13 hours ago 1

77-70 – Rangers bring Burger and brooms to beat Brewers

The Texas Rangers scored six runs while the Milwaukee Brewers scored three runs.

Two batters into this one, the Brewers were up 2-0 after two solo home runs off today’s starter Merrill Kelly. And yeah, it looked like the luck had run out. After all, today’s starter for Milwaukee Freddy Peralta had allowed just two runs total in his last seven starts combined and hadn’t allowed a run in 29 innings coming into today’s start. Still, a series win against baseball’s top team. No shame in that right?

Against one the NL’s top hurlers, the barely beyond Round Rock Rangers lineup would have to score more than Peralta had allowed in six weeks worth of work. So, yeah, of course they would do that. Why not, right? Nothing else is making sense these days and that’s kind of just how we seem to like it.

Jake Burger took the baton from Michael Helman to be today’s hero. Burger hit a solo home run in the second inning to break Peralta’s scoreless innings streak and then — after Texas followed that up with two runs in the third to take the lead, including scoring the go-ahead run via a balk — Burger smacked a two-out, two run home run in the fifth to make it a 5-2 game.

Overall, the no-name Rangers worked Peralta over in just five innings needing 113 pitches. The five runs allowed tied the most that Peralta had given up in any one start all season.

Remarkably, after scoring twice in just two batters, Kelly and the bullpen kept Milwaukee to just one run the rest of the way. Kelly’s day ended after a two-out rally in the sixth that plated the Brewers’ third run. However, a quintet of Hoby Milner, Robert Garcia, Shawn Armstrong, and Phil Maton threw zeroes over the last 3.1 innings as the bullpen finished the series allowing just one run in 11 innings throughout the sweep.

The Rangers finished this two-series homestand against two teams leading their division 5-1 with a sweep of baseball’s best club. With any luck, if this stretch of weird and wild baseball continues, perhaps the Rangers will overtake one of those clubs here in the next few weeks.

Player of the Game:

Up Next: The Rangers get their third to last day off of the season as they head to New York before a clash against the Mets beginning on Friday evening.