For a brief shining moment, Prince Fielder put the Rangers in the lead, 1-0, yesterday in Toronto. Two minutes later the Blue Jays come up to bat. Then the game was over.

It was bound to happen. The Rangers had gotten pretty remarkable starting pitching all season long. You can’t expect it to happen every game.

But when it rains, it pours. And it was much more than a thunderstorm of runs that rained down on Derek Holland last night; it was more like a tsunami.

Eleven runs in two and two-thirds of an inning, on eleven hits and three walks.

Take your beating and move on.

Where the Rangers move on to is Detroit, having lost three in a row to Toronto in soul crushing fashion. Two walk-off losses. One old-fashioned butt kicking.

Even so, the string of pretty remarkable starts was pretty remarkable. Here are the runs allowed from every starting pitcher so far this year from every one of their starts:

Hamels: 2, 1, 3, 1, 4.
Perez: 2, 3, 2, 5, 2, 0.
Griffin: 3, 2, 2, 1, 1.
Lewis: 3, 1, 4, 1, 2, 3.
Holland: 3, 0, 2, 3, 0, 11.
Ramos: 3.

Amazingly, only one run in the entire run of starting pitching this season was unearned. Griffin’s second start he gave up two runs, one unearned.

But the thing about numbers is they are as deceiving as they are illuminating. And while Rangers starters had gone twenty-eight games without dropping its meat in the dirt, according to The Dallas Morning News two Rangers starters rank among the worst in the American League at keeping the leadoff runner off base. Martin Perez is fifty-ninth worst out of sixty-two qualifiers. Cole Hamels is the sixtieth worst.

At least they are, for the most part, keeping those lead off runners from doing too much damage.

Unlike last night.

*****
TODAY’S GAME.

Cole Hamels (3-0, 3.30) vs. Jordan Zimmerman (5-0, 0.55)
Game time: 6:10 pm

How the Rangers hit against Zimmerman.
How the Tigers hit against Hamels.