There is a clear silver lining from the Rangers' unsatisfactory home opening sweep

Well, that sure wasn't what anyone was expecting, was it? The Texas Rangers were returning home after a successful road trip to Philly and Baltimore, where they went 4-2 to open the season, and it looked as if the weekend home stand against the Cincinnati Reds would further the solid start to the season.

Instead, it was the Big Red Machine that took all three games in the series and put a damper on the encouraging start to the season.

Despite the home opening sweep, there is a lot to be optimistic about moving forward and most of it has to do with the performance of the Rangers' three young pitchers who are expected to be the future of the starting staff.

Rangers' youthful arms were every bit advertised this weekend

The Rangers' trio all pitched well enough to get wins over the weekend series.

On Friday, newcomer MacKenzie Gore delivered a quality start, going six innings and allowing three earned runs while fanning nine batters on 88 pitches. The game was tied going into the ninth when Chris Martin gave up the two runs that would be the difference in a 5-3 loss.

Gore had everything working well, including mid-90s gas and a hard slider that had the Reds hitters guessing for most of the game.

On Saturday, Kumar Rocker made his long-awaited debut, allowing just two runs in five innings. He did a marvelous job of pitching to contact and showed that nasty changeup he's been working on as a strikeout pitch.

In the series finale, Jack Leiter followed up his brilliant debut in Baltimore with another impressive outing. The up-and-coming right-hander overpowered the Reds lineup with his 98 mph fastball and a new, devastating cutter.

Unfortunately, none of them were rewarded with a win because of something that all Rangers' fans are all too familiar with from the last two seasons.

The Rangers didn't hit enough to win any of the three games

Stop me if you've read this before, but the Rangers just didn't get anything going at the plate in support of Gore, Rocker and Leiter.

It's a familiar refrain from the post-World Series Texas teams, but along with an inconsistent bullpen, the lack of offensive firepower has become commonplace for this organization.

Let it be known, however, that the young pitchers are showing up early in the season and through ten games, have been better than aces Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom. And that is something that should excite fans because you know that, barring injury, those two top studs will be good to go moving forward.