Mendez Makes Splash in Big-League Debut

Like we've said a few times recently, at this point in this lost Texas Rangers season, in order to keep your sanity you have to grasp for some positives.

Adrian Beltre is showing no signs of regression, Yu Darvish is still Yu Darvish, Rougned Odor is really fun to watch and Neftali Feliz is back and effective.

On Tuesday night, the Rangers got another positive bit when Roman Mendez made his big-league debut after being called up from Triple-A Round Rock and showed some good stuff and an even bigger bit of grit.

Mendez entered his first big-league game in a tough spot, with two runners on and no outs in the eighth inning facing a 7-3 deficit that was about to get even worse. All Mendez did was retire all three batters he faced in the inning and then pitch a scoreless ninth inning.

The 23-year-old struggled with Round Rock this year, putting up a 4.02 ERA in 31 1/3 innings, but was a stud for Double-A Frisco last year with a 1.82 ERA in 24 2/3 innings. He's clearly got something, and he showed it in a really tough spot on Tuesday night at the highest level.

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