Texas Rangers rise to the challenge to take opener against Seattle
The Texas Rangers scored two runs while the Seattle Mariners scored one run.
After all the hubbub about the vaunted Rangers offense, it looked incredibly possible that they were in for a bit of unfortunate history as M’s starter Logan Gilbert was on his game and throwing up zeroes. The first 18 Texas batters were sent down and Gilbert had struck out seven Rangers in a row at one point.
However, even on a night where they were seeing someone at the top of their game, they were inevitable with Marcus Semien kicking off the top of the 7th with a single that broke up the perfect game and started a rally that saw the Rangers leave the half inning with a 2-1 lead after a Josh Jung sac fly and Jonah Heim blooped RBI eventual-game winner.
Up just a run, the bullpen was given an opportunity to prove it can still get outs without allowing catastrophes and they accomplished that with a trio of Jonathan Hernandez, Brock Burke, and Will Smith pitching the final two innings with only a couple of HBPs from Hernandez raising the blood pressure.
The victory is the third in a row for Texas and their newly minted record of eight games above .500 is the high-water mark of the season.
Player of the Game: The last time Jon Gray pitched he spoke about feeling lost after giving up four runs against Arizona. Tonight, it felt like Gray found himself with seven innings of one-run ball with the only blemish being a solo home run by Ty France. Gray allowed just four hits on the night and walked none while striking out eight in a brisk 89 pitches.
After the Rangers broke through against Gilbert, and perhaps some soul searching, Gray became tonight’s winner.
Up Next: The Rangers and M’s are back at it tomorrow night with LHP Andrew Heaney next to take the mound for Texas opposite RHP George Kirby for Seattle.
Tuesday night’s first pitch from the building formerly known as Safeco is scheduled for 8:40 pm CT and will be aired on BS Southwest.
Source: Lone Star Ball
