SURPRISE, Ariz. — Unofficial baseball officially began Friday with the start of the Rangers exhibition schedule. So, if we’re a day into the Cactus League schedule, it’s just about time to begin overreacting, as well.
Let’s put this way: The highlight of our game-day experience was seeing Andy the Armadillo, the official mascot of Texas Roadhouse. Andy did not, however, roll up into a ball.
With that, three observations from Friday’s blustery 7-3 loss to Kansas City at Surprise Stadium:
• If we’re going to overreact, we might as well go all in. So here goes: Ugh, the offense. On a day when the wind was carrying some balls, the Rangers starters managed three hits over their two at-bats apiece in the first five innings of the game: A chopped infield single by Joc Pederson, a well-struck double by Josh Smith and another well-struck line drive single by Kyle Higashioka. But it amounted to one run by the guys that matter where 2026 is concerned. So, go ahead: knock yourselves out with concern. Will say, though, the Rangers starters struck five balls 100 mph or better in their short time, including two by Josh Jung. Right now: Process (hit the ball hard) is more important than production.
Rangers
• The Rangers were aggressive early with the ABS challenge system. Higashioka challenged from behind the plate on a first-inning called ball to Vinnie Pasquantino. The review showed the ball just off the edge of the outside bottom corner. In the second, Nathan Eovaldi illustrated the difference that an effective challenge can make when he turned what was ruled ball four into a strikeout with his own challenge. Interestingly, none of the hitters in the starting lineup tapped the helmet, though Alejandro Osuna took a ball inside for a called third strike that would have been overturned and kept the at-bat alive.
• Left-hander Robert Garcia, who should be a bit ahead of most hitters since he’s preparing to pitch for Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic, was not. Garcia, who was pitching live batting practice to hitters before anyone else in camp, did not make it through a full inning. He retired only one of the four batters he faced and needed 22 pitches to get through that. He was hurt by one of two Corey Seager errors on the day. Garcia’s one out, however, did come against the left-handed hitting Pasquantino.
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Michael Helman was in left field for Friday’s exhibition opener against Kansas City and Alejandro Osuna was in right.
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