Rangers rookie Nomar Mazara takes over opener with heroic eighth
The Texas Rangers returned to the scene Monday afternoon.
For most of the players, manager, and front office, the return to Rogers Centre to play the Blue Jays for the first time since Game 5 of the ALDS in October was met with a shoulder shrug and a sentiment along the lines of, “It’s 2016 now.”
And that’s how it looked on the field as well as the Rangers opened a four-game series against the Blue Jays with a 2-1 win Monday night.
No one in a Rangers uniform gave a bigger shoulder shrug to the recent history between the teams than rookie Nomar Mazara. A few hours after he was named the American League top rookie for the month of April, Mazara turned in, perhaps, his best overall game since joining the Rangers early in the season.
In the eighth inning, his solo home run to dead center put the Rangers ahead for good.
In the bottom of the inning, he topped it with another defensive play that defies his 21 years.
With the bases loaded and one out, Troy Tulowitzki roped Sam Dyson’s pitch to Mazara in right field and Michael Saunders came sprinting home from third for the potential tying run.
Mazara, who set up his throw by giving himself ample momentum before the catch, threw a strike to catcher Brett Nicholas, who received the ball on his right and spun around to his left just in time to apply the tag to end the inning.
“I just tried to get behind the ball so I could make a good throw,” said Mazara, who cherished the throw over his go-ahead homer. “The throw for sure. You’re trying to preserve the lead, that’s way more important.
There were no retaliations against Jose Bautista for his seventh-inning bat flip and preening after his decisive homer off Dyson in October. There were no controversial plays to rival Rougned Odor scoring from third after a catcher’s throw back to the mound ricocheted off Shin-Soo Choo’s bat. There were no bottles of beer or other trash strewn onto the turf by angry and inebriated Jays fans.
But the night was not without its share of oddities. Prince Fielder’s bat flew into the stands in the sixth inning and a Rangers run was taken off the scoreboard after a replay review in the seventh because of another ill-advised moment on the base paths.
Delino DeShields tried to tag up from first base on a fly out to center but was thrown out at second before Mitch Moreland had scored the go-ahead run from third base on Rougned Odor’s sacrifice fly. Banister said the decision was made by DeShields.
“We’re an aggressive baserunning ball club,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. “They made a great throw. Was it a little over aggressive? Probably so. Did it hurt us? Yeah, anytime you take a run off the board it hurts ... I don’t know what he was thinking. I imagine he was thinking he was going to get to second base.”
Mazara, however, came through again and was as awe shucks as a player can be after the game. Starter A.J. Griffin tied a career-high with nine strikeouts and held the Blue Jays to a run over six innings. Tony Barnette earned his first-career major league victory with a scoreless seventh inning. Shawn Tolleson earned his ninth save with a scoreless ninth.
“It’s got to be up there as one of his top throws because the situation was huge,” said Nicholas, who played with Mazara in the minors and put the Rangers up 1-0 with a solo homer in the third. I know he wants the ball in a big situation and he always comes through in big situations so I knew he was going to give a good throw it was just a matter of it was it going to be in time and it was.”
Stefan Stevenson: 817-390-7760, @StevensonFWST
Rangers at Blue Jays
6:07 p.m. Tuesday, FSSW
This story was originally published May 2, 2016 at 10:55 PM with the headline "Rangers rookie Nomar Mazara takes over opener with heroic eighth."