Rangers Come Up Just Short Against Dodgers

In a late night game on Monday, the Texas Rangers came up just short against the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 5-4 loss.

Lefty Derek Holland started for the Texas Rangers on Monday against the Dodgers and put together a good outing. Holland threw 5 innings, gave up 6 hits, 4 unearned runs and 6 strikeouts. Prior to a Justin Turner 5th inning grand slam, Holland had held the Dodgers scoreless. Despite the grand slam, Holland says he is pleased with the outing and felt that he battled past an early erratic fastball to pitch well overall.

Three Rangers relievers threw scoreless innings on Monday. Tony Barnette, Andrew Faulkner, and Jake Diekman combined for 3 scoreless innings out of the bullpen with 2 strikeouts after a good start by Holland. Jeffry Hernandez threw the 9th for the Texas Rangers and gave up the walkoff win, taking the loss against the Dodgers.

Ryan Rua has gotten hot as of late as he hit a homerun in the 2nd to get the Texas Rangers day started. Rua is now hitting .440 this Spring with 2 homeruns and 10 RBIs in 50 at-bats.

Rougned Odor flashed his power at the plate once again hitting a 3-run homerun in the fifth which goes down as his 4 homerun in the past week. Odor has started to heat up as Opening Day approaches, upping his average to .417 this Spring Training across 36 at-bats. Last week, in my predicted Opening Day lineup I had Odor as a “second leadoff hitter”, batting 9th in the Rangers order. However his hot bat is a case for him to be hitting in the upper half of the lineup as he may serve as an offensive catalyst for Texas once the season starts.

Injury Update

Yu Darvish threw a 40 pitch bullpen on Monday as he works to come back from Tommy John surgery. Ike Davis continues to work through daily drills while battling a sprained right knee. Drew Stubbs is dealing with a sore neck.

Up Next

The Rangers will return to Glendale on Tuesday to play the Chicago White Sox in a 3:05 start time. A.J. Griffin is set to start for Texas against Chris Sale.