Texas Rangers: 2 quick takeaways from the series loss to San Francisco

Coming off back-to-back series wins over the Twins and Mariners, the hopes were high heading into a two-game stretch against the surging San Francisco Giants. Despite the impressive level of play that San Fran had been playing at heading into Monday night, there was a bit of a silent buzz surrounding the Texas Rangers that had some believing they could at minimum split the series.

Texas Rangers dropped 2/2 to San Francisco this week.

Alas, that was not the case, as the Giants grinded out two close ballgames at home and exited the series with the two-game sweep.

Here are two quick takeaways from the early week affair:

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Kyle Gibson still pitched really well.

Ultimately charged with neither a win nor a loss, Kyle Gibson still had himself quite the outing on Monday.

The Rangers’ newfound “Ace” went 6.0 innings, striking out six while allowing just one run to cross the plate. Gibson’s season ERA sits at a 2.28 – still one of the best marks in the ever competitive American League.

Gibson’s ascension into a legitimate All-Star caliber talent is not something anyone expected to see occur this season, but the veteran right-hander keeps on churning out impressive outings nevertheless. Its shame that he didn’t get better run support on Monday, because he in all honesty deserved to walk away with a win that night.

There’s still a lot of baseball left to be played this season and it remains unclear if Gibson has a future with the Texas Rangers or not, but in the meantime, the Rangers have a legitimate #1 pitcher whom I feel confident in every time he takes the mound.