How two pitches conspired to help send the Cubs past the Rangers, Minor on Opening Day

The pitch was a slider, and it was never going to finish in the strike zone.

On an 0-2 count against an MVP candidate, that’s often what a pitcher is trying to accomplish.

Javier Baez, though, is a bad-ball hitter. He’s not yet as noted as Vladimir Guerrero or Miguel Cabrera, but he can do damage when the pitcher believes he has made a good bad pitch.

Mike Minor thought his pitch could have been a better bad one, but thought it was off the plate enough to get Baez and end the fourth inning.

Instead, it was the beginning of the unraveling of the Texas Rangers’ season opener.

Baez connected for solo homer and added a crushing three-run shot an inning later as the Chicago Cubs overcame an early deficit beat the Rangers 12-4 and spoil their final Opening Day at Globe Life Park.

Minor opened with three scoreless innings but allowed six runs before exiting with two outs in the fifth. The homer rated as a surprise, but the day wasn’t easy for Minor.

“It was an 0-2 count, and you never want that to happen,” Minor said. “I feel like if I threw it a foot shorter further in front he would have still swing. It did surprise me, but with him you see that more often. It was still probably a ball.

“It was kind of a grind all day, even though I was getting out of the innings.”

The Rangers used six relievers, and only Shawn Kelley didn’t allow a walk. The Rangers surrendered eight walks, and a hit batsman that led to Minor’s fifth-inning downfall.

The Rangers were leading 2-1 in the fifth, thanks to a third-inning homer by Elvis Andrus, when Cubs second baseman David Bote was hit by a first-pitch curveball. The next three batters reached to move the Cubs into a 3-2 lead.

A Kris Bryant groundout brought in another run, and Minor walked Anthony Rizzo in left-on-left matchup with two outs. That brought manager Chris Woodward from the dugout and Jesse Chavez in from the bullpen to face Baez.

He sent Chavez’s first pitch into the Rangers’ bullpen in right-center field to put the cap on a six-run inning.

“That’s a good team. That’s a good lineup,” Woodward said. “You give them a little breathing room, they take advantage of it. I thought Minor threw the ball really well, but the matchup there with Baez, he gave up a homer the previous at-bat. It’s just unfortunate for him.”

Andrus went 3 for 4, and Nomar Mazara launched a 482-foot two-run homer in the ninth to account for the Rangers’ offense. Rougned Odor doubled ahead of Andrus’ homer, and Hunter Pence singled ahead of Mazara’s blast for his first hit in a Rangers uniform.

Any loss would not have been the way the Rangers wanted their season to start under the Opening Day magnifying glass, and the 12-4 result might have made the sellout crowd of 48,538 wince more than usual.

But the Rangers said the same thing afterward.

“It only counts as one loss,” catcher Jeff Mathis said. “We’ve got 161 more to play.”

This story was originally published March 28, 2019 at 8:20 PM.