Gerrit Cole came into last night’s game 4-0 with a 0.79 ERA. Sorry, but the Rangers were not going to beat him. Right now, nobody can.

The fact they got two runs off him was a pretty good accomplishment. They jacked up his ERA all the way to 1.11.

So, it was a moral victory of sorts.

But if the Rangers are going to truly be a team to be reckoned with, they have to win the impossible-to-win games.

When they had bases loaded and nobody out in the sixth, they had to do more than two runs worth of damage. Nathanial Lowe walked to load the bases, sure. But he needed to find a way to drive in a run, there. Adolis Garcia, about a streaky of a hitter as you can find, needed to step up and earn his reputation. He struck out. Jonah Heim grounded out. If it weren’t for a breakdown on the Yankees defense, he would have hit into a double play and the Rangers would not have score at all. 

The Rangers have one of the top high-scoring offenses in baseball. But playing Kansas City and Oakland will help you pad those stats. 

They need to figure out how to beat the pitchers they are not supposed to beat if they are truly going to be special.

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