The fate of the Texas Rangers on Friday night would be determined by their bullpen.
Yes, that bullpen, the one with their eighth-inning shutdown reliever now closing games and others trying to fill that hole.
Yes, that meant trouble.
Jeremy Jeffress found it in the eighth against the Los Angeles Angels, coughing up a three-run homer to Albert Pujols in a tie game that sent the Rangers to a 6-3 loss to open a three-game weekend series.
Pujols hit a curveball over the left-field wall after a mound meeting in which the message from the dugout was for Jeffress to stick with his sinking fastball.