Rangers' bullpen implosion shows why team still needs established closer

The Texas Rangers won their first game of the season 5-4 against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Saturday. While fans should be happy with the performances from left-hander Jacob Latz, several bullpen arms and an array of position players, there's one negative to take away from the game that's impossible to ignore.

Rangers' bullpen meltdown vs Phillies shows why team still needs established closer

Because of a solo homer from Corey Seager and a two-run shot from Jake Burger, the Rangers led Saturday's game against the Phillies 3-0 heading into the bottom of the ninth inning. Lefty Robert Garcia entered the game following two scoreless innings from righty Jakob Junis and got the first two batters of the inning out.

Garcia failed to finish the game, allowing Alec Bohm to reach on a weak fly-ball single to right field and walking Edmundo Sosa, respectively. Manager Skip Schumaker then replaced Garcia with veteran righty Chris Martin.

Beloved former Ranger Adolis García then hit a routine pop-up in foul territory, and Burger dropped the ball. García followed with an RBI double, and Brandon Marsh tied the game on a two-RBI single.

While Burger deserves criticism for dropping a routine pop-up, Garcia and Martin still could've pitched much better.

Luckily, the Rangers quickly retook the lead in the 10th inning courtesy of a wild pitch from Jhoan Duran and an RBI single from Andrew McCutchen.

Lefty Tyler Alexander earned the save in the bottom of the 10th, but not before running into trouble. Alexander began his outing by hitting Otto Kemp with a pitch, then got Trea Turner to pop out and struck out Kyle Schwarber, respectively. Bryce Harper followed with an RBI single, putting the tying run on second base and the winning run on first. Thankfully, Bohm popped out to Seager to end the game.

Again, there are plenty of reasons to be happy about the Rangers' performance on Saturday. As long as the team wins, fans should be content. But it's hard to ignore that the team's lack of an established closer nearly cost them the victory.

While the Rangers' main issue last season was their lack of offensive production, closing out games was also a major problem, as Texas converted just 37 of 66 save opportunities. It would've been nice if the team had brought in someone with a history of successfully closing games, such as new Tigers closer Kenley Jansen. If the Rangers are in the postseason race once the Trade Deadline nears, and the team is still struggling to close out games, president of baseball operations Chris Young may look to the trade market for relief help.