48-51 - Rangers come out flat in series opener, get shutout by Marlins

Mike Stanton is a minotaur monster beast man who crushed baseballs and crushes dreams with his cannon he has grafted to his shoulder.

Tonight, the NL’s dinger leader hit two bombs into the Arlington night. The Rangers didn’t even score at all so it’s hard to say just the existence of Mike Stanton was the difference tonight but Mike Stanton was totally the difference.

In addition to staking starter Adam Conley to a 2-0 lead just two batters into the game with a two-run blast to Jose Canseco land beyond the first second of seats in left field, he also later drove one to the opposite field that snuck just under the facing of the upper deck home run porch.

Oh yeah, when the Rangers finally had something of a rally going in the bottom of the third, Stanton snuffed it out with a lazy to nail Shin-Soo Choo trying to extend a single into a double with Carlos Gomez scampering into third and just one out.

Choo was arguably save on the play but replay disagreed and the Rangers saw their rally turn into another disappointing scoreless frame because Mike Stanton is a tank of a man.

Player of the Game: Adrian Beltre collected hits in each of his four at-bats to finish the night 4-for-4 and within seven hits of reaching 3,000 for his career. The other schlubs on the team had a combined four hits of their own. Trade all of them, keep Adrian Beltre.

Up next: The Rangers and Marlins play the second game of this series with Cole Hamels set to face RHP Dan Straily of Miami. Good luck facing Mike Stanton, Cole.