Game 129 open thread: Indians vs. Rangers

The Indians conclude their seven-game road trip this afternoon when they play the Texas Rangers in Arlington. A win will give the Tribe a disappointing 3-4 record for the trip, and a loss will send them back to Cleveland with an even more disappointing 2-5 mark.

Danny Salazar, who has been atrocious in his last four starts (19 earned runs over 11 innings pitched), will pitch for the Indians. It would be great if Salazar could pitch deep into the game, so as not to tax the already-burdened bullpen, but he hasn’t recorded an out in the fifth inning of a game since July 19. I’m sure the Indians would be OK with even five strong innings from Salazar, though. Too often he has given up runs early on and put the team into a hole from which they could not dig out. If he does it again today, you’d think that Tribe manager Terry Francona might have to consider taking him out of the starting rotation, at least for a while.

Derek Holland will pitch for the Rangers. He took a tough-luck loss on his last outing, giving up only one run over six innings against the Cincinnati Reds on August 23, as the Reds shut out the Rangers that day.

Here are today’s starting lineups:

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