– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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ARLINGTON, Texas — While his acquisition at the Trade Deadline wasn’t the headline-grabbing move of the deals that the Texas Rangers made a couple of weeks ago, the performances of starter Jordan Montgomery in the red and blue continue to make headlines, another sign that the Rangers are set up perfectly to contend in the postseason.
Montgomery threw his third quality start in as many appearances for the Rangers while striking out a season-high nine batters in Texas’ 7-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels inside Globe Life Field on Tuesday evening. Corey Seager supported Montgomery by smacking two home runs and driving home five of the seven Rangers’ runs, and his 3-for-5 night raised his average to .350 on the season.
While Montgomery, who started the season with the St. Louis Cardinals, was one of the hot commodities at the Trade Deadline, the jewel of the starting pitcher lot who ended up being dealt was Max Scherzer, who also found his way to the Rangers after a deal with the New York Mets just a couple of days before Montgomery’s deal. Both have thrown gems in this series, as Scherzer’s seven-inning, 11-strikeout gem last night was backed up by Montgomery, who has now allowed just five runs in 18 innings while striking out 20 batters in his three starts for Texas.
The additions of Scherzer and Montgomery have spearheaded a starting rotation that has posted a 2.19 earned run average in the month of August, the best in Major League Baseball.
Only one of the Angels’ eight hits went for extra bases, a two-run home run by Randal Grichuk with one out in the ninth inning off of reliever Chris Stratton.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Sunday afternoon’s game, with all photos taken by Dallas-area photographer Ross James. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 31 pictures in total.
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