12-20 - Rangers lose 7-4 in Lynn’s possible last Texas yeehaw

The cynic in me, who couldn’t believe that the Texas Rangers had given some St. Louis Cardinals castaway a three-year deal in a period when mid-tier starters were lucky to get two years, wrote a lot when Lance Lynn signed about how he’d hopefully have a career year, stay healthy, and the Rangers would trade him at the deadline in 2020.

That all might actually happen now but, somewhere along the way, Lance Lynn filled the hole in my baseball heart that was vacated by Colby Lewis and became a big bearded asshole ace who I grew to enjoy watching pitch as one of the top starters in baseball.

So, if indeed tonight was the last time he wears a Rangers uniform, I will miss Lance Lynn and perhaps I’ll be a little less cynical in the future.

Lynn’s potential farewell turned out to be his worst outing of 2020 (6 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 6 Ks) in his first loss of the season (4-1) but that meant allowing three earned runs to the best offense in baseball over six innings.

While it wasn’t a storybook no-hitter in his potential sendoff, Lynn didn’t hurt his place in the sport in what was, honestly, a game neither him nor the Rangers stood to gain much of anything from him performing in.

Instead, one of the prevailing memories of Lynn that I will keep is of him coming out for the sixth inning on 100 pitches and setting down the Dodgers in order on ten pitches to complete his night. Lynn refused to leave until the bitter end.

Player of the Game: Honorable mention to Leody Taveras for hitting the first home run of his big league career. :3

But the actual PotG was Ronald Guzman who went 3-for-3 with a walk and finished a triple shy of the cycle in his first start since returning to the lineup.

Up Next: The Rangers and Dodgers will finish this series with Texas turning to Kyle Gibson in the rubber match against RHP Tony Gonsolin for Los Angeles. Sunday’s first pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 1:35 pm CT.