Kyle Moyer plays long ball and Owen Harvey earns first Ranger win in the Dodger beatdown

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In the first Ranger vs. Dodger contest, veteran Ben Schooler toed the mound in his first start of the year. Starting the game with 2 nerve-racking walks, the 3-hole hitter hit a groundball to 3rd basemen Markus Neff. In a threatening position with runners on 2nd and 3rd, Schooler struck out the next two batters eliminating the chance of an early lead from the Dodgers.

 

The top of the Rangers lineup went in a disappointing 1-2-3 order which allowed for Schooler to take the mound for the top of the second inning. Working significantly better than the last inning, Schooler ended this inning in facing only 4 batters, giving up one hit but striking out 2. 

 

The Rangers' bats woke up in the bottom of the 2nd inning with Markus Neff leading off and reaching base by an error. Two singles by Kyle Moyer and Noah Schleinitz later and the bases were loaded for Kujo. Kujo came through with a ground out scoring Markus Neff and giving the early lead to the Rangers. Next, Chris Ridl reached on error and Eric Becker singled up the middle which advanced the lead 3-0.

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Going into the top of the third, rookie pitcher Owen Harvey came to the mound for his second appearance of the year and once again dominated the inning facing four batters and striking out 2 of them.

 

Back to the top of the lineup, Gilmore walked for the second time of the year, got his first stolen base then scored on a line drive from Ben Schooler. The inning was looking good as the Rangers extended their lead to 4-0. Anticlimactically, Markus Neff grounded into a double play ending further scoring hopes.

 

With the top of the fourth inning, Owen gave up his first hit as a Ranger with a screaming line drive to the outfield with an impressive two-bagger. With the Dodgers threatening once again, the Rangers began to play sloppy defense and allowed the Dodgers to score their leadoff guy on an error. Seeing the frustration in Owen, he struck out the next three batters ending the top of the fourth inning.

 

The bottom of the fourth granted a historic moment with Kyle Moyer hitting the furthest ball of his life for his second homerun of his Ranger career (and baseball career as a whole). Once again, Rangers could not capitalize on that pivotal moment and after a Noah hit (his second of the game) got out of the inning with no more runs.

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The top of the fifth ended up being Owens' last inning of work and began poorly as he walked the first two batters. Two batters later and the error bug bit once again giving the Rangers only a 3-run lead with 3 at-bats left. Just like the last inning, the error bug gave Owen a few more ticks on the radar gun as he topped out at 88 mph striking out the next two batters. At this point in Owen’s Ranger career, he has given up only 1 hit, no earned runs, and has struck out 52% of all batters he has faced giving him a strikeouts per 9 innings of 23.4 giving the rookie an incredible start.

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The Rangers had an extremely unimpressive next bottom of the inning going 1-2-3 holding on to the 3-run lead for closer Hunter Kraynak. The Dodger leadoff batter made his way to first by error then subsequently got picked off on an outrageous play which ended up with the ball going from Kraynak to Pederson to Cooper. Cooper's next throw was an errant throw intended for Kraynak that went back to the fence behind first base. In a heads up play by Gilmore, who was backing the play up, the runner ended up being thrown out at second base from the first base side fence.

 

After a single (only the Dodgers third hit of the game) a strikeout, and a groundball the Rangers found themselves hitting again. Coach Gilmore decided to add Hall-of-Famer Joe Becker to the end of the lineup and immediately could hear the dugout chanting, “Joe Becker still rakes!”. And of course, to no one’s surprise, Joe hit a line shot right up the middle for a base hit, his 100th MVABL knock. Coach Gilmore then decided to also give Owen Harvey his first Ranger AB which ended not so well as it was also his first Ranger K. The top of the order came up and the Rangers weren’t done piling on the runs. Gilmore and Pederson were hit by pitches and Markus lined the ball backside for potentially his first ever opposite field double which scored Gilmore.  Cooper got on by error scoring Rob and Markus giving the Rangers a 9-2 lead.

 

Finally, the last inning came and Hunter Savenak lived up to his name by getting 3 outs and only facing four batters ending the game with a Ranger win 9-2 and a season record of 5-2.

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