Garza's Line Not Indicative Of Outing

Since arriving via trade a couple of weeks before the July 31 trade deadline, Matt Garza has watched his new team go 5-1 in his six starts as a Texas Ranger.

And Monday's start against the Houston Astros saw his streak of allowing at least four runs go up to four games, as he allowed five earned runs in 6 2/3 innings — not a line to be particularly proud of for the boisterous starter.

But don't let the numbers fool you because Garza was much better than his line would indicate on Monday against an admittedly light-hitting Astros team.

Not known as a huge strikeout pitcher in the mold of Yu Darvish, Garza struck out eight in 6 2/3 innings and walked just one, but then again, everyone on the Rangers' staff this year has seemingly set career-high strikeout totals against the Astros so that's not surprising.

But here's the deal, when your offense puts up 11 runs in one inning and every player on your team scores at least once in said inning, you're going to put your starting pitcher on ice for a bit. And to make matters worse, you're going to take the edge off a guy when you stake him to a 12-run lead in the third inning.

Garza allowed four runs in the seventh inning (one was an inherited run allowed by Robbie Ross) and just run through the first six innings.

After the game, you heard Garza make reference to being a shark seeing blood in the water and added that he wasn't concerned with his final line, as long as his team scored more runs than the other one. And that was definitely the case on Monday.

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