Yu Darvish Opening day starter, The Last 5 Starters

2013 – Matt Harrison

On Easter day, the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros managed to take front and center stage on ESPN with the first game of the season.   The past couple of years playing the Astros in inter-league play, the Rangers had handle the Astros pretty well, and everyone expected them to do it again.  Harrison probably thought so too, but the Astros managed to break the Opening day win streak.  Harrison was rung up for 5 earn runs (6 total) over 5.2 innings.  The Rangers lost that game in disappointing fashion with a score of 2-8.

The day wasn’t a total lose for Harrison, he did manage to strike out 9 batters on Opening day, but that wasn’t good enough to help the Texas Rangers win on Opening day.  (Nolan Ryan also had 9 strikeouts on Opening day)

"“It was the opener, not the last game of the season,” Harrison said. “You’re not going to win or lose the division on the first game of the season, but it would have been nice to win the game.” (MLB.com TR Sullivan)"

Harrison had issues during Opening day probably due to his back injury, which only allowed him to get one more start.  Harrison hopes he’ll be able to return to form in 2014, and so far it look promising.