In the innings leading up to the disastrous ninth inning and the blown save and subsequent loss by Shawn Tolleson, two other Rangers relievers were fantastic on Tuesday night against the meat of the best lineup in baseball.
In the seventh inning, Sam Dyson was called upon with one out and an inherited runner to face Troy Tulowitzki and Josh Donaldson, the going favorite for AL MVP honors, and promptly used his high-90s sinking fastball to strike out Tulowitzki and induce a weak foul pop-up to Adrian Beltre to end the inning and secure the Rangers' 5-4 lead.
The eighth inning went to young Keone Kela, who used his gas to get another weak foul pop-up from Jose Bautista, a groundout from Edwin Encarnacion and then a strikeout of Chris Colabello — all of whom had homered earlier in the game off Derek Holland.
It was an impressive display of the Rangers' setup relief against the meat of the best lineup in all of baseball, and despite Tolleson's gaffe, it was very encouraging to see those guys handle the Blue Jays in that manner.
