40-44 - Rangers outslug A’s 10-8 to open series with a victory

The Texas Rangers scored ten runs while the Oakland Athletics scored eight runs.

If Spencer Howard could just face the 2022 Oakland A’s every time out, we might have something.

Tonight, Howard allowed one earned run in five innings and a nice thing you can say about his outing is that he was able to escape danger even though he collected just one strikeout on the night. The key, perhaps, was that he did not issue a free pass.

Kolby Allard, meanwhile, was staked to a 10-2 lead by the 8th and gave up five runs to turn a laugher into a game where real relievers had to come in and get outs. Like Howard, Allard is getting another audition to carve out a role on a pitching staff with openings. Where Howard got reasonably decent results, Allard got battered around.

Nevertheless, despite things getting a little hairy following Allard, the Rangers offense scored ten runs which proved enough to survive against Oakland.

With the win, the Rangers have their 40th victory of the season, a mark they did not reach until August 10 last season.

Player of the Game: The Rangers have been handling Leody Taveras’ return to the big leagues with kid gloves a bit as they’re hoping that this time he will stick for good and be their center fielder for the next decade.

We’ve seen our share of frustrating Steven Duggar and Brad Miller appearances but Leody has been hitting when he’s gotten in the lineup and tonight he made it known that he doesn’t need to tandem with journeymen.

Leody went 3 for 4 with two doubles, three RBI, two runs scored, and a stolen base as he raised his average to .317 in his 18th start in just under a month back with Texas.

Up Next: The Rangers and A’s continue this series with RHP Glenn Otto expected to go next for Texas against RHP James Kaprielian for Oakland.

Tuesday night’s first pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 7:05 pm CDT.