41-48 - Rangers can’t muster much as they fall to M’s 3-2 in 10

The Texas Rangers scored twice but the Seattle Mariners scored thrice in 10 innings.

The Rangers tried to win a baseball game today but they did not do that. Starter Spencer Howard was matched up with a hit or miss home plate umpire and that’s a bad pairing for a pitcher trying his darnedest to figure out how to throw strikes at the big league level.

To that end, Howard walked five batters in five innings. The good news on this front is he wiggled out of jams and only allowed two runs on a two-run Carlos Santana homer in the the 3rd.

Texas had taken a 1-0 lead a half inning prior on a Jonah Heim single but they were kept off the board until Leody Taveras doubled and Elier Hernandez brought him in with his first career big league RBI in the 7th.

A close game. A dash of hope late. This is where the Rangers live to hurt you. And, of course, they did so with Seattle scoring a zombie while Texas did not.

At seven below now with the loss, the Rangers will need to win tomorrow’s game to avoid matching their worst mark below .500 on the season at eight games.

Player of the Game: Jonathan Hernandez pitched in a big league game for the first time since September 2020. He punctuated his scoreless inning with a strikeout. Welcome back, Jonathan!

Up Next: The final Texas Rangers game of the first half will see RHP Glenn Otto pitch for Texas against RHP Chris Flexen for Seattle.

The Sunday afternoon first pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 1:35 pm CDT.