Rangers allowed Cal Raleigh, Mariners to make some truly embarrassing history

While there’s some light at the end of the Texas Rangers' tunnel thanks to the front office signaling the status quo is not OK, it’s been a rough couple of weeks in Arlington. Nothing made that more obvious than the rather odd history the Mariners made in the opening game of the latest series.

That history, as it turned out, was a real team effort. And the Rangers’ allowing it to happen was also quite the team effort. No one player was to credit or to blame. But man, there was plenty of embarrassment to go around.

The Rangers just made the wrong kind of history—and it was a team effort

On Friday night, the Mariners clubbed the Texas Rangers 13-1 in a game that for a long time, looked like it might be a no-hitter. The M’s managed to thoroughly dominate and nothing showed that more than them becoming the first team to have a player hit two home runs (one of those being a grand slam in Cal Raleigh; have a pitcher (Bryan Woo) go more than six innings; and a player get a hit in their major league debut (Rhylan Thomas) in the same game for the first time in nearly 40 years.

The last time all of those accomplishments came in the same contest was back in 1987 when the Chicago Cubs saw Andrew Dawson get the home run mark, Jamie Moyer pitch 7 innings, and Paul Noce get his first major league hit in his first major league game.

The historic evening was just another reminder of how bad the last few weeks have been for the Rangers. And of course, it was also unusually bad considering the one area where Texas has been strong has been its pitching, especially the rotation.

The good news is that the Texas Rangers got a measure of revenge in Jacob deGrom’s latest brilliant outing, an 8-1 win to avoid a sweep. Today, they get to regroup and link their wounds. And hope that yet another reshuffle, both on the roster and the coaching staff can help them get off to a good start in Boston.