RLINGTON, TEXAS – The Astros came into Arlington and took three out of four from the Texas Rangers, winning the series finale 8-2. While it was a disappointing start for Texas, it is important to remember it is a long season, and the Astros are one of the most formidable opponents in all of baseball.
Banister reiterated that it is important to keep your head up, “You’re going to have series that you don’t win, but the thing that you can’t do is let a one in three start carry you over to the next series”.
Armed with the reigning AL MVP Jose Altuve, several budding young superstars, and most likely the deepest rotation in the MLB, the reigning World Series champions did not miss a beat to start out the 2018 season.
Gerrit Cole, the Astros big offseason acquisition, demonstrated why he was worthy of the large package of players Houston sent away to bring him in to the fold, as he shut down the Rangers for 7 innings. Aside from a opposite field homerun by Joey Gallo in the first inning, Cole was nails. Picking up 11 strikeouts along the way and only allowing one other hit, Elvis Andrus’ double to lead off the 6th. Cole punctuated his outing by striking out the side in his last inning of work, as he also did in the 5th.
Cole’s opponent on the mound, Mike Minor, was making his debut for the Rangers, same as the previous two starting pitchers for Texas, who is featuring a refurbished starting rotation. Minor, a converted reliever, was only able to last 4.2 innings as his bloated pitch count (93) did not allow him to finish the 5th inning.
After blanking the Astros for the first four innings, Minor was unable to escape the 5th unscathed when he ran into a bit a bad luck. Minor, and the rest of the defense behind him, thought he had a strikeout of backup catcher Max Stassi to start the 5th but it was ruled a ball. The ump awarded Stassi first base when Minor’s next pitch narrowly grazed his elbow. Stassi would immediately come around to score on Derek Fisher’s triple, and Fisher himself scored on a sacrifice fly from one of the before mentioned budding superstars, George Springer.
Unfortunately, that was not the extent of the scoring from Houston as they also put up runs in the 6th, 7th and 9th innings against the Texas’ bullpen. Kevin Jepsen, who is quickly emerging as key cog in the back of the bullpen, was the lone Ranger pitcher not to allow a run today.
Although he did allow a run, Nick Gardewine was able to eat up two innings to prevent further usage of the bullpen. Gardewine is the most likely candidate to be optioned, making room for Bartolo Colon to pitch tomorrow in Oakland. Drew Robinson tried to cement a place in the lineup when he went yard in bottom of the 8th against Astros’ reliever Chris Devenski. With Delino Deshields absence, Drew is the most likely candidate to replace him in the field and in the lineup.
