Colby making his first start of the season

The Rangers lose tonight 7-1 in the first game of this four game series against the Seattle Mariners. It was a game that also marked the return of Texas Rangers playoff hero Colby Lewis. It was his first start since August of 2012. Here are some quick thoughts I have about tonight’s game.

1. The big story from this game as has been the big story from this season revolves around instant replay. First lets go back to last Monday when the Rangers faced the Red Sox. In the first inning there was a potential double play that Andrus caught and then lost on the transfer. The runner was ruled safe and Ron Washington reviewed it and it stood. Tonight in the 6th inning Pedro Figueroa was on the mound and a ball was hit back at him and he threw to JP Arencibia at home and JP looked to have caught it and lost it on the transfer. The runner was called out this time, but Lloyd McClendon challenged it and it was overturned and the runner was called safe to give the Mariners their 6th run of the game. Ron Washington immediately came out to argue and was immediately ejected from the game. The rule being enforced now says that you must come up cleanly with the ball on the transfer for the runner to be called out. Ron Washington when asked about the rule said, “I understand what the rule is saying, I just don’t agree with it”. He also went on to say that it is giving the runner the advantage and how something needs to be done about this. It clearly is a story not just for the Rangers but for baseball as a whole. Just like the NFL has had to redefine what constitutes a catch,  in baseball they are having to do the same thing with the catch and transfer rule. It is something that players and managers are going to have to learn and adjust to.
2. Colby Lewis was very good tonight. Things though went south on him his third time through the order. It easily could have been that the Mariners had a read on him or he started to fatigue in his first MLB start of the season. That doesn’t take away how sharp he looked. He had great control of his fastball and his curve ball, and through 5 was able to keep the Mariners off-balance. It was in the 6th though that they started to make better contact. Grounders that found fielders the first 5 innings found holes in the 6th . It started with a Robinson Cano grounder that was just out of reach of Josh Wilson. It continued with a triple to left center that was just out of reach of Leonys Martin. Then, it was a single by Rangers killer Kyle Seager through a hole in the shift. After that it was 3-0 and Colby was taken out of the game. To me he looked like the Colby Lewis of 2010-2011. That Colby didn’t rely on overwhelming velocity or great stuff, he just knew how to pitch and how to get hitters out. Wash was also asked about Colby and after discussing his start said, ” Happy to have him back.” Aren’t we all. This rotation will be better with the presence of Colby Lewis.  It’s funny for so many years the Rangers relied on a great offense with decent pitching. Now they are a team with great pitching and decent hitting.
3. The offense is in a big time slump right now. It was always known that Adrian Beltre is the most important person in the lineup and we are finding out why. Over the weekend without Beltre, Prince Fielder was walked 4 times and he still isn’t hitting or getting many pitches to hit. Rios was in a 1-16 slump that hopefully was broken with a 9th inning single tonight. Without both of those guys and with Beltre on the DL it is hard to sustain a big inning. Tonight for example they got the leadoff man on base 5 times and hit into 4 double plays right after. They also have not scored more than 1 run in an inning since last Tuesday against the Red Sox. That spans 53 innings or almost 6 full games. It just is not working as a unit. Choo and Andrus get on base a lot, but the middle can’t drive them in and the bottom of the order can’t get anything started or can’t sustain rallies. It just is something that needs work and I am sure these guys will put the work in, but really the onus falls on Fielder and Rios. They must start being that power threat in the middle of the order that the team needs.
4. Seattle looked like a completely different team to me than the one we saw in 2013. This was my first time to see them this season and they looked a lot more poised and confident out there on the field. It still is really early, we are only 13 games into a 162 game season, but Seattle might have something there. They have good young pitching and lots of young position players who may be on the verge of figuring it out. They also have a good mixture of youth and veteran leadership. The Mariners might be able to make this a 4 team race this year. Still a long season though.

Tomorrow is game 2 as the Rangers will send Robbie Ross JR to the mound to face the Seattle Mariners and former Rangers prospect Blake Beavan. The game will start at 7:05 as the Rangers look to bounce back from tonight’s loss.