Tonight at 10:05 p.m. ET the Texas Rangers, coming off a disastrous and injury-filled 2014 season, will open up 2015 against the Oakland Athletics in an American League West matchup that can be live streamed online by clicking this link. Rangers fans can find the radio broadcast on 103.3 ESPN, while A's fans can listen to the game by turning their dials to 95.7 FM The Game. Yovani Gallardo will be the Rangers starter against Sonny Gray.
Injuries continue to be a story for the Rangers, who have Prince Fielder and Shin-Soo Choo back in the lineup, but will be without Yu Darvish for the entire season after he needed Tommy John surgery. That has opened up the door for Gallardo to assume the No. 1 role for a club he idolized as a youngster.
"It's going to be something special," Gallardo said. "I've had that opportunity to open games up in Milwaukee, but having the opportunity to do it for the team that you grew up watching as a young kid, I think it's going to be something special, and something that I would always remember and have throughout my career."
Rangers fans may be slightly less excited that he is the ace of the staff now, as opposed to a No. 2 or No. 3 option. The 29-year-old's strikeout numbers have declined for two straight seasons, and his velocity is decreasing. On the plus side he got his ERA back under 4.00 in 2014, and he improved his control.
Oakland has injury concerns of their own as well. Two-fifths of the starting rotation will begin 2015 on the DL, as will outfielders Coco Crisp and Josh Reddick.
"Having Coco and Reddick out for a little while is going to hurt but I think we've got guys who can step in and do well," catcher Stephen Vogt said. "I'm excited to see what our pitching staff's going to look like. If they can just do half of what they did during spring it's going to be pretty exciting."
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