The Rangers got back to .500 last night behind contributions from the two most inexperienced players on the roster, Nomar Mazara and Brett Nicholas. Nicholas was making his MLB debut last night and went 2-4 with a single and a double, he threw out Nori Aoki in the first inning, and he guided Colby Lewis get through 6 innings of 1 run ball. Jeff Banister said about the debut and about Mazara, “It just says a lot about our player-development system that these players come up and are ready. They are into the game and they are not overwhelmed.” That is definitely true after watching Mazara these last two games. Mazara has come up from and in his first two games has 5 hits in 8-at bats with, 4 singles, a home run, and a sac fly. He has been outstanding his first two games. He has shown a professional approach to hitting. He was the only guy really hitting soft-tossing righty Jered Weaver on Sunday and he provided a couple of base hits also against tough righty Hisashi Iwakuma. Last night though was about more than just those two players. The Rangers as a team had a season-high 14 hits, half of them came from the bottom third of the order(Andrus, Rua, and Nicholas). It was an all around good offensive night, a really good pitching night, and another good defensive performance. Those three combined led to a really good win last night in the first game of the series and the first win for the Rangers against Iwakuma since July 4,2013.

The Rangers fell behind early 1-0 after Colby walked Kyle Seager and then Nelson Cruz followed that up with an RBI-double. That would be all that Colby would allow though. He proceeded to retire the next 13 hitters until Leonys Martin singled off of him in the 6th inning. Lewis finished off the 6th for the Rangers 7th quality start in 8 games. The Rangers starting pitching thought to be a question mark heading into the season has been a strength so far. Derek Holland, who goes today, is the only pitcher to not have a quality start. He went 5 innings with 3 runs allowed and could have got the quality start, but his pitch count was high. While Lewis was shutting down the Mariners the Rangers were tacking on single runs in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings. Elvis had an RBI-single in the 2nd, Prince Fielder an RBI sac fly, and Roughned Odor had a sharply hit RBI single in the 4th. That made it 3-1. The score held at 3-1 until the 7th when Prince Fielder finished off a rally with an opposite field single off of Mike Montgomery. The Rangers tacked on 3 more runs in the 8th. Roughned Odor had a 2-RBI single to score Elvis Andrus and Brett Nicholas. Nomar Mazara finished off the rally with an RBI sac fly to make it 7-1. Nelson Cruz made it a little bit closer with a 2-run home run off of Keone Kela. That would be it though as Jake Diekman closed the door in the 9th.

It has been an up and down season just 8 games into the season. In losing 3 of their first 4 the offense struggled and the bullpen was an absolute tire fire. Since then though the starting pitching has still been very good. A.J. Griffin got a win in his first game back, Cole Hamels outpitched Angels ace Garrett Richards, Martin Perez got a quality start but struggled in his 6 innings and the Rangers lost, and then last night Colby Lewis dominated in Seattle. The bullpen has also been a lot better since that first series against the Mariners. They have allowed 3 runs in their last 4 games. One of those came on a walk-off single by Albert Pujols off of Shawn Tolleson and the other two came on the 2-run home run off of Keone Kela last night by Nelson Cruz. Wilhelmsen and Barnette after struggling in their debuts have pitched better as have Sam Dyson,Tolleson, and Kela. That has been a big factor into why they are now winning. That will be one truth about this team in 2016, that when the bullpen pitches well they will have a great shot at winning that game. The offense has also been better these last 4 games outside of being dominated by Jered Weaver. They have scored 7, 4,1, and 7 these last four games. It just baffles me, but last season and now this season the team has really struggled against Jered Weaver. His stuff is so slow that he has the same affect to your lineup that facing a knuckle-ball pitcher has. He is throwing up low to mid-80’s fastball and low to mid 60’s curveball. It requires the hitter to be patient and stay back on the ball until it gets into the zone. The Rangers though as a team are just so anxious to hit that they end up way out front of Weaver and just swinging and missing or just hitting weak fly balls. The exception to that though was Nomar Mazara who had 3 hits and a 443 ft. home run. Thankfully though those struggles did not carry over into last night’s game. The one consistent has been the defense. The defense has been outstanding as they still have not allowed any earned runs this season. That comes after being among the league-leaders in unearned runs last season. They only have 3 errors on the season. They have been making the great plays and the easy plays as well. It is noticeable that what happened in the playoffs last year when their defense betrayed them in that series has really bothered them and caused them to work to improve on that side.  So they sit at this point almost 5% of the season is done and they are at 4-4 tied with the Oakland A’s for the lead in the division. The downside is that the team will be without Shin Soo Choo for 4-6 weeks with a right calf strain and Robinson Chirinos for 10-12 weeks with a broken forearm. Mazara so far looks like he will be a capable fill-in for Choo, but it is not so certain about whether Nicholas and Holaday will be able to fill the shoes of Chirinos. That is one thing to keep watch of as we go throughout this season.

Other Game Notes

• Ryan Rua continues his run of great play. He had a great Spring that allowed him to earn a spot on this team. Last night he had 3 hits in 4 at-bats and is overall hitting .333 for the season. He is trying to get more playing time. The problem will be for Rua is whose at-bats is he taking. The team seems to be committed to Desmond in left-field and having Deshields at the top of the order really helps to get the lineup going. The question going forward for Bannister will be does he platoon Rua and Mazara in right, does he start sitting Desmond some, or does he move Desmond to center and Rua to left to get his bat into the lineup? It will be up to Rua though to continue to produce in the opportunities he is given. If he does continue to produce then Bannister will find a way to get him at-bats. It also could be platooning with Moreland at first. That is the great thing about Rua is his ability to play both the infield and outfield. It is good to see him back to hitting though after getting hurt and missing most of the first half last season and then struggling the rest of the season. In 2014 he was one of the few bright spots on the season and there were high hopes for him heading into 2015, but injury derailed that. It seems like after a lost 2015 he is now back on track.
• Ian Desmond continues to struggle early on as he is adjusting to the American League pitching. He has 4 hits in 31 at-bats, he does have 5 runs as he has taken 3 walks, but he is not doing much else. The Rangers are being patient with him though and letting him try to play through this. It is still early and he has been a bad hitter in April throughout his career. The Rangers will stick it out with Desmond for now, but my prediction is that Desmond will not be on this team come September. He will either be traded or released to make room for a permanent spot for Nomar Mazara. Mazara will likely be sent down once Choo is healthy and by then Hamilton will be healthy as well. There will not be consistent at-bats for Maz at that point and so they will send him down to let him play everyday. The clock is ticking though for Desmond and if he doesn’t produce he will not be here. The Rangers are not committed to him past this season so they could release him without much loss other than money considerations for the rest of the season. Desmond looked great in Spring, but has not been good at all in the first week of the season. It still is just one week and I am not advocating getting rid of him at this point. I think he can be a really good player for the Rangers, but he has to produce to keep his spot.
• I didn’t write about this over the weekend, but I was really impressed by A.J. Griffin on Friday night. He was making his first start since 2013 and was on the road against a veteran Angels team. He allowed a couple of runs early, but settled down in the middle of his start to be able to make it through 6 innings. That is definitely something he can build on going into his next start on Wednesday.

Tonight’s Game Preview

9:10 p.m. Texas Rangers vs Seattle Mariners, Derek Holland (0-0, 5.40 ERA) vs Wade Miley (0-0, 7.50 ERA)

The Rangers and Mariners continue their 3 game series tonight in Seattle. Derek Holland will be trying to get his first quality start of the season after being the only pitcher to come up short in his first start last Thursday. Holland pitched 5 innings in his last appearance in Anaheim last week giving up 3 runs. He was handed a 3-0 lead, but could not hold on to it. He did strike out 5 batters and most importantly he came out of the start still healthy. He needs to improve his location as he struggled with walks at the end of the start and hopefully he can continue to build arm strength as it appeared he fatigued in the 5th inning. This is a favorable environment for him though as he is 3-1 with a 2.29 ERA at Safeco Field and 10-4 with a 3.59 ERA against the Mariners overall in his career.It would set up for him to have a great night, but we shall see though.

Wade Miley will be making his second start of the season and second against the Rangers. It will also be his first home start at Safeco Field. That will be interesting to watch. Miley pitched well against the Rangers last Wednesday until the 6th inning when the Rangers hit him up for 3 runs off of a Prince Fielder home run. That gave them a 5-3 lead, but they would end up losing the game 9-5 after Shawn Tolleson gave up the lead and the game in the 9th inning. Miley though did have things working from the 3rd-5th when the Rangers could not get a hit against Miley. Miley will also be trying to rebound from that tough no-decision.

Key to the Game

Miley had success last week in getting the Rangers to swing and miss at his pitches. The Rangers must be patient, must force him to go up in the zone, and take advantage of the opportunities they create. They must get runners on base, force his pitch count up, and be aggresive on the base paths against Ianneta. Last week it was not so much about opportunities as it was about they just could not get anyone on base against Miley until the 6th inning. It will be interesting to see how Mazara does if he is in the lineup against a lefthanded pitcher. I expect to see Rua at first for Moreland tonight as well in order to make their lineup more righty-heavy. On the other side Holland must stay strong through however long he is out there. The pitching staff must continue to cut down on free passes as well.

Player to Watch: Derek Holland. I think he is going to pitch very well tonight. He pitched well in his first start, but became tired late. I believe he will get his first quality start and get his first win of the season. I am thinking he pitches into the 7th inning, only giving up 2 runs. If he can do that the Rangers will give themselves a great opportunity to win this game.

Game time is at 9:10 p.m. tonight. Go Rangers!!!!