Folty battles 'best he could' in home opener

ARLINGTON -- Mike Foltynewicz hadn’t seen his parents since June 2020. He also hadn’t pitched in a Major League game since July 2020. He got to do both of those things on Monday afternoon, when he started in the Rangers home opener against the Blue Jays, which ended in a 6-2 loss.

“I’m very anxious,” Foltynewicz said. “Thinking of what I've been through over the last year, I’m very honored and humbled. I can’t really describe this, what I'm feeling still to this day. Leading up to it, very, maybe a little nervous."

Foltynewicz hadn’t made a big league appearance since he was part of the Atlanta Braves' roster on July 27, 2020, when he was designated for assignment after giving up six earned runs over 3 1/3 innings against the Rays. He spent the rest of the season in Gwinnett at the Braves’ alternate training site.

Foltynewicz struggled with his command early on against the Blue Jays, driving up his pitch count with four full counts in the first two innings. He made it through just four innings with 95 pitches, only 59 of which were strikes. Foltynewicz is the latest example of Rangers pitchers struggling to find the strike zone, which was a common occurrence during the season-opening series against the Royals.

Manager Chris Woodward has emphasized the need to attack the strike zone while Texas has struggled through the four games this season.

Toronto hopped on Texas early, scoring on an RBI single from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the first inning to give it a lead it never relinquished. Foltynewicz then gave up back-to-back home runs to Marcus Semien and Cavan Biggio in the second inning to extend the Blue Jays’ lead.

But, Foltynewicz did notch seven strikeouts in his outing.

“I felt very good; my stuff was moving very well,” Foltynewicz said. “Hats off to them for having a good game plan, fouling off the sliders, laying off those close pitches, 2-2 pitches, 3-2 pitches. I don't really know how to explain this one. I battled the best I absolutely could.”

Taveras out of the lineup
The Rangers' former No. 4 ranked prospect, Leody Taveras, was not in the starting lineup for the home opener against the Blue Jays. Taveras struggled in the first series of the season, going 0-for-12 at the plate through three games in Kansas City.

Manager Chris Woodward said he thought hard about whether to have Taveras in the lineup on Monday, but settled with Eli White in center field and Brock Holt at designated hitter.

"I wanted him in there obviously,” Woodward said. “He’s had his struggles the first couple games, and that has something to do with it. I definitely wanted him out there, but at the same time I'm putting Brock in there because I know he can handle the lefties, and obviously we're still trying to win a game. He'll be out there the next two games, so it's a tough one.”

Taveras made his MLB debut during the shortened 2020 season, batting .227 through 33 games. Woodward acknowledged the struggles Taveras has faced so far, but isn’t worried about this production in the long term.

First game with a full house of fans
The Rangers are welcoming a full crowd of fans for the first time since the new Globe Life Field opened in summer 2020. Its inaugural season was cut short and played without fans due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Globe Life Field Health and Safety Protocols

Both Foltynewicz and Woodward said they feel comfortable with their families coming to the game after meetings with the front office, including general manager Chris Young and president of baseball operations Jon Daniels. Foltynewicz said there were concerns for him at first, but he’s excited for his family to see him play again.

“We've had a bunch of questions and we've gotten those answered over the last few weeks,” Foltynewicz said. “But I know the Rangers are going to do this right, with social distancing and you know, wear masks and all that fun stuff. No worries there, I'm just very excited just know life's getting back to normal, people are coming back in, and just enjoying the week.”

“Everybody has some concerns I think, but we’ve just got to be responsible,” Woodward added. “We’re asking our fans to be responsible. We're going to do our part internally with our team. We've done a really good job up to this point and I would just encourage our fans to the same.”

While everybody within the organization is focused on the health and safety of the situation, Woodward emphasized how exciting it is to be able to play in front of fans again.

“There's gonna be a ton of energy and we’ve got to make sure we got a lot of young players on our team find a way to calm our emotions,” Woodward said. “Obviously, we haven't played in front of our fans in a long time and to be able to do that today, it is super exciting.”