Gallardo Continues Great August

Yovani Gallardo had his best stretch of the season in June and into July when he put together a scoreless inning streak that eclipsed 30. Then, in July things turned sour when there was speculation he could be traded at the July 31 trade deadline.

Not sure if that was a distraction or just coincidence, but Gallardo was at his worst leading up to the deadline, basically making it impossible to trade him even if the Rangers wanted to.

Since the deadline's passed, he's been superb, and that continued on Thursday afternoon when he shut down a Blue Jays lineup that is the best in baseball and one he's thrown 13 innings of scoreless baseball against in his two starts against them this year. In fact, the Rangers won just two of their six meetings against Toronto this year, and they were the two games Gallardo started. Thursday's game was Gallardo's second straight scoreless outing.

In Gallardo's five August starts, he is 4-0 with wins over Houston, Tampa Bay, Detroit and Toronto. He's posted a 1.98 August ERA to see his season mark dip to 3.14 with seven starts remaining in the season. That is well below his career-low for a season of 3.51, set last season in Milwaukee.

What Gallardo has done this year has been even more remarkable considering this is his first year in the American League after spending his entire career in the more pitcher-friendly NL.

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