13-24 - Rangers bats can’t make winners of young arms in 6-3 loss to Mariners

Kyle Cody giving way to John King and then Wes Benjamin to follow sounds like something you might have seen at Frisco this summer. Because of the apocalypse, that happened tonight in a big league game as Cody made his first career start and King made his MLB debut.

Were the Rangers more prolific with their bats, one of those pitchers might have picked up their first career win. The trio allowed just three runs (two earned) in their six innings of work, but alas, the Rangers only scored a trio of runs on the night to saddle Cody with his first career loss.

Nevertheless, Cody — still ramping up to fill the Mike Minor-sized hole in the rotation — allowed one unearned run in his three innings on one hit and two walks. Cody struck out two Mariners in his rotation debut.

The Rangers are committing to youth in this final month of the 2020 season and that means seeing things like King — who had never pitched above high A-ball and had just 102 professional innings to his name — make it to the majors.

King, in his debut, went two innings and allowed two runs on three hits and one walk even though he had allowed a microscopic 14 free passes during his entire minor league career. Now that the debut nerves are out of the way, King can go back to never throwing balls.

The score remained close until a two-out, three-run J.P. Crawford homer in the bottom of the eighth blew the doors off this one. It proved necessary as the Rangers scored a couple of runs in the top of the ninth but it wasn’t enough and now Texas has lost three straight and are a season-worst 11 games below .500.

Player of the Game: Jose Trevino hit a home run.

Up Next: The Rangers will continue their series in Seattle with Kyle Gibson next in line to take the mound for Texas against LHP Justus Sheffield for the Mariners. Saturday’s first pitch from T-Mobile Park Safeco Field is scheduled for 8:10 pm CT.