Thoughts on a 7-4 Rangers win

Rangers 7, Angels 4

• Another series win on the road. Look at that.
• I was not feeling it early on in this game. Mike Trout homered to put the hated heavenly spirits from Orange County on the board in the first inning, the offense did nothing to inspire confidence early on, and it felt like it would one of those bland, lackluster West Coast day game losses where it never feels like the Rangers were in it despite them never being down a lot, and 15 minutes after the final pitch you can’t really remember any particular plays or events from the contest.
• Though usually those games seem to mostly happen in Oakland.
• Foltynewicz came into today with a 5.63 ERA in 16 IP over 3 games, having given up 5 runs (including 2 home runs) his last time out against Baltimore. A quick glance at the box score would indicate he pitched well today — he logged a quality start, allowing 3 runs in 6 IP, didn’t walk anyone, struck out six, gave up only 7 hits. And he only needed 89 pitches to go 6 innings — he could have potentially gone another inning, maybe two, if asked.
• But. The three runs were courtesy of three solo home runs off of Foltynewicz. Now, they were home runs by legit power threats — along with Trout, the other two were hit by Justin Upton and Shohei Ohtani — but they were also loud home runs. Justin Upton’s home run left the bat at 116.5 mph, and got the coveted “1.000” xBA on Statcast. Mike Trout’s was 107.4 mph. Shohei Ohtani’s was 107.2. Foltynewicz gave up 3 more 100+ mph EVs today, plus a 99.9 mph EV fly out to Scott Schebler, who I’m not even sure is a real person.

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