Texas Rangers Split Series Against Mariners: 3 Takeaways

The Texas Rangers visited Seattle for a short two games series before they head to Chicago to face the White Sox.

Texas was able to win the second of two games against the Mariners in Seattle splitting the short series against a division rival.

Here are our three takeaways.

Bartolo Colon Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Bartolo “Big Sexy” Colon got the start Wednesday in the second game of the series against Seattle and put out another stellar performance. The 44-year old went 7.2 innings and allowed only 4 hits without surrendering a run. This outing propelled the Rangers to a win after a big, 4-run 9th inning. Bartolo now has an ERA of 2.82 on the season which is 10th in the AL among qualified pitchers.

Beyond being a solid starter for the Rangers, Bartolo also has been a fun and sometimes tension breaking bright spot in what has been a pretty poor season up to this point. When asked about getting hit by a ball in the game, Colon had this to say.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa Has Been Better Than We Could’ve Hoped

Adrian Beltre sadly went down with another hamstring injury, having aggravated the same problem he suffered earlier in the season. Texas has asked Isiah Kiner-Falefa to be the fill-in man for a number of injuries and he has performed way above what Rangers fans could’ve hoped for. Kiner-Falefa continues to be consistent and while he may not blow up the stat sheet, he’s been a big bright spot for the Rangers this year. Kiner-Falefa produced two hits in the Rangers win on Wednesday and he scored two runs to help pick up the win. Isiah now sits at .257 on the season and he’s certainly played himself into a regular role on this team even when they’re at full strength. Now it’s on Jeff Banister to figure out where he should slot into the lineup.

Robinson Cano Just Put A Big Asterisk On His Legacy

In non-Rangers specific takeaways, Robinson Cano of the Seattle Mariners will serve an 80 game suspension after failing a drug test and violating the league’s substance agreement policy. Many believe this test failure is due to performance enhancing drugs. Cano issued a statement saying the test was failed because of a drug prescribed by a doctor, but some aren’t having any of his excuse

Regardless of where you stand on the PED debate, no doubt in the current climate of Major League Baseball, Cano has definitely put an asterisk next to his career. Considered to be a sure-fire hall of famer, people are now questioning whether this incident will take him out of contention.