Straily, Marlins Mess with Texas, Regret It

Other than Christian Yelich, tonight did in fact look like the Marlins’ first rodeo.

Dan Straily (7-5, 3.49) struggled through four innings and left the mound with the Marlins facing a 6-1 deficit. He allowed 10 hits, including three homers.

The long ball has been the Rangers greatest weapon all season (149 homers as a team), and they utilized it again and again tonight.

Mike Napoli blasted a no-doubter over Giancarlo Stanton’s head in the second, Joey Gallo had two homers — one in the third and another in the fourth — and Rougned Odor knocked one out in the fifth, the inning that proved to be the nail in coffin tonight for the Marlins. Not fun.

While the Rangers have terrorized pitchers with their 149 dingers, the team gifted the rest of us with a little nightmare fuel courtesy of twitter dot com. Not sure why Adrian Beltre looks like he belongs at Madame Tussaud’s or whatever cruel puppet master is controlling his arm.

Yelich had one of his better games of the season at the plate. Facing Cole Hamels, Yelich bounced a ground ball off of first base and over Mike Napoli’s head to drive in Dee Gordon. With the game at 6-1 in the fifth, Yelich took Hamels deep for the first time in his career. Yelich would strike out swinging in the eighth, but the game had basically been decided far earlier.

Hunter Cervenka was another bright spot for the Marlins tonight. In 36 games at AAA New Orleans, Cervenka controlled a 1-3 record and a 4.5 ERA over 34 innings. After Brian Ellington gave up four runs, Cervenka was called in to take over the mound. He worked through the fifth and the six innings, giving up no hits and striking out Napoli.

Tomorrow’s first pitch is scheduled for 8:05 p.m. in Arlington, Texas. Jose Urena (8-4, 3.75) will take on Yu Darvish (6-8, 3.44) in the rubber game of the series.