On paper tonight’s game seemed like a very unfavorable matchup for the Rangers as they had Adrian Sampson set to make the seventh start of his big league career against Gerrit Cole for Houston.
Cole came into tonight’s game with a 3.24 ERA on the young season and had struck out 36 batters in 25 innings over his four starts including 11 in his last outing against Seattle. Alternatively, Sampson is already a depth option the Rangers were forced to dip into who has never won a baseball game as a big leaguer and, until his last appearance, had never even appeared in a big league game where his team won.