TORONTO — They play 162 for a reason, right?
The story of a baseball team takes time to bloom. The strengths must ripen over months. It takes a spell for flaws to be exposed.
What if it doesn’t?
What if opening day told you all you need to know about the story of this Rangers team for 2022? You could make the argument that Friday’s 10-8 loss to preseason AL darlings Toronto said everything you thought you knew about these Rangers.
A lineup packed with expensive newcomers looked as potent and relentless as advertised. The season started with a homer and the offense only got better from there. And a pitching staff stuffed full of questions raised only more. Along the way the Rangers took, and lost, a seven-run lead, which was worse than the five-run lead they lost in last year’s opener. They scored four two-out runs; they allowed six. All six came on rallies that started with two-out walks.
The thing is: None of it was terribly surprising.
The Rangers invested $580 million on free agents over the winter, with $515 million going to four of the first seven hitters in their lineup. They invested $64 million in pitching, with all but $4 million of that done by the fifth inning Friday, due as much to expected pitch limitations as anything else. The offense is better. Improving the pitching staff is going to be the next step in the renovation. But everybody knew that going in.
Perhaps the only real shock of the night was that the Jays scored the ultimate go-ahead run on a play in which Teoscar Hernandez was originally called out thanks to an all-newcomer relay of Brad Miller to Corey Seager to Mitch Garver. On review, however, umpire Bill Welke ruled that Garver, who took the throw on the back side of the plate, was late with the tag. It gave Toronto a 9-8 lead with two outs in the seventh.
Hernandez, who had hit a game-tying three-run homer with two outs in the fifth, started the go-ahead rally with a two-out walk. It was the third straight inning in which the Jays scored on a rally that began with a two-out walk.
John King walked George Springer in the fifth, ahead of Hernandez’s eventual homer. Josh Sborz walked No. 8 hitter Danny Jansen with two outs in the sixth ahead of a Santiago Espinal go-ahead double. And Dennis Santana walked Hernandez in the seventh after the Rangers had tied it in the top of the inning on Adolis García’s homer.
It was their third homer of the game. Miller led off the game with a homer. Garver hit one in the second.
At least the Rangers got the first inning better than a year ago. Remember that one? They took a 5-0 lead. It didn’t last through the bottom of the inning at Kansas City. Small steps.
On Friday, Miller homered on a 1-2 pitch to become the first player ever to start his Rangers career with a leadoff homer on opening day. Only Ian Kinsler (2011) and Oddibe McDowell (1986) had previously begun Rangers’ seasons with homer.
Each of the Rangers’ first five hitters, all newcomers to the team, reached base in the first. After an García fielder’s choice, Kole Calhoun, the sixth new guy in the lineup, reached also. By the time the top of the first ended, the Rangers had 4-0 lead. And they held it, at least longer than last year.
Starter Jon Gray, who promised to throw a new tweaked slider, retired the Blue Jays on 14 pitches, getting leadoff hitter George Springer to swing and miss at a slider and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to chase one off the plate for an inning-ending ground out. For the first trip through the lineup, Gray dominated with the slider.
But the Jays have perhaps the most dangerous lineup in the AL. Once they identified the slider, they eliminated it. Gray barely made it through the fourth, allowing three runs along the way. It also pushed his pitch count to 70. The Rangers brought their starters along slowly in the shortened spring. The combination of Toronto’s adjustments and a pitch limit that wasn’t going to exceed 80-85 pitches made the Rangers turn to the bullpen for the fifth.
And that’s where the story turned all too predictable for the Rangers.
