The Rangers finished the first week of the season 3-4, having lost one series and split one series.
Next week they have three in Seattle and then return home for four against Baltimore.
So, what did the first week reveal?
Here are ten things:
One, Cole Hamels is an ace. He won both of his starts in pretty dominating fashion, and has now won nine straight regular season games with the Rangers dating back to last year.
Two, the starting staff is solid, racking up six quality starts in seven games. Only Derek Holland failed to get past five innings. No starting pitcher has allowed more than three runs.
Three, the Rangers bullpen is finding its sea legs. After recording an opening day save, the bullpen was as flammable as Chinese-made pajamas, absorbing three loses in a row, one a crushing blown save by Shawn Tolleson who was handed a one-run lead when he entered the game and promptly gave up five runs.
Four, the Rangers offense has yet to click. They are getting good at bats according to their manager, but the results aren’t quite there yet. DeShields, Desmond and Odor are under .200. Fielder and Moreland are hovering at .200, and Elvis is at 250. Only Beltre is respectable, hitting .296.
Five, Texas has hit just five home runs in its first seven games, nobody has more than one.
Six, Nomar Mazara had a great debut. In fact, the Rangers haven’t seen that kind of debut since Joey Gallo’s incredible first game last June when he went three-for-four with a home run, double and four RBIs. All Mazara did yesterday was keep the Rangers from being shutout by hitting a home run in his third major league at-bat, after a single in each of his first two.
Seven, the Rangers have been caught stealing (four times) nearly as often as they have been successful at it (five times). Three of those caught stealings belong to one guy.
Eight, the Rangers are averaging scoring 3.57 runs per game and averaging giving up 4.57 runs per game.
Nine, the Never Ever Quit Rangers have not yet scored a run after the seventh inning this year but have given up 37 percent of their runs after the seventh inning.
Ten, Leonys Martin is batting .400 against the Rangers with three extra base hits, and .222 against the rest of the league with no extra base hits.
*****
TONIGHT’S GAME
Colby Lewis (0-0, 4.50) vs Hisashi Iwakuma (0-0, 3.60)
Game Time: 9:10 pm
How the Mariners hit against Lewis.
How the Rangers hit against Iwakuma.