After a rough start to the season, the Texas Rangers manage to win three straight games against former World Series runner-ups. In the 4 game series, the Rangers lost the first game, then managed to come back and win the next three. Let’s recap the scores and highlights of this invigorating series, then hear what iUP students have to say about the outcome.

Game 1:

For the Rangers, new acquire Dane Dunning was on the mound, and for the Rays, ace Tyler Glasnow was the pitcher. This game was one of the better defensive showcases this season, between Nick Solak’s leaping catch in the 4th inning to retire Joey Wendle and amazing strikeouts by the Rangers bullpen, for a long time, it looked like the game would go into extra innings. Neither team seemed to get on the scoreboard. Then, in the bottom of the 7th inning, Willy Adames hit a solo home run that put the Rays ahead of the Rangers, the score 1-0 against the Rangers, which was the final score of the game.

Game 2:

During this game, Kyle Gibson was on the mound for the Rangers and Ryan Yarbrough was pitching for the Rays. The Rangers offense showed up, between RBI’s by Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Joey Gallo, Nick Solak, and Charlie Culberson, as well as a two run homer by Charlie Culberson. The Rays also had some great defensive plays, such as Joey Wendle and Yandy Diaz’s RBI’s. In the end, the Rangers won 8-3 for their first win in the past 5 games.

Game 3:

In the third game of this 4 game series, Kohei Arihara was on the mound for the Rangers and Josh Fleming was the pitcher for Tampa Bay. Once again, another great game for the Rangers offense; between Nate Lowe’s solo homer and Adolis Garcia’s 2 run triple, as well as David Dahl’s two run double, the Rangers are finally hitting their stride. They let up one run defensively on Brandon Lowe’s solo home run, but otherwise, the Ranger’s pitching did their job. The final score was 5-1, with the Rangers taking the lead in this series.

Game 4:

This finale to the four game series was very interesting to watch. Every time the Rangers got a lead, the Rays would come back and tie them. No matter what both teams tried, neither could stay ahead for long. Even though the Rangers got homers, hits, and runs galore, they couldn’t maintain their lead. In the end, they had to go to extra innings. Luckily, those extra innings ended quickly, when Texas Rangers newbie Adolis Garcia hit a two run home run that put the Rangers ahead, 6-4. They managed to hold onto that lead, and end up winning the series.

After taking a poll of iUP students, ⅗   of them didn’t watch the game. While some people maybe live in, say, the Houston area and are Astros fans instead of Rangers fans, I get that. I don’t personally watch Astros games on a daily basis. Also, ⅘  of the people taking my poll wanted the Rangers to win. Once again, if you are an Astros fan, you want the Rangers to lose. I mean, you are rivals. Some people might not even care about baseball and just wanted the Rays to win because they heard that the Rays made it to the World Series. Whatever the case is, some people like the Rangers here at iUP and some like the Rays.

After that exciting stretch in St. Petersburg, Florida, the series is finally over, with the Rangers scoring their second series win of the season, and bringing their record up to 6-7. It may not be perfect yet, but there is always something to hope for in our team, and maybe soon we’ll be the ones at the World Series.

Sources:

MLB App, Game Highlight Videos, April 12-15(It’s an app so I can’t post the link)