10-17 - Youth is served as Texas tops Toronto 6-4

One of the myriad of problems with the Rangers this season is an inability to get going offensively early in games. To that fact, the Rangers had scored a startling total of just four runs in the first inning in their 26 games prior to tonight.

So, after four first inning runs in 26 games, the Rangers scored four runs in the first inning in tonight’s game.

It was sloppy going after those four runs, as the Blue Jays came back to tie the game by the bottom of the third, after some dubious plays on defense for the Rangers, but Mike Minor tossed six bend-don’t-break innings and the offense got the lead back in the sixth inning that they wouldn’t relinquish.

It just goes to show that you can overcome a lot of the things the Rangers haven’t been able to overcome night after night when you put the opposition behind the eight ball with early offense.

Player(s) of the Game: The trio of young, tall left-handed mashers in the middle of the lineup for the Rangers — Nomar Mazara, Joey Gallo, and Ronald Guzman — went a combined 7-for-12 with two doubles, a Gallo dinger, four runs scored, and all six RBI.

These are three of the guys who will be counted on to shoulder a lot of the load for the offense in Texas over the next half decade so it’s especially fun to see them have a game where they’re all clicking together.

Those 2013 Hickory Crawdads, man.

Up Next: The Rangers and Blue Jays reconvene for the middle game of this series with Bartolo Colon aiming to lead the Texas to their first three-game winning streak with LHP Jaime Garcia set to oppose. First pitch from Rogers Centre is scheduled for 3:07 pm CT.