When you think of bullpen days, you don’t exactly think of a dominant performance on the mound.

However, the Texas Rangers got more than a dominant performance from their pen on Friday night at Globe Life Field.

Seven Rangers relievers combined to allow just one run in all nine innings, helping secure a 3-1 series and home stand opening win over the Chicago White Sox.

Shawn Armstrong got the start for the Rangers and did more than Texas could have asked for,
tying career highs with 3 innings pitched and 5 strikeouts in three perfect frames.

“He [Armstrong] was throwing well, wasn’t he? Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said after the game. “Good command. Like I said, he’s opened a few times before, he was comfortable starting that game, he was locked in, focused, and it was exactly what we wanted”.

Jacob Webb and Luke Jackson combined to keep the White Sox off the scoreboard in the next three innings, helping the Rangers keep a three-run lead intact.

In the 7th, the Rangers were faced with their first “bend but don’t break” moment of the night as Chicago scratched across a run against Hoby Milner and was threatening for more with a pair of runners on base when Chris Martin came into the game.

Martin came up huge for the Rangers like he’s done all year, stranding both runners and keeping Texas ahead.

Originally, Martin was going to pitch the 8th and bridge the gap to the 9th, but with him being needed to break out of the jam in the 7th, the Rangers were forced to turn to Cole Winn.

Coming into play, Winn hadn’t allowed an earned run at any level, but with Texas up by two in the 8th, this was easily the most leverage he had pitched in this year.

Despite the pressure situation, Winn didn’t skip a beat, throwing a 1-2-3 8th and stepping up in a huge spot.

“He’s pitching with a lot of confidence,” Bochy said. “He has good stuff, I’ll start with that, and he’s throwing strikes with it, that’s what’s been impressive.

He’s got a sense of belonging up here now; he knows he can pitch up here, and that’s a big part of it, he’s throwing with conviction, and he’s got some pitches that work up here, good fastball, good offspeed pitches and he throws strikes with all of them so it’s just really cool to watch how he’s grown as a pitcher.

The 9th inning wasn’t smooth sailing for Robert Garcia, who came on to try and earn the save. After a leadoff double, followed by a walk, the White Sox eventually loaded the bases against Garcia in the 9th.

In electric fashion, Garcia was able to strike out Michael A Taylor with two outs and the bases loaded to close out a Rangers win and one of the better bullpen games in recent memory.

“It’s a good bullpen, I think they’ve done a good job all year, I’ll start with that,” Bochy finished. “They’ve been moved in their roles, guys pitched early today, earlier than normal, and they don’t care. They don’t care how it gets done, just that it gets done. They’re doing what they can to help win a ballgame, so they did a good job doing that again”.