Rangers Take Three Of Four In Boston

Behind Bengie Molina's cycle Friday night and C.J. Wilson's (above) career-high 10 strikeouts Sunday afternoon, Texas won two of the final three games of the four-game series against Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

As bad as the Texas Rangers (53-39) played to end the first-half of the season, they played just the opposite in winning three of four against the Boston Red Sox (52-40) to start off the second-half. Bengie Molina became only the fifth player in Rangers' history to hit for the cycle, and Texas pitching dominated the Red Sox throughout the series.

Molina is the first catcher ever to hit for the cycle at Fenway and, overall, the first catcher to hit for the cycle in over six years. Another thing that made Molina's feat so special was that the home run he hit as apart of the cycle happened to be a grand-slam in the fifth inning that broke up a 3-3 tie.

"That was more special than the cycle actually, because it put us ahead," Molina said.

Texas went on to win 8-4, thanks to the huge five-run fifth led by Molina.

Pitching was key throughout the series. Even Saturday night, a game in which Texas lost, Cliff Lee (ND) gave the Rangers his second consecutive nine-inning game. Lee allowed two earned runs on six hits and needed only 105 pitches to go nine. However, one of the hits Lee allowed was with two outs and a runner on in the ninth, with Kevin Youkilis coming through in the clutch with a double down the left-field line to tie the game at 2-all - ruining Lee's chance at a second-straight complete-game.

"I was going right at him," Lee said. "It worked for me all night. No reason for me to chance my approach there. Obviously, I wish I could have that pitch back."

Youkilis came through big again in the 11th with a bases-loaded sac-fly that gave Boston the 3-2 win, it's only win of the series.

The final game of the series, Sunday afternoon, saw the Rangers blaze the base-paths and C.J. Wilson (W, 8-5) take care of business on the mound. Wilson struck out a career-high 10 batters in only 6 2-3 innings as he allowed only one run on three hits to pick up the W.

Offensively, the Rangers were able to take advantage of a couple of Boston fielding errors. Nelson Cruz knocked in both Josh Hamilton and himself on what would have been a double in the fourth inning. But, after Cruz went for third and the ball caromed off of Boston third-baseman Adrian Beltre's glove and into the outfield, Cruz crossed home plate for an unofficial inside-the-park homer.

Texas scored again an inning later after Elvis Andrus appeared to be caught in a rundown between first and second, but the clever play of Julio Borbon at third allowed both Borbon to steal home and Andrus to steal second. Borbon rushed home after he saw the catcher throw to second to try to get Andrus and, using his blazing speed, was able to slide just past the glove of Red Sox catcher Kevin Cash. It's was the first Rangers' steal of home since 2001 (Ricky Ledee).

"We didn't finish a couple of plays, and the way Wilson was pitching, that ended up being too much," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.

Andrus scored again on an Ian Kinsler single in the eighth inning and Boston fans booed mercilessly even as replays clearly showed Andrus' foot slide into home before Cash tagged his upper body. Red Sox fans at Fenway seemed to boo after every pitch for the next two innings. The temper tantrum lasted until the bottom of the ninth when they realized Boston may still have a chance at a victory. The first batter of the ninth, Mike Cameron knocked a solo-homer off of Rangers' closer Neftali Feliz (S, 24), but Feliz recovered, striking out two of the final four Boston batters. Texas won 4-2.

The Rangers continue the road-trip Monday night, as Texas starts out a three-game set with the Detroit Tigers. However Texas hasn't won in Detroit since 2007, a streak of 11-straight losses. The Tigers are 48-42 this season, 32-13 at home (second best in the Majors), but are coming off a four-game sweep in Cleveland at the hands of the Indians, who, at 38-54, are the worst team in the A.L. Central.

The first game is scheduled for a 6:05 p.m. start time, Monday night, with Scott Feldman (5-8, 5.32 ERA) getting the start for Texas and Jeremy Bonderman (5-6, 4.79) taking the mound for Detroit.

News and Notes:

• Cliff Lee has gone at least nine innings in five of his last six starts. In both starts with the Rangers, Lee has gone nine innings in both and needed only an average of 100 pitches per game to do so. Lee isn't a guy that's going to go out there and tire himself out for a complete game, he has the stuff to do it without throwing 110-120 pitches - this is very exciting for Rangers' fans.
• To give you an idea of just how good Rangers' pitching has been, in the four-game series against Boston, Texas allowed an average of 2.75 runs per game.
• Texas is number three this week in ESPN's MLB power-rankings, which is tied for the highest they've been all season.

(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)