58-57 - Allard has successful debut even as Rangers fall to Brewers 6-5

The Texas Rangers acquired Kolby Allard for two months of a setup relief pitcher. Let us never forget that no matter how things pan out for the former first round left-handed pick for the Atlanta Braves.

Tonight, Allard, freed from the National League to make his Rangers debut...in Milwaukee against the Brewers, was able to put aside any disappointment of seeing league rules dictate Jeff Mathis hitting eighth in a big league lineup and go out and defy scouting reports while sitting around 92-93 MPH with his fastball which allowed him to strike out seven big leaguers in his 4 ²⁄₃ innings of an extremely encouraging first outing for Texas.

On the downside, Allard walked three and couldn’t get through five innings in his 93 pitches but for a franchise that hasn’t had many young starting pitcher success stories ever, we’ll definitely take a two-run debut from off the farm where the stuff looked better than the reports.

Oh yeah, the Rangers lost this game in the late innings to the Brewers 6-5 and that’s a bummer but * shrug * these games over the next couple of months are all about seeing what guys like Allard can do.

Player of the Game: Other than Allard, and big homers from Logan Forsythe and Elvis Andrus, the most notable player for the Rangers tonight was Rougned Odor for drawing not one, not two, not three, but four walks!

Sort of mirroring his season from last year, Odor has saved up all his offensive prowess for after the All-Star break as he’s sporting a .864 second half OPS and has drawn 12 of his 34 walks in 48 fewer games in the second half so far.

Up Next: The Rangers and Brewers will play the second game of this series with RHP Pedro Payano set to make the start for Texas against RHP Adrian Houser for Milwaukee. Saturday’s first pitch from Miller Park is scheduled for 6:10 pm CT.