New park, new offense: Solak fuels Rangers
ARLINGTON — The Rangers’ starter lasted only four innings, and their offense did not hit a home run.
That’s often caused problems for Texas in the past, but that was not the case Tuesday night. Mike Minor was better, an overpowering bullpen made up for his short outing and the lineup, led by Nick Solak, put together enough winning offense.
Put it all together, and this is how the Rangers will need to win more often than not in their new ballpark, and with an offense not nearly as powerful as in the past. Texas took a four-run lead early and held on for a 4-2 victory over Seattle at Globe Life Field, its fourth win in five games this homestand.
“Overall, it was great,” manager Chris Woodward said. “Honestly, we needed that. Just a solid win. We got hits when we needed to, we scored runs and held it the whole time. We’ve got to find a way to win any game we can, honestly. We needed that one today.”
The Rangers had All-Star left-hander Mike Minor on a pitch restriction after he went 0-3 with a 6.89 ERA over his first three starts. The goal was to keep Minor around 75 pitches in an effort to start rebuilding his stamina, and the results were encouraging.
Minor went four scoreless innings, allowing a hit and three walks while striking out four. He threw 67 pitches through three innings, then set down the Mariners’ order on nine pitches in the fourth. That put him at 76, and that was the end of his night.
https://www.mlb.com/news/nick-solak-powers-rangers-offense-in-win
