The Rangers first road trip of the season moved on up the East Coast to Boston. The defending World Champion Red Sox welcomed the Rangers to Fenway Park on a beautiful night for baseball. Tanner Scheppers got his second start of his career as he went up against veteran right-hander John Lackey. In the past the Rangers have had a lot of success against Lackey. He is 12-15 with a 6.01 era, which is the highest ERA he has against an AL club. One would think the Rangers would have a good shot to win with those numbers, but this is not the same John Lackey. He has been pitching with more control and has been able to keep his emotions in check since having Tommy John surgery in 2012. Numerous times tonight the Rangers had opportunities to have big innings, but each time Lackey made the pitches he needed and got out of the inning with minimal or no damage at all. That is what helped propel the Red Sox to a 5-1 victory tonight.

The story tonight though unfortunately is not Tanner Scheppers. He rebounded from his difficult start on Opening Day and pitched much better. He was able to pitch 5 innings only giving up 2 runs, striking out 3, walking two, and giving up 9 hits. He was constantly in trouble, but he was able to get out of numerous jams without giving up the big inning. He left with the score 2-1 and as a starting pitcher that is what you are trying to do is give your team a chance at winning. The offense though on multiple occasions failed to come through with the hit that would have either tied the game or given them the lead. The first opportunity was in the third when Shin Shoo Choo tripled to deep center field, but Elvis Andrus grounded out to end the inning. Andrus then led off the 6th with a single, but Fielder flew out and Adrian Beltre grounded into a double-play. Then in the 7th Rios led off with a walk and then a steal of second, but Mitch Moreland grounded out, Donnie Murphy popped out, and JP Arencibia popped out to end the inning. In the 8th Choo led off with a single, but the Rangers failed again when Andrus flew out to center and Fielder grounded into a double play. John Lackey did pitch well, but the Rangers squandered a lot of chances.

The one in the 7th inning is the one that has me scratching my head the most. Alex Rios gets on with a walk and then promptly steals second. Now you have a runner on second and no outs. I don’t mind leaving Moreland in, he did have two clutch hits last week against the Phillies. His out was productive as he was able to move Rios to 3rd with only one out. Washington has Jim Adduci and Michael Choice on the bench and he decides to stay with Donnie Murphy. Murphy has had some success so far this season as he has reached base in all of his starts, but he should have been lifted here. I know I saw on Twitter some people suggest it was too early to pinch-hit, but in my opinion it was not. The Rangers were down 1 run with the tying run at 3rd. Jim Adduci should have been brought in to face John Lackey. Lackey by this point was clearly getting tired and if the Rangers can push a run across that changes the way Wash would have used the bullpen late. Instead of Rosin and Tolleson maybe he uses Frasor or Cotts. So he decides against pinch-hitting for Murphy, then he doubles down and decides to give Arencibia another shot at Lackey. Arencibia is another player who has been struggling at the plate and of course he grounds out to end the inning. I don’t really know why Wash didn’t use a pinch-hitter in this situation, but he didn’t and the Rangers paid for it. The Red Sox ended up pushing three more runs across the board in the 8th inning against Seth Rosin and Shawn Tolleson and that was it. The Rangers lost the game 5-1 to fall to 3-4 on the season.

Notes from the Game

• This Prince Fielder thing is becoming an issue. In his last 26 games played dating back to last season with the Tigers he has a total of 3 rbi’s. This is for a guy who was brought here to anchor the lineup and be a major run producer for the Rangers. I know it may be just  a slow start and I would have to do more research to see if he typically gets off to slow starts in April before warming up later in the season. With as many injuries as the Rangers have they need Fielder to produce to help this team get through these first two months of the season. Washington might look at putting Fielder into his more comfortable number 4 spot in the lineup and go right-left-right in the middle of the order. Fielder just has to produce more it is just as simple as that.
• Tanner Scheppers was much better, but with some of the issues the team has had with the 8th inning over the weekend, you have to wonder if he will be moved to the bullpen not because of performance, but in order to solidify the 8th inning role. He starred in that role last year and if put back would likely do the same this year. With Joe Saunders going on the DL and Nick Martinez being sent down he will likely have 2-3 more starts before they have to answer that question.
• The Rangers lost their first challenge of the year in the first inning when Elvis Andrus caught a flip from Donnie Murphy and then dropped it. The Rangers challenged it because it looked like he lost it on the transfer, but after reviewing it they said he never had control of it. The Rangers were not able to challenge anything else the rest of the game. Thankfully it didn’t cost them as there was no other possible reviewable plays.
• During this game the Fox Sports Southwest broadcast showed that the Rangers were the best team with runners in scoring position in the AL with a .388 average. I have watched every game, but I guess I didn’t notice that. That didn’t help them tonight as they failed to come through in multiple situations in this game.

The Rangers and Red Sox play game 2 of this series tomorrow night at 5 p.m.  It will be two young left-handers as Martin Perez will take on Felix Doubront.