Napoli, Holland Help Rangers Even World Series

How strong was Holland’s performance? SB Nation Dallas breaks down Holland’s start and, perhaps, how it will be remember in Rangers’ history.

When asked after Sunday’s game whether he thinks his team will have an easy time of winning the championship, Rangers manager Ron Washington said, “No.” To a follow-up question along the same vein, he responded, “What? No, of course not.”

Elaborated Sunday’s winning starting pitcher Derek Holland, “Why would anybody think this would be easy? You know that the series is tied, right? That we’ve won two games and they’ve won two games?”

There are few things in baseball I love more than a bat flip after a walk. I don’t know why - the batter has to get rid of the bat somehow - but it seems so ill-fitting. Especially a flip like that from a hitter like Punto. I guess for a hitter like Punto, a walk’s a home run. “Look what I can do!”

Holland’s at 79 pitches after six, with a walk and four strikeouts. And, of course, a shutout.

But Jackson did more than wriggle out of a tough first inning -- he gave the Cards five quality innings. Well, quality is in the eye of the beholder, but he did allow just the one run. He ended up walking five. I’m assuming he’s coming out of the game because the #9 spot’s coming up, and he’ll probably get pulled for a pinch-hitter.

...

Derek Holland probably isn’t going to pitch a shutout tonight?

But it’s not impossible.

Saturday night’s Game 3 finished 16-7, but one remembers that it was just 1-0 St. Louis going into the top of the fourth. This game was also 1-0 going into the top of the fourth, albeit 1-0 Texas, so one might’ve wondered if we were in for the same kind of imminent bloodbath.

On Sunday, he started his day like this:

That’s unacceptable. That’s like Marilyn Monroe sneezing with a mouthful of food. That’s not Pujols. This is Pujols:

And then Kinsler unaccountably got picked off first base to end the inning.

Generally speaking, what’s happened in previous innings, believe it or not, doesn’t have much predictive effect. But it sure doesn’t seem like Jackson’s a great bet to give Tony La Russa the five innings he’s hoping for in Game 3.

1-0 Texas, three half-innings in. Holland’s at 32 pitches, and at least in the early going, he’s got a favorable zone.

Twenty-five pitches for Jackson, four base runners, and just one run. Hope Jake Westbrook brought his cleats to the stadium.

What else is Ron Washington going to do? Well, he could move the gimpy Josh Hamilton -- who hasn’t hit a home run in a month -- down in the lineup, or out of it completely. He could push David Murphy and Mitch Moreland up in the lineup one spot apiece, just to break up the right-handed hitters and make Tony La Russa’s job just a tiny bit more difficult.

But Ron Washington doesn’t do things like that. Ron Washington does things like this: