4-7 - Rangers, Hamels pecked to death in 7-4 loss to Blue Jays

After a nice, albeit brief, outing in Oakland in his last start, Cole Hamels came out today and allowed four runs in the first inning against the Blue Jays. Inauspicious is a word that came to mind.

All four runs came via the dinger — a Steve Pearce solo job led off the game and a three-run blast by Kendrys Morales padded the lead — to put the Rangers in a hole they would never dig themselves out of despite a few rallies in the later innings.

After the four-run barrage to start the game, the Rangers held the Jays to three runs over the next eight innings as they themselves scored four run over the course of the game. There are, unfortunately, no mulligans in baseball.

Consistent with what we’ve seen so far, the Rangers left eleven on base and committed two errors as they have yet to put together back-to-back clean games.

Of note, Bartolo Colon came in and pitched two innings of relief. He allowed zero runs on one hit and struck out four. Also, Carlos Tocci collected the first hit of his big league career. Congrats, Carlos!

Player of the Game: Joey Gallo made a game of target practice out of the popcorn stand in right field once again as he hit a 445 foot two-run dong for his third dinger of the young season. That was something to cheer for on an otherwise overcast, dreary April afternoon at The Ballpark.

Up Next: The Angels come to town for the first time this season and they will face Doug Fister in the opener. Anaheim will counter with RHP Garrett Richards. No, Texas won’t face the traitorous Shohei Ohtani in the series, at least not on the mound. First pitch from Arlington is scheduled for 7:05 pm CT.