ARLINGTON, Texas - It's taken a while but home seems to be finally starting to agree with the Texas Rangers.
After getting off to a miserable start to the season at Globe Life Park, Texas capped a 5-2 homestand with a 2-1 victory in 11 innings Thursday night over Chicago. Shin-Soo Choo's single to left gave the Rangers two walk-off wins on a homestand that was a success despite Texas losing both Josh Hamilton and Adrian Beltre to injuries.
The solid home play also allowed the Rangers to match their season high by getting back to two games over the .500 mark.
"A lot of people say we've have a bad record at home but we've tried to win every game and tonight we used the bullpen, both teams, that's really more than one game and I think everybody did a good job tonight," said Choo, who was hitless on the night before the game winner off left-hander Dan Jennings.
Choo's game winner was put in place because of solid pitching. Yovani Gallardo struggled with his command but allowed just one unearned run in his six innings of work. Texas then got five scoreless innings from the bullpen with Tanner Scheppers pitching a perfect 11th to cap the outing and pick up his second win of the season.
The Rangers won despite leaving 14 runners on base and matching a season high with four errors. Manager Jeff Banister knows they have to clean things up but likes the way the Rangers have established a home edge.
"This was the toughest," Texas manager Jeff Banister said of the homestand. "I believe we left 14 on base and Gallardo grinded through the outing tonight and found a two-seamer he was able to use to get out of trouble late. It was a spectacular homestand for our organization. I was incredible for all of us to put the W's on the board."
Texas scored a run in the first on an RBI single from Prince Fielder but the offense then went dormant against Chicago rookie Carlos Rodon, who struck out 10 in six innings.
Texas rookie Joey Gallo also had an interesting night. He was charged with an error on the first ball hit to him and made two on the night. He struck out twice but also singled and drew the first intentional walk of his career.
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