How Texas Rangers’ opener collapsed into Royal loss at Kansas City after fast start
The Texas Rangers, a team that needed a miracle to score five runs last season, opened their 2021 campaign Thursday by putting up a five-spot in the first inning.
No Rangers team had ever done that on an Opening Day. The Kansas City Royals and their socially distanced fans at Kauffman Stadium seemed stunned.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well ...
Kyle Gibson recorded only one out in his first career Opening Day start as the Royals also scored five in the first, and a three-run fourth inning against Kyle Cody sent the Rangers on their way to a hard-to-imagine 14-10 loss.
But it happened.
“Early on it was to a tee. exactly what we had described,” manager Chris Woodward said. “On the pitching side it was a little weird. Three pitches in and two weak groundball base hits, and then three walks in a row. Those are things we have been preaching heavily not do to.
“It led to them getting back at the game. At that point it was a free-for-all. Once it was 5-5 you could sense that it was going to be a long game, a back-and-forth game, and that’s what ended up happening.”
First baseman Nate Lowe drove in four runs and left fielder David Dahl and catcher Jose Trevino collected three hits for the Rangers, who were playing in front of fans for the first time since the last game of the 2019 season. They had 12 hits through three innings but didn’t get another until the sixth, an RBI single by Eli White.
Lowe’s three-run double was the big blow in the first inning as the Rangers sent 10 batters to the plate.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa got the Rangers going with a leadoff double after taking two strikes to start the at-bat. Dahl also doubled, though Kiner-Falefa didn’t score after making sure the ball wasn’t caught.
Joey Gallo walked to load the bases, and Nick Solak brought in the first run with an infield single. Lowe was next, and his well-place flyball to left field was just out of the reach of a diving Andrew Benintendi for a 4-0 lead.
White followed two batters later with an RBI single off Royals starter Brad Keller.
The Royals countered by sending 10 to the plate in the bottom of the inning.
Gibson couldn’t find the strike zone, walking three and allowing four hits after having the best spring of any Rangers starter. Rather than attack hitters with a 5-0 lead, he appeared to be nibbling and couldn’t find the strike zone with his slider.
Of his 32 pitches, only 17 were strikes.
“When you fall behind professional hitters they’re going to make you work,” Gibson said. “When you make a mistake they’re going to make you pay.”
The first inning took 49 minutes. It took the teams 4 hours, 26 minutes to complete the game.
The Rangers reclaimed the lead in the second, scoring once, and added two more in the third before the offense went cold. Aside from White’s single in the sixth, their only other hit was a Gallo single in the eighth and a Trevino single in the ninth.
The Royals took advantage of some wildness by Cody to take the lead for good in the fourth, and waited out Brett de Geus in a three-run seventh to up their lead to 13-9.
The Rangers loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth on the Gallo single and two walks, but Leody Taveras struck out on three pitches as the potential game-tying run.
Taveras went 0 for 5 and stranded 10 runners in his first career Opening Day start.
“He had a tough day today,” Woodward said. “That’s baseball.”
Only 161 more games to go.
This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 7:46 PM.
