Shin-Soo Choo crosses the plate for the first of four first-inning runs.

Here is the difference between this season (so far) and the past few Rangers seasons.

The Rangers had a five-run lead and you never expected them to lose. In fact, you expected them to put the foot on the throat and keep piling it on.

Neither thing happened, of course. But the surprise is that they didn’t. With past Rangers teams and past Rangers pitching, one would simply wait for them to blow a lead.

The old Rangers? A ten-run lead wasn’t safe.

Does that make yesterday’s cratering easier to take or harder to take? Losing is never easy. But this is a season that the Rangers front office threw away. (They just forgot to tell the players.)

It’s difficult to watch them blow one they had in their grasp.

The frustrating part is the Red Sox desperately tried to give this game to the Rangers. Nine walks. Nine hits. And Texas couldn’t dent the late after the second inning.

After scoring six runs with only one out in the second, the Rangers chased David Price, who is like their personal drum kit in the basement that they go down and beat any time they can.

But after Price left, so did the scoring. Texas left bases loaded in the fourth. Left two on in the fifth. Left two on in the sixth. Left bases loaded in the seventh (even after a rare Odor hit). Left a runner on in the eighth. And left two on in the ninth.

That, too, was the Rangers of old.

Bring back the new Rangers, please.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Jesse Chavez (2-2, 3.62) vs. Tyler Mahle (2-6, 4.21)
Game time: 6:10