Thoughts on a 7-4 Rangers loss

Padres 7, Rangers 4

• Last nights game was annoying. This one was...vexing.
• Jordan Lyles and Wes Benjamin were paired for the tandem start. Lyles, who was quite effective in his first time out, had issues this time around. Asked to face 19 batters, he allowed 9 of them to reach, with two home runs allowed. He managed to get through 4.1 innings because of three double plays turned behind him.
• Wes Benjamin also wasn’t as sharp as his first time out. He went two innings, though that was due in part due to a GIDP as well as Joey Gallo throwing out Manny Machado at third trying to advance on a single. He was was pulled with one out in the 7th at 41 pitches after giving up a two run go ahead home run to Trent Grisham. Josh Sborz then gave up another run before getting out of the inning.
• Brett Martin made his season debut and allowed an unearned run when what should have been the third out of the eighth inning on a 6-3 became an E-3 because the ball went through the webbing of Nate Lowe’s glove, which doesn’t make any sense. Other stupid things happened in the inning after that but I don’t want to write about them because it will just annoy me.
• Brett de Geus pitched a scoreless ninth, making him probably the team’s second best reliever right now.
• The offense did that thing where it looked good for a few innings then stopped. Texas put three runs on the board in the third with a two out rally that went Jonah Heim double, Eli White triple, Anderson Tejeda walk and SB, Isiah Kiner-Falefa double. IKF then had a homer in the fifth. Then the team didn’t have more than one baserunner in an inning the rest of the way, with no one making it past first base.
• I am irritated because I thought the Rangers were going to win and then they didn’t. They fooled me, Jerry!
• Josh Sborz had eight of the nine hardest thrown pitches of any pitcher from either team today, ranging from 96.4 to 97.3 on those eight pitches. Brett de Geus hit 95.4. Jordan Lyles hit 95.1. Brett Martin topped out at 93.6 and Wes Benjamin at 93.5.
• Isiah Kiner-Falefa continues to sting the ball — his home run was 107.9 mph and his double was 103.8. Nate Lowe had balls of 106.2 and 100.1, though both for outs. Joey Gallo had a 109.2 mph single. Eli White’s triple was 101.5 mph, Jonah Heim had a 101.1 mph out, and Anderson Tejeda had a 100.1 mph groundout.
• I must go to sleep now to get rest so I can drive to Arlington tomorrow and see a game in the Shed for the first time.