Kiner-Falefa's Big Night Spoiled in Rangers' 7-4 Loss to Padres
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers weren't no-hit or shutout on Saturday night. However, they were unable to thwart the San Diego Padres' lineup.
The Padres racked up 14 hits against Texas pitching, taking the second game of the series by a score of 7-4. San Diego improved to 6-3 on the season, while Texas dropped to 3-5.
"They had good pitching, but we've gotta do a better job," said Rangers manager Chris Woodward. "We ran out of quality at-bats. We ran out of quality pitches. That's why we lost. We had a chance to win the game. After five [innings], we're winning. But they shut us down."
The Rangers drew first blood with a two-out rally in the second inning, sparked by a double by Jonah Heim. Eli White followed with this first career triple to drive in Heim. After Anderson Tejeda earned a free pass and stole second base, Isiah Kiner-Falefa roped a two-run double into left-center field.
Kiner-Falefa added to his RBI total with a one-out solo home run in the fifth inning to give the Rangers a 4-3 lead. The Hawaiian-born shortstop flashed the glove several times throughout the night, and was involved in three of the four double plays turned by the Rangers' infield.
"He's been amazing," Lyles said of Kiner-Falefa. "He never disappoints. I've been around a lot of good infielders in my career. He's at the top."
There was focus on Kiner-Falefa's production this spring from both an offensive and defensive standpoint when he called out a FanGraphs blogger for ranking the Rangers shortstops dead last in baseball.
The season is only eight games old, but so far, Kiner-Falefa is proving the naysayers wrong.
"He makes a lot of difficult plays look easy," Woodward said. "A lot of it has to do with the tenacity he has on defense. He's in tune with the game. He's getting off the ball. He's got as quick a first step as anyone I've seen.
"He's the heart and soul, man. He plays hard. He doesn't give up. He's [also] swinging the bat really well."
Through the first eight games of the season, Kiner-Falefa has two home runs, six RBI, and an .829 OPS while batting exclusively out of the leadoff spot in the Texas lineup.
The Rangers were unable to hold the 4-3 lead after Kiner-Falefa's home run. The San Diego lineup made Jordan Lyles work, throwing 78 pitches through 4 1/3 innings. He allowed three runs on six hits, walked two batters, and struck out one.
Wes Benjamin was solid through his first 1 2/3 innings. But a one-out walk to Ha-Seong Kim set up a two-run home run by Trent Grisham that gave the Padres a lead they would never concede.
Lyles still had some good moments. He got into trouble in the top of the third inning, giving up a single to Luis Campusano, hit Kim with a pitch, then walked Trent Grisham to load the bases with nobody out. However, he maintained his composure through an eight-pitch at-bat against Jurickson Profar, getting him to pop out to third. He then forced Manny Machado to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to get out of the inning unscathed.
"It was tough to get in a groove," Lyles said. "It was a scrappy game. They did a really good job of keeping me in counts. I just wasn't able to put those guys away early enough the way I wanted to."
Luck was not on the Rangers side either. In the eighth inning, Brett Martin got the ground ball he was looking for to end the inning, but the throw from Kiner-Falefa to Nate Lowe went through the first baseman's mitt. Jake Cronenworth scored the Padres' seventh run on the play.
What happened with Nate Lowe's mitt isn't the first time it's happened this year with the Rangers, which makes the event even stranger. In spring training, a ball went through Curtis Terry's mitt as well.
"I don't know if we need to make sure our leather is a little, I guess, newer," Woodward chuckled. "Honestly, it was the first time I've seen it in my career when it happened to Curt Terry in spring training. [Just] bizarre."
The Rangers will try to avoid the sweep on Sunday afternoon. Mike Foltynewicz will take the ball for Texas, and face off against San Diego southpaw Adrian Morejon.
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Chris Halicke covers the Texas Rangers for SI's InsideTheRangers.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisHalicke.
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