Rangers Knock Off Toronto Ace Halladay

The Rangers got to within one game of .500 behind a solid pitching effort from Brandon McCarthy. McCarthy went six innings allowing three runs on six hits. What may be the best part of his effort is that he felt he really wasn't throwing well, and yet he had a solid outing and got the win, which is what really matters in the end.

More importantly, four members of the bullpen combined to keep the win intact. Closing out the win was Frank Francisco, who has shown that Ron Washington made the right decision by picking him as the closer.

Francisco made his sixth appearance of the season, and his second of more than an inning. So far, he has thrown seven innings, allowing no runs, and only three hits with one walk and seven strikeouts. While he only has two saves due to lack of opportunities, he is putting up exactly the kind of stats you want from your closer.

Rangers fans have waited a long time to see Frankie back pitching like this, and it has been well worth the wait.

While the offense was not nearly as impressive, being out-hit eight to nine, they got the hits when it counted, with Kinsler and Cruz both connecting on two-run home runs.

After pounding on Cliff Lee in the first week of the season, it was good to see them win a close game against a premier pitcher like Halladay.

It is somewhat disconcerting to me that we had to rely on the long ball to win again.

They are averaging two home runs a game, and that is exactly what it took to win this game. I'm happy we won, but I would like to see our offense have more balanced games where they generate runs instead of just waiting for home runs.

A two-game winning streak is definitely a start, but there is still plenty of business to take care of in the coming week.

Who knows? If we win a couple of games, we may just end April above .500 for the first time in years, and that would be a great start to the season.