Shawn Tolleson – 45.00 ERA
Keone Kela – 13.50 ERA
Tony Barnette – 10.50 ERA
Tom Wilhelmsmen – inf. (as large as possible).
This is not the way that Texas Rangers fans wanted to start the season against division rivals, but it is the way they started it. The bullpen, a supposed strength for the Rangers in 2016, has failed the team so far. The Rangers had yesterdays game won 5-4 in the 9th with their closer coming in, and they could not even come close to holding the lead.
“It’s a small sample size,” Tolleson said. “We had two bad days. Hopefully, we have 12 good days in a row after this, and then our conversation will be a little different.” texasrangers.com
I agree with Tolly, it is a small sample size, but it has to worry you a little. This team started the season getting 1 hit, but that hit was enough to win a game. It won’t be very often if they can’t hold a lead after the seventh inning.
On the plus side, the Texas Rangers starters have done very well so far, and the defense has not been bad either. The team now moves on to Anaheim to play the Angels in a 4 game divisional series that they should win, and then they travel to Seattle to face the Mariners again. It is a good chance to get a slight jump on some of the division rivals, so I hope that they take advantage of the opportunity.
Leads get blown, guys have bad days, and maybe we can just chalk it up to beginning of the season jitters. I can tell you one thing, if the pen guys continue to pitch like they did in the first series of the season, the Texas Rangers will find others who can get outs, and they have a lot of those guys down in the minors that they can try out. Time to put yesterday behind us and get ready for a late on tonight!