A critical error: A base hit eludes Rangers center fielder Drew Robinson, allowing the winning run to score after the Rangers had miraculously tied the game.

In three of Hamels’s four starts so far this season he has allowed a first batter home run. Twice on the very first pitch.

So three of the fifteen games the Rangers have played have been over after the very first batter.

When you win four games out of fifteen, a team doesn’t need a closer. There is nothing to close. Maybe Jeff Banister needs to be radical and rethink the role of the closer.

Maybe when Cole Hamels is scheduled to start, Banister should bring in his closer for one batter.

The very first one.

You always want to bring your closer in when the game is on the line. When Cole Hamels pitches, that’s the very first batter.

Because, with the Rangers inability to come from behind after being down, if the first batter scores, the game is over.

After that first batter, Hamels usually cruises.

Hey, the team is 4-11 . It can’t hurt.

*****

Congratulations to Ronald Guzman and Isiah Kiner Falefa on their first major league hits. With injuries to the middle infield, both made their first major league starts in last night’s game, although Kiner-Falefa had already played in two previous games. Guzman was in his first ever.

Kiner-Falefa singled in the third inning off Gerrit Cole. Guzman singled in the ninth off Chris Devenski.

Guzman played first, moving Joey Gallo to left field, and giving Rangers fans of glimpse into the not too distant future. Guzman will probably remain at first and Gallo will become the new Rangers third baseman when it’s all said and done.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Mike Minor (1-1, 2.53) vs. Charlie Morton (2.0, 0.00)
Game time: 3:05

How the Rangers hit against Morton.
How the Astros hit against Minor.