He’s not simply been a long reliever, he’s starting to pitch in higher leverage moments.2016 Texas Rangers Schedule | Research by Baseball Almanac They allowed a 4.95 ERA due to 55 walks and 19 homers in 90 innings.ĭunning, by the way, has not allowed an earned run in 11 innings over five appearances this season. The relievers had been blown five saves in seven chances in Houston because of an inability to control the strike zone and a penchant for homers.

Over the last four seasons, handing the bullpen a lead in Houston had been a recipe for catastrophe. He worked into the seventh before yielding to lefty Will Smith, who struck out imposing Yordan Alvarez to end the inning. The bullpen squashed a rally: Dane Dunning, who has done a remarkable job of transitioning to relief early this season, came on for Pérez with a runner on and no outs in the sixth and proceeded to dowse the fire. Lowe followed with another run-scoring hit, a two-run single. With two on and no outs in the fifth, the Rangers asked him to do just that, move runners with a bunt. What Smith does well: Handle the bat in small-ball situations. 2 spot, but Bochy has chosen to go with Josh Smith in the first two games to limit disruption to other spots in the order. They got creative: With Corey Seager out of the lineup, there aren’t a lot of attractive options for the No.

They had not added to a single lead with a two-out homer in that span. The Rangers had a composite run differential of -35 when the homers were hit. It was the 10th two-out homer the Rangers have hit in Houston in the last five years Here’s the difference: The others were mostly meaningless.

Two pitches later Adolis García jumped on a four-seam fastball, driving it to deep center that was initially ruled in play, but, upon review, the ball hit just above the yellow boundary line for a homer. In the third, Lowe worked his way to a two-out walk against Luis Garcia.

They cashed in on walk: Semien’s run wasn’t the only walk that turned into a run. Marcus Semien took a four-pitch walk to start the game, tagged advanced to second on Josh Smith’s fly ball to center. They got out to an early lead: If the Rangers wanted to send an early message to the Astros, well, there’s nothing like an early message.

Opening game rangers 2016