Tolleson Falters, Rangers Blow 9th Inning Lead

On Wednesday, the Texas Rangers played the rubber match in their season opening series against the Seattle Mariners. A ninth inning lead couldn’t hold however and the Rangers fell 9-5.

Pitching

The Texas Rangers went into Wednesday looking to bounce back from their big 10-2 loss on Tuesday against Seattle. Colby Lewis got the start for the Rangers and left the game with a quality outing. Lewis, making his first start of the year, went 6 innings giving up 3 earned runs on 6 hits, walking 3 and striking out 4.

More from Texas Rangers News

• 3 Texas Rangers outfield trade targets not named Bryan Reynolds
• Did Jacob deGrom really mean what he said at his Texas Rangers press conference?
• Martin Perez accepting the qualifying offer looking like solid deal for the Rangers
• 4 outfielders the Texas Rangers can still pursue this winter
• Is a six-man rotation in the Texas Rangers’ near future?

Out of the bullpen, Keone Kela came in to pitch the seventh inning and picked up his first hold of the season. Kela threw .2 innings surrendering 1 run on 2 hits with a pair of strikeouts. Sam Dyson picked up a hold as well throwing the remainder of the seventh inning as well as the eighth. In his 1.1 innings pitched, Dyson allowed just 1 baserunner on a walk and gave up no runs.

Texas Rangers closer Shawn Tolleson took the loss on Wednesday recording his first blown save of 2016. Tolleson came in with a 1 run lead going into the top of the ninth and proceeded to give up 5 runs on 5 hits, one of which was a Robinson Cano homerun. Tolleson only had two blown saves all of last season so this is still unfamiliar territory. It will be interesting to see how Tolleson bounces back from such a bad outing.

Offense

At the plate, the Rangers were lead by slugging DH, Prince Fielder. Fielder hit an upper deck, 3-run homerun to right field in the 6th inning that gave Texas a 5-3 lead at the time. Prince’s homerun was Texas’ first of the 2016 season opposed to the 9 homeruns that they gave up to the Mariners this series. Adrian Beltre put together a good day going 2-3 with a walk and a run scored. Rougned Odor was 1-4 with a run scored as well as Shin Soo Choo and Ian Desmond.

A Quick Note

Behind the dish, newly acquired catcher Bryan Holaday made his first start of the season and first start in a Texas Rangers uniform. Holaday struggled at the plate going 0-4 with a strikeout but excelled defensively. Holaday gunned down 2 Mariners runners on steal attempts with solid throws right on top of the bag. This is a good sign for a team who’s struggled to find catchers who can consistently keep baserunners in check.

With this loss, the Texas Rangers move to 1-2 on the season with currently has them 3rd in the AL West. They’ll open up a 4 game series with the Los Angeles Angels today starting at 9:05 CT.

More from Nolan Writin'

• 3 Texas Rangers outfield trade targets not named Bryan Reynolds
• Did Jacob deGrom really mean what he said at his Texas Rangers press conference?
• Where do Texas Rangers prospects Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker stand after the DeGrom signing?
• Martin Perez accepting the qualifying offer looking like solid deal for the Rangers
• 4 outfielders the Texas Rangers can still pursue this winter