April 11, 2022 - Game 4
W - Josh Bard (1-0)
L - Greg Holland (0-1)
S - Ashton Goudeau (1)
HR: TEX: W. Calhoun (1) COL: Joe (2)
Time of Game: 4:01
Game Recap
The slide rule reared its ugly head on Monday's loss. In the bottom of the tenth inning, on an Adolis García groundball, the Rockies tried turning a double play. The throw was wide from Brendan Rodgers at second base, but Mitch Garver was called out for violating the slide rule. "That's a baseball play," Mitch Garver said. "I'm trying to protect my teammate, and I'm trying to extend the inning. If they want to regulate this rule, it's going to have to be obvious that you're going for damage or hurt somebody, which I wasn't." Originally it wasn't called, but Rockies manager Bud Black called for a review, and the umpires in New York overturned the call, ending the Rangers' home opener on a review. " It's more of a technically at the end, it is what it is," Chris Woodward said after the game. "[Mitch] is just playing baseball."
As for the rule itself, Mitch Garver gave a detailed explanation. "The rule is you need to make contact with the dirt before the base, you have to slide into the bag first, and you have to maintain grass with the bag or touch the base. All of those things I did."
Monday's game was reminiscent of Sunday's, except for the homers allowed by Rangers pitching. Taylor Hearn had a lot of traffic on the bases. The Rockies scored a run in the first, but five base runners reached, including two extra bases. Hearn limited the damage to one run. While traffic continued, Taylor never gave in, throwing three scoreless after the first. Hearn's day concluded after four innings, and while he had a lot of work to accomplish four, Taylor Hearn ran out a gutsy performance on Monday.
The Rangers' offense grew silent early against Rockies starter Austin Gomber. However, Texas broke through in the fourth on a Nathaniel Lowe double that ricocheted off the padding in between deep right and first base. Then, in the fifth inning, a big blow from Adolis García (two-run single) put Texas up 3-1 while they chased Gomber out of the fifth. After good outings from Dennis Santana and Albert Abreu (in Abreu's Rangers' debut). The Rockies tallied a run in the seventh with a single, advancing Bryant on a wild pitch and scoring on a Charlie Culberson error. But, once again, the Rangers' pitchers limited the damage in the inning to a lone run.
The Rockies tied in the 8th on an attempted double-play turn, but Corey Seager's throw hit Charlie Blackmon, and Colorado scored the equalizer. In the ninth, the Rangers and Rockies traded home runs by CJ Cron and Willie Calhoun, sending the Rangers to their first extra-inning game of 2022. Colorado scored two runs, one on a Connor Joe homer, and as the Rangers tried to equal the tenth, the slide rule ended the four-hour affair. "[The slide rule] didn't determine us losing the game. We lost the game," Chris Woodward said after the game. "We didn't play well enough. We didn't make plays in the end; we didn't make pitches in the end."
Postgame Notes
Taylor Hearn allowed eight hits for the second time in his career. The other came on September 17th. 2021 against the White Sox. In that game, he allowed seven runs, while he allowed one run on Monday. Taylor didn't make it out of the fourth that day.
Matt Bush pitched back-to-back home games. He threw the final inning of the last game at Globe Life Field in 2021 and then pitched on Monday.
Taylor Hearn struck out six. It's the fourth time in his career that Taylor struck out six. He struck out seven in a three-inning outing on April 12th, 2021, against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Kolby Allard remains the only Rangers player on the active roster to not appear in a game in 2022.
Nick Solak, Nathaniel Lowe, and Charlie Culberson are the only Rangers that appeared in last year's home opener and played in Monday's home opener. Marcus Semien and Randall Grichuk appeared too, but for the Blue Jays.
In his first two outings, Brett Martin allowed an earned run. In 2021, he had one instance in sixty-six appearances where he allowed an earned run or more in back-to-back outings.
In 2021, it took nine games before the Rangers played their first extra-inning game at home. In 2022, it took one game.
Willie Calhoun's pinch-hit homer was his first career pinch-hit homer. It was his first hit of the year and the fifth go-ahead or game-tying homer by a pinch hitter with two outs in the ninth.
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