1-0 - Wild 2020 season begins with restrained 1-0 Rangers victory

The 2020 MLB baseball season began tonight for the Texas Rangers and with it came the first ever official baseball game at The Shed. It will never be normal when we look back at this one but we’ll forever remember that the Rangers opened their new park with a 1-0 victory in some of the most bizarre circumstances in the history of the sport all while daring to get no-hit.

Honestly, that suits the Texas Rangers as a franchise.

Your Shed firsts:

• First pitcher strikeout: Lance Lynn (of David Dahl, top of the first)
• First pitcher win: Lance Lynn
• First pitcher save: Jose Leclerc
• First hit: David Dahl (single, top of the third)
• First Rangers hit: Danny Santana (double, bottom of the sixth)
• First run scored: Santana (bottom of the sixth)
• First RBI: Rougned Odor (eventual game-winning double, bottom of the sixth)
• First triple: Isiah Kiner-Falefa (bottom of the seventh)
• First big league debut: Leody Taveras (top of the ninth, defensive replacement)

We’ll have to wait on that first donger.

Player of the Game: Lance Lynn picked up where he left off last season albeit with a bigger beard, a few more lbs., and a few command issues to iron out. Though he walked four Rockies, he also struck out nine and got through six innings of two-hit, shutout baseball.

The Rangers in 2020 are generally only going to win baseball games if their rotation keeps them in the games. The runs might be few and far between so the pitching will just have to be better than the other guys.

Tonight, that’s exactly what Lynn (plus a trio of Jesse Chavez, Jonathan Hernandez, Leclerc out of the ‘pen) accomplished and the Rangers showed off the blueprint a little bit.

Up Next: The Rangers and Rockies will reconvene for the second game of this series with LHP Mike Minor set to take the bump for Texas against RHP Jon Gray for Colorado. First pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 3:05 pm CT.