10-8 - Rangers bats can’t overcome pitching woes in 7-2 series-opening loss to Astros

When every starting pitcher who isn’t Mike Minor — and to a lesser extent Lance Lynn —gives you 3 ²⁄₃ innings and it feels like a miracle that they only allowed four runs, such as was the case for Drew Smyly tonight and practically every outing from the starters, then eventually you’re going to to run into a game where the offense doesn’t score a billion late-inning runs and you’re not going to witness yet another “How’d they pull that one off?” wild affair.

The Rangers couldn’t get to Justin Verlander tonight as he went into the fifth inning before he even allowed a hit. Teams don’t get to Justin Verlander very often. Texas obviously won’t always be held to just a solo Danny Santana dong and a solo Joey Gallo bomb, but this felt more in line with how Rangers games in 2019 are going to go, unless they get the rotation figured out on a basis that isn’t this consistently truncated and poor.

So, while tonight was kind of a stinker where the starting pitching woes came home to roost, Kyle Dowdy did give the Rangers 3 ²⁄₃ innings of scoreless relief and Brett Martin made his MLB debut and worked a swift 1-2-3 ninth inning. Silver linings for the Silver Boot.

Player of the Game: Tom Grieve was in the booth providing the color analyst for tonight’s game and let me tell you, it was nice to get to unmute the television for once and listen to the TV call of a baseball game. What a treat! I actually found myself enjoy a game where the Rangers were getting blown out. Thanks, TAG!

Up Next: The Rangers and Astros are back at it again tomorrow night with RHP Adrian Sampson making the start for Texas against RHP Gerrit Cole for Houston. First pitch from The Ballpark is scheduled for 7:05 pm CT.