It didn't take long for Scott Baker to make his season debut with the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night.
The veteran righty was called up prior to Wednesday night's game against the hot-hitting Colorado Rockies, and unfortunately for the Rangers, the Rockies continued their hot-hitting ways.
In a third straight blowout loss, the Rangers watched as starting pitcher Colby Lewis was chased after just 3 2/3 innings on a night when the team needed him to go deep into the game to help preserve a battered, overworked bullpen.
Lewis failed on his end of the bargain, but Baker came through on his in a big way, pitching the final 5 1/3 innings with the exact same pitch count as Lewis and gave the rest of the bullpen a much-needed night off. Baker gave up two runs on four hits in a game that never really felt like it was going to be much of a game at all.
It might soon be forgotten, but Baker's performance was huge and can allow Ron Washington to have a fresh bullpen moving forward into Thursday's series finale with the Rockies and the weekend series against the Boston Red Sox.
