Fort Worth kid Yovani Gallardo will take his 3.69 career ERA to the mound on Opening Day for his home town team. Gallardo will make his sixth straight Opening Day start, continuing a string he had for five straight years as a Milwaukee Brewer. He was the Brew Crew’s all-time leader in consecutive OD starts, but he has only one win to show for those five starts. Before last year’s shutout against the Braves, he sported a record of two losses and two no-decisions is a trend he hopes to reverse against the Athletics on April 6th.
The Trimble Tech graduate joins the carousel of Rangers Opening Day starters as the same man hasn’t taken the hill to start the season since Kevin Millwood did it for the four years prior to 2010.
Giving Gallardo the ball in Oakland to start the season should set up Derek Holland as hurler for the home opener and leaves the rotation as Derek Holland, Gallardo, Colby Lewis, Ross Detwiler and the infamous opening at the fifth spot. It’ll probably be someone named Nick as Nick Martinez has made a strong case for the job, and Nick Tepesch has history on his side. Hopefully that final spot will be nailed down by the time the ump points at Gallardo on Opening Day and yells, “Play ball!”