A Matt Treanor (above) pinch-hit, two RBI triple in the ninth inning gave Texas the 3-2 win against Treanor's former Marlins' team. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)Of all the story-lines you could possibly think of coming into the season, Rangers' fans would be hard-pressed to imagine Treanor's Revenge as one of them. Hell, I bet most fans didn't even know Treanor was on the team coming into the season.
But that was the story Tuesday night as the Texas Rangers (36-28) came back in the ninth inning against the Florida Marlins (31-33) behind some clutch hitting from the former Marlins' catcher.
"I'm not a journalist, but I'd say 'elated,'" Treanor said of his feelings after the game.
Treanor played the first five seasons of his career in a Marlins' uniform before making four appearances for the Detroit Tigers in 2009 and now 44 games with the Rangers so far this year. The ninth inning at-bat was the first against his former team, and it didn't take Treanor long as he smacked the first pitch he saw to deep center field.
"I had feelings," Treanor said. "I think anybody that has a chance to play their former team, their always wanting to show them that 'Hey, I'm a quality player and a deserve to be here.'"
Treanor's huge hit overshadowed what was a highly-competitive pitcher's duel throughout. C.J. Wilson (ND) gave up two hits over six innings, striking out six and allowing only two earned runs, but control was an issue as he walked a season-high six batters on the night. One of the two hits, uncharacteristically for Wilson, was a two-run blast by Hanley Ramirez in the sixth inning that gave Florida a 2-1 lead.
"I don't give up a lot of home runs," said Wilson, whose five home runs given up this season is tied for fourth-least among American League starters with at least 80 innings pitched. "That was a sinker down in the zone and he just murdered it. I haven't had a guy hit a ball like that to center field off my that I can ever remember."
Marlins' starter Josh Johnson (ND) pitched seven innings, striking out seven and allowing only one run off of four hits. Johnson got in to trouble in the first inning, giving up three straight singles that gave Texas a 1-0 lead, but settled after that - allowing only one hit and one walk over the next six innings. Treanor's ninth inning triple was only the Rangers' third hit since the first inning.
Neftali Feliz (S, 16) came in and pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth inning, as Texas held on for the win. The Rangers are now a season-high eight games over .500 and have a two-game lead over the Los Angeles Angels for first place in the American League West division.
Game numero dos between these two teams takes place Wednesday night with a 6:10 p.m. start time. Tommy Hunter (2-0, 1.80) makes his third start of the season for Texas while Anibal Sanchez (6-3, 3.36) gets the start for Florida.
News and Notes:
- One hit away from tying Pudge Rodriguez' all-time Rangers hit record, Michael Young went 0 for 4 for the game with three strikeouts.
- Josh Hamilton elongated his hitting streak to a career-high 12 games and Vladimir Guerrero pushed his hitting streak to 11 straight games. Julio Borbon saw his 11-game hitting streak snapped with an 0 for 3 night, but did score the go-ahead run in the ninth.
- Alexi Ogando, making his first appearance in the Majors, got the first win of his career as he pitched a scoreless eighth inning for the Rangers.
(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)
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