Cole Ragans Debuts in Rangers Victory

The rookie left-hander threw five solid innings as Texas snapped a three-game losing streak.

The long-awaited Major League debut of pitcher Cole Ragans didn’t lead to his first win, but it did lead the Texas Rangers breaking their three-game losing streak, beating the Chicago White Sox 3-2 on Thursday at Globe Life Field.

Ragans’ first game for Texas was six years in the making. The former first-round pick in 2016 missed the 2018 and 2019 seasons after he had two Tommy John surgeries, and then the 2020 minor-league season was canceled due to COVID-19.

He ended up making a bit of history. He the White Sox to one run, which was unearned, on three hits and four walks while striking out three in five innings. In doing so, the left-hander became the 10th pitcher in Rangers history to log five innings or more without allowing an earned run in his Major League debut. The last to do it was A.J. Alexy on Aug. 30, 2021.

His night didn’t start smoothly. Ragans threw 26 pitches in the first inning and loaded the bases before escaping. The inning included his first big league strikeout, as he fanned Eloy Jiménez. Ragans gave up his only run in the third inning, after Luis Robert drew a leadoff walk and later scored following an error on a dropped fly ball by the Rangers’ Adolis García.

Ragans was activated on Thursday after working his way through the Rangers’ entire minor league system in less than two years. He was most recently at Triple-A Round Rock, where he was promoted on June 16 from Double-A Frisco. Ragans was 7-5 with a 3.15 ERA with 107 strikeouts and 28 walks with the two affiliates.

The run Ragans gave up tied the game at 1-1. The Rangers grabbed the lead in the bottom of the second on an RBI single by Leody Taveras.

The Rangers broke the tie and took the lead for good in the seventh, as Meibrys Viloria singled home Taveras and Marcus Semien’s sacrifice fly scored Ezequiel Duran.

Taveras, Corey Seager and Nathaniel Lowe each had two hits for the Rangers.

The White Sox were able to get a run in the eighth after Yoan Moncada’s triple scored Jose Abreu. But Rangers reliever Matt Moore pitched his way out of the remaining inning, preserving Brock Burke’s sixth win of the season in relief. He worked two scoreless innings after Ragans departed, and Jonathan Hernandez racked up his second save.

White Sox Starter Johnny Cueto (4-5) went the distance, giving up 11 hits and three runs while striking out four.

The rest of the Rangers’ rotation for the four-games series will include Glenn Otto on Friday, Dane Dunning on Saturday and Spencer Howard on Sunday.

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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