The Texas Rangers lost Thursday on Opening Day, 5-3, to the Phillies, who saw ace Cristopher Sanchez outpitch Nathan Eovaldi.
PHILADELPHIA — So, a pitcher gives up five runs in 4 2/3 innings on Opening Day, and his manager says afterward that he was really good. The pitcher was Texas Rangers ace Nathan Eovaldi, the manager was Skip Schumaker, and he wasn’t wrong.
The Rangers’ offense couldn’t do much of anything over the first eight innings, particularly the first six against ace left-hander Cristopher Sanchez. But the way the hitters finished, after the bullpen delivered 3 1/3 scoreless innings, also boosted Schumaker’s mood.
In the end, after a postgame shower and a beer to contemplate things, the Rangers didn’t have a terrible day despite their 5-3 season-opening loss to the Phillies.
“I think we’re going to be OK,” Schumaker said. “I d love to fight at the end, and I think we’re just going to be just fine if we continue to have the at-bats like we did toward the end of the game.”
Eovaldi surrendered five runs on two homers, a first-inning two-run shot to Kyle Schwarber and a fifth-inning three-run circuit clout to Alex Bohm. They were mistake pitches, not the wrong pitch but the wrong execution, and both traveled over the fence at Citizen Bank Park.
In between the blasts, Eovaldi struck out seven and didn’t issues any walks. He saw early on that his splitter would be effective and leaned on it throughout. The Phillies opened the fifth with consecutive singles, followed by consecutive outs, but Bohm pushed a high fly out to right field.
“Not ideal in first inning throwing 24 pitches, but then I was able to kind of get the pitch coming back down, get some quick outs going up there for the fifth,” Eovaldi said. “Just frustrating.”
The Rangers’ offense, meanwhile, was foiled by Sanchez, who struck out 10 in six scoreless innings. He used his fastball-changeup combination effectively, using either pitch to wipe out hitters or get back in counts when he was behind.
The best thing that happened to the Rangers was the Phillies going to the bullpen, which coughed up three runs in the ninth. Jake Burger delivered two of them with a homer to left-center that was part of his 3-for-4 day.
Corey Seager had two hits, Andrew McCutchen delivered a double, and Danny Jansen knocked in the other run with a single. The Rangers brought the tying runs to the plate with two outs, but Evan Carter bounced out to end the game.
“We should take a lot from that ninth inning,” Burger said. “I think that’s what we can do as an offense and put pressure on different different arms. One swing down with Evan, I was confident he was going to hit home run.”
Jeff Wilson, jwilson@alldlls.com
