Rangers vs. Dodgers breakdown
What went right?
- The quality start streak came to an end at 12 Wednesday night but that doesn't mean the quality of starts from Texas pitchers did. Wandy Rodriguez did his job in the 5-3 Texas win and spot starter Anthony Ranaudo was even better Thursday night, pitching 6 2/3 shutout innings.
- Joey Gallo continues to show progress. His two-run homer wasn't just the momentum changer in Wednesday's win it continued to show how quickly Gallo is adjusting to major-league pitching. The left-handed hitting Gallo crushed his fifth homer in just over two weeks against one of the best left-handed pitchers in the game in Clayton Kershaw.
- The bullpen started showing some life. Texas had five scoreless innings in the series before Keone Kela ran into problems in the ninth Thursday. While five scoreless isn't a huge number, it's a start for a bullpen that's struggled from day one.
What went wrong?
- The streaky Leonys Martin came to Los Angeles and left Los Angeles with the same amount of hits as Martin went 0 for 7 in the two-game series. Martin is now in a 0 for 14 slide.
- While you have to give credit to the Los Angeles pitchers in Thursday's 1-0 win the offense did nothing to help out the Texas pitchers, who matched the zeros until the ninth. All the Rangers managed were four hits --€“ all singles. The swing and miss was a big player too as Texas batters struck out 13 times.
What's next?
The Rangers head to Chicago for a three-game series against the White Sox. Texas better get comfortable facing talented left-handed pitchers as the White Sox will roll out lefties in all three games starting with Chris Sale Friday night.