28-17 - First frame fortune helps Rangers to 11-5 win over Rockies
The Texas Rangers scored eleven runs while the Colorado Rockies scored five runs.
This game ended in a fairly cozy blowout where the Rangers eventually began to unload the bench by the late innings, but it could have looked much different.
Three batters into the game, in the top of the 1st, the Rockies had the bases loaded with Jon Gray scuffling with 15 pitches on his ledger without an out to his name. At that point, you start to hope that Gray could get out of the inning in under 30 pitches with no more than a run or two on the board to allow the offense a shot at Kyle Freeland without too much of a deficit.
Instead, a shallow pop fly out to right field, a strikeout, and a lineout to center field later and Gray had wiggled out of the jam unscathed on just 29 pitches. More amazing, the final out of the inning came after starting the at-bat with a 3-0 count.
With that Rockies rally snuffed out, the Rangers started their own against Freeland and, thanks to some poor defense by Colorado as an assist, Texas finished the first inning up 4-0 before padding that to 8-0 by the end of the second inning, Freeland’s final frame.
Considering how the Texas bullpen did their daily laboring in the late innings, you have to wonder how things might have changed if Gray hadn’t pulled the Houdini in the first inning.
Nevertheless, the Rangers are winners and the victory guarantees them the series win and a new high-water mark of 11 games above .500.
Player of the Game: It really is amazing that Corey Seager missed a month, it never really matter much, and now he’s back having games where he ends up a triple shy of a cycle after six innings.
Seager collected three hits today — as did Marcus Semien and Nathaniel Lowe — during the offensive outpouring which allowed him rest his legs by the 7th inning when he was replaced at shortstop by Josh Smith.
Up Next: The Rangers go for a sweep and a winning homestand before heading back out for another long road trip beginning on Monday. LHP Andrew Heaney will pitch for Texas opposite RHP Connor Seabold for Colorado.
The Sunday afternoon first pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 1:35 pm CT and will be aired on BS Southwest.
Source: Lone Star Ball
