Texas wins it's fifth straight behind six strong innings pitched by Colby Lewis (above). (AP Photo/LM Otero)With the other teams in the division beginning to rebound after slow starts, the Texas Rangers (25-18) have picked a good time to play their best baseball of the season.
Colby Lewis (W, 4-2) gave up only one run on six hits in six innings and struck out five, winning his first start since April - a span of five starts. Texas used a rare sac bunt from Josh Hamilton, sandwiched between a pair of doubles by Vladimir Guerrero and Nelson Cruz in the fourth inning that gave the Rangers their only two runs of the game against Ted Lilly (L, 1-4) and the Chicago Cubs (19-24).
"Obviously they're not expecting it. That's in my favor." said Hamilton, who went 1 for 3 on the night. "We've been talking about if the situation calls for it, you know, be a team player, get it done."
Texas has now won a season-high five straight and are a season-best seven games above .500.
Game two of the three game set is Saturday night with a scheduled 6:10 p.m. start time. Derek Holland (2-0, 2.38 ERA) makes his third start of the season for Texas, while Randy Wells (3-2, 4.13) gets the nod for Chicago.
News and Notes:
- Colby Lewis, who had four strikeouts in six innings, leads the club with 58 K's in 57.1 innings on the year. Lewis ranks sixth in the American League.
- Five everyday Rangers' position players are currently hitting over .300 for the season. Vladimir Guerrero (.340), Nelson Cruz (.326), Ian Kinsler (.324), Elvis Andrus (.322), Michael Young (.318) round out the five. Guerrero (4th), Andrus (15) and Young (19) are in the top 20 in the league and are the only Rangers that have enough at-bats to be eligible for the A.L. batting crown.
(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)
No comments:
Post a Comment