The Texas Rangers gave the Philadelphia Phillies a scare in the ninth inning. But the Rangers lost 5-3.
Texas Rangers baseball officially returned on Thursday afternoon as the team traveled to the City of Brotherly Love for an Opening Day showdown against the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Rangers gave the Phillies a scare in the ninth inning, getting the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but ultimately would drop this one 5-3, falling to 0-1 on the season.
Nathan Eovaldi made his sixth career Opening Day start and third straight for the Rangers. He didn’t have the greatest day at the office, but certainly had some solid moments despite a rough line.
Eovaldi went 4 2/3 innings, allowing eight hits and five earned runs with no walks and seven strikeouts.
It didn’t take the Phillies long to get to Eovaldi as Trea Turner led off the game with a single. Kyle Schwarber then launched a two-run home run to put the Phillies up 2-0.
Eovaldi cruised through the next three innings before running into trouble in the fifth. After allowing back-to-back singles off the bats of Justin Crawford and Turner, the Rangers ace battled to strike out Schwarber and Bryce Harper.
However, just when it looked like Eovaldi was going to wiggle out of the inning, Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm lifted a three-run home run on what would be the final pitch of his afternoon.
Offensively, the Rangers were shut down by Philadelphia star pitcher Cristopher Sanchez as he fired six scoreless frames.
The Rangers had chances with runners in scoring position in the first and fourth innings, but were just unable to come up with the big hit they needed.
Sanchez had all of his pitches working for him at times, executing like he was well into mid-season form.
Texas hitters struck out 10 times against Sanchez, mustering up just three hits and not drawing a single walk.
In the seventh, Josh Smith nearly connected on a two-run home run, but his bid died at the warning track via a leaping catch by Phillies left fielder Brandon Marsh.
Jake Burger lifted a two-run home run in the ninth inning to give the Rangers their first runs of the season. Unfortunately, an RBI single from Danny Jansen a few batters later was the last scoring of the game.
The Rangers will have an off day on Friday before Game Two of their series against the Phillies on Saturday at 3:05 p.m. CT.
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