Sam Dyson, Jake Diekman and the advent of Keone Kela and of Shawn Tolleson as the Rangers' closer have been big reasons for the Texas Rangers' resurgence this year after a horrid start.
The Rangers' bullpen went from being arguably its greatest weakness to almost certainly one of its greatest strengths in a matter of weeks after the Dyson and Diekman acquisitions. But in Tuesday's win over Houston to pull the Rangers into first place, some unheralded bullpen names got in on the action and held the Astros scoreless after a rough outing from starter Derek Holland.
Holland somehow made it through 5 2/3 innings while allowing five runs before giving way to Ross Ohlendorf, of all people. The veteran righty got two outs on 11 pitches and gave way to Hebron grad Sam Freeman, who struck out two and walked one in his inning of work.
After Freeman exited, they went to the big dogs with Dyson and Tolleson to finish things off.
In all, the bullpen worked 3 1/3 innings in a tie game, struck out four batters with one walk and allowed no hits.
While Dyson and Tolleson are perhaps the MVPs of the bullpen right now, it's those forgotten guys like Freeman and Ohlendorf who deserve credit for Tuesday's win after they took over for a disastrous Holland outing.
