their way to the win.

Notables

Gleyber Torres (NYY) 1-5, 3-run HR, 3 RBI

Aaron Judge (NYY) 2-5, 2-run HR, 2RBI

Isiah KIner-Falefa (TEX) 2-4, 3 RBI, BB

Nomar Mazara (TEX) 2-5, 2-run HR, 3 RBI

Jurickson Profar (TEX) 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI

Ronald Guzman (TEX) 2-4, 3-run HR, 3 RBI

WP: Alex Claudio (2-2) 1.2 IP, 3 SO

LP: David Robertson (BS, 3-2) .2 IP, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO

SV: Keone Kela (10) 1 IP, 3 SO

Next Game

The Rangers will host the Kansas City Royals on Thursday with first pitch set for 7:05 CT.