Even with Cliff Lee delivering nine more innings of excellent pitching, the Rangers needed extra-innings to put away the A's. Nelson Cruz (above) reacts after launching the walk-off two-run homer in the 10th. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)For some reason, the vaunted Texas Rangers' (59-41) offense continues to struggle to give former Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee any run support (9) so far in his first four starts with the club.
The trend continued Tuesday night as the Rangers could only muster one run through nine innings against Gio Gonzalez and the Oakland Athletics (50-49). Luckily for the Rangers, Nelson Cruz came through in the 10th with a clutch, two-run blast that gave Texas yet another walk-off win.
"It's too bad we couldn't get Lee the win, but the team got the win and that's all that matters," manager Ron Washington said.
After Vladimir Guerrero struck out swinging to start the 10th, Josh Hamilton walked on four pitches, setting up Cruz to play hero once again. Cruz nailed a 1-1 slider that, "...didn't slide so much," according to A's reliever Michael Wuertz. The ball was belted sky-high (so high that I originally thought it was an arbitrary, shallow, pop-out) and deep over the left field wall and the dugout emptied to celebrate another Rangers' win. Just as Cruz left the batters box, he pointed into the Rangers' dugout, letting everyone know the game was over.
"It felt good, especially the way we've been playing lately and the way Cliff Lee threw the ball," Cruz said after his second career game-ending homer. "It's crazy we haven't scored more runs for him. Hopefully we'll turn it around for his next start."
Even before his extra-inning heroics, Cruz made a play in the field earlier in the game that saved at least one run.
A close play at first on A's outfielder Coco Crisp's infield single and subsequent throw into center field a few plays later, after neither Ian Kinsler (who got the error) nor Elvis Andrus decided to cover second base on a Crisp steal attempt, led to the first run of the game for the A's. Oakland catcher Kurt Suzuki blooped a single to center that scored Crisp, and the A's tied the game at one-all.
That wasn't it, however.
One batter later, A's third-baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff crushed the first pitch he saw deep towards right-center field. Cruz got a good jump on the ball, timed his jump just right and leaped from the base of the wall, snatching away what would've been at least a double off the the top of the wall in right. That ended the A's threat, and made sure the game remained tied at 1-1. Josh Hamilton made an amazing, over-the-shoulder, basket-catch to end the inning before, and these two big plays by the Rangers' corner-outfielders helped Lee to continue one of the best games of his career.
For the game, Lee set a career-high for strikeouts (13), allowed zero earned runs, and went nine innings for the third time in four outings with Texas. Washington came out with one-out in the ninth, just as he did in Lee's previous start in which he pulled Lee, to see how the Rangers' Ace felt. This time, however, Lee convinced the skipper to let him finish out the inning and was allowed to stay in the game, much to the chagrin of the nearly 30,000 fans in attendance.
Unfortunately for the new Rangers' Ace, the Texas offense wasn't able to get Lee his 10th win of the season - after a boneheaded 3-0 swing by Ian Kinsler with runners on the corners ended the Rangers' threat in the bottom of the ninth - but, after the game, Lee didn't seem fazed by the lack of run support.
"It was definitely a pitcher's duel from start to finish," Lee said. "Fortunately, Nelson put a good swing on one there at the end and it went out of the park, so it was good to see."
Lee's career night overshadowed what was a solid outing by Oakland's young Ace. The 24-year old Gio Gonzalez pitched six innings, striking out six, and allowed only one run on five hits to the vaunted Rangers' offense.
It's a good start to the three-game series as the Rangers continue to surge after the the All-Star break. Even with the Rangers' bats silenced for the majority of the night, pitching and defense kept the team in the game and the inevitable big-hit was delivered late by Cruz. Texas is now 9-3 since the break and are now 8.5 games ahead of both the A's and the Los Angeles Angels.
These two teams go at it again Wednesday night, with Colby Lewis (9-6, 3.52 ERA) taking the mound for Texas and Trevor Cahill (9-4, 3.15) getting the start for Oakland. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
News and Notes:
- Nelson Cruz finished the game going 2 for 5 with a home run and two RBI - extending his career-high hitting streak to 15 games.
- Vladimir Guerrero snapped his nine-game RBI drought with a double to right-center field that scored Micheal Young from first-base and gave the Rangers' it's first run of the game in the first inning. However, it was his only hit of the game. Vlad went 1 for 5 on the night and is in the midst of a season-worst 5 for 36 slump.
- Rich Harden completed a rehab assignment, allowing two runs (none earned) in six innings for Triple-A Oklahoma. I, along with every other Rangers' fan and writer, believe Harden should get a shot at Scott Feldman's place in the rotation this weekend against the Angels.
- Another observation on Kinsler's 3-0 pop-out to end the ninth: did it piss anyone else off that there were 5-10 fans in that section, and none of them fought off the A's first-baseball for the foul ball? When that ball goes into the stands, it's just as much of the fans right to grab it as the player's. If I would have been there, I would have made damn sure that there would have been a 3-1 pitch. (Update: ESPN Rangers' writer Richard Durrett knows what I'm sayin'.)
- Cliff Lee's strikeout-to-walk ratio as a Texas Ranger is 25-1.
(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)
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