8-6 – Rangers batter Astros 12-8 in series opener from Houston
Rangers survive Angel Hernandez jump scare to take opener
The Texas Rangers scored twelve runs while the Houston Astros scored eight runs.
The Rangers and Astros drew Lance Barksdale’s umpiring crew — designated crew Q by Major League Baseball — which also happens to count Angel Hernandez among their ranks. Angel, as he is generously named, was behind the dish for tonight’s opener, promising a weird vibe to what is already a contentious duo of franchises.
And, of course, Angel was in top form with a baffling strike zone. Just ask Wyatt Langford:
The thought of getting rookie zone’d by Angel Hernandez was enough to induce waking nightmares, and seeing it play out with my own human eyeballs did nothing to dissuade the terror.
Also, the Rangers and Astros played a baseball game around the circus being performed directly behind them. While doing that, the Rangers scored a lot of runs and those runs were more runs than the Astros scored when they started scoring a bunch of runs late so they thankfully welcomed the win column.
More good news, Hernandez will not be behind the plate tomorrow, so he cannot stick his grody little fingers in literally every moment of the baseball game, but he will still be out there, lurking, waiting, determined to trend on Twitter as he ruins everyone’s afternoon.
Player of the Game: After a few no-hitter scares and a pathetic showing at the plate against the Oakland A’s, the Rangers’ lineup put up 12 runs on 12 hits with every starting batter collecting at least one hit except for Leody Taveras and three Rangers smacking two or more hits.
Leading the way, of course, was Adolis Garcia who went 2-for-3 with two walks while scoring twice and driving in two. As you might expect, Garcia was lustily booed but with the Rangers stomping on Houston early, those boos quickly turned on the home team thanks in part to Adolis’ continued, quite one-sided, conflict with Space City.
Also, this is how he arrived to tonight’s game:
Up Next: The Rangers and Astros will play another game tomorrow afternoon and, with four batters wearing one tonight, the rest of this weekend could be spicy. LHP Andrew Heaney is next tasked with taking the bump for Texas opposite RHP Ronel Blanco for Houston.
Saturday’s first pitch from Minute Maid Park is set for 3:05 pm CT and will be telecast on BS Southwest locally and FS1 nationally.
