Let's recap the greatness of the evening.
- The Rangers win an exciting game on the road against one of the best pitchers in baseball.
- We didn't get the ownership resolution we hoped for, but things seem headed in the best direction (I think?).
- Nelson Cruz feels no pain in his leg.
- Oh, and the Angels were destroyed by the Brewers for the second straight night.
It was discussed that 3-3 on this road trip should probably be considered alright, considering it being on the road and there being some tough pitching match-ups. Well they've gotten to wins part of that recipe just one game in to the second series.
A game that good deserves some notes on a trio of unlikely things.
C.J. Wilson
There's your strike zone plot for Ceej tonight. Striking out six is nice, but he walked 25 percent of the batters he faced. The Marlins average 8.2 percent on the season, and manage to be a solid offense despite it. He managed to walk a batter an inning against almost the least patient team in baseball. He may have had good stuff, but he could not keep it in the zone and that's an issue. Coupled with a home run, that's a start where you're lucky to give up only two instead of five or six. He only allowed one line drive, and I'm willing to chalk up some of the performance to some decent ability to keep the Marlins from getting strong contact.
Ceej has been unexpectedly good for Texas this year, and hopefully this was just a blip on the radar and one of those things that just happens instead of a sign of decline. But that start was not as good as two runs through six would make it seem, and I would like an explanation for the wildness.
Julio Borbon
No actual analysis, just a celebration of awesome. Julio Borbon has walked in 1.6 percent of his trips to the plate. Leo Nunez has been awesome and walks fewer than two hitters per nine innings. And so, of course, with the game on the line, Borbon worked a key walk.
Baseball is awesome because of these unexpected things that happen over 162 games and help your teams win in the most hopeless of moments.
Which brings us to. . .
Matt Treanor
Courtesy of Chris.
I'm going to continue to beat the drum of Matt Treanor support. He was a useful MLB player before he was brought in this season, and that's all that should have been expected of him.
Instead, he's been good, despite the hate. A .302 wOBA is enough to be worthy of a roster spot as a catcher, but that doesn't tell the whole story. He's suffering a .222 BABIP, way below his career .276 average, and us currently putting up a .343 regressed wOBA (just barely behind Max Ramirez). In other words, he's been useful and more than we thought we'd be getting at catcher in the midst of the Teagarden/Saltalamacchia days, despite evidence towards being extremely unlucky.
He is probably going to regress towards his career norms, but his career norms aren't a useless baseball player, and no one should have expected any better. But for 1/3rd of a season he's exceeded expectations, and it's deep enough in to the year you can't just completely disregard the possibility of a serious career year. A player being paid next to nothing, giving us more than we should have expected and more than we thought we'd get before him isn't something that should be hated. And he just added to that resume with a go-ahead triple in a huge game. Yeah, that hit was pretty unlikely, but it was awesome, and I think it's time we appreciate what Matt Treanor has done for the Rangers and treat him as a useful piece on a contending team instead of garbage.
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