Rays Pummell Rangers - 10-1

It's the widest margin of defeat of the season for the Rangers as nothing seemed to go right Tuesday night against Tampa Bay. Rays' outfielders Ben Zobrist and Carl Crawford (both pictured above) combined to go 4 for 8 from the plate with five RBI for the game. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

From the get-go, it looked like it was going to be a long night for the Texas Rangers (67-51).

Rangers' starter Tommy Hunter (L, 9-2) allowed four of the first five Rays' batters to get on base, three had extra-base hits, as the Tampa Bay Rays (73-46) scored three runs in the first inning. Hunter lasted only three innings for the second straight start, the third time in his last four starts he's failed to record an out in the fourth inning before being pulled.

"It's one of those nights," manager Ron Washington said.
"He kept the ball out over the plate and they didn't miss it. It happens."

While the Tampa bats were pounding Rangers' pitching into submission, Rays' starter Matt Garza (W, 12-7) did the rest of the heavy-lifting on the mound, shutting down the Rangers' offense for seven innings. Garza allowed five hits, walking two batters, and struck out a season-high 10 batters, as he kept the Rangers' hitters off balance all game long.

"It's great, but the biggest thing is that we won," said Garza of his performance.

The Rangers bullpen, which was forced into five innings of action, didn't provide much relief. Matt Harrison and Pedro Strop combined to allow six runs on eight hits in only four combined innings pitched. Texas trailed 10-0 going into the eighth inning, the most the Rangers have trailed in a game all-season long. The Ray's 2-4 hitters especially did a number on the Rangers as Ben Zobrist, Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria combined to go 7 for 11, scoring five runs and knocking in eight of Tampa's 10 total runs for the game.

It was Murphy's law for Texas tonight as anything that could go wrong, did go wrong against what could be the first playoff opponent other than the Yankees in the franchise's history. However, the Rangers can point to the fact that offensive standouts Michael Young, Ian Kinsler, and Nelson Cruz all were unavailable for this game but that still doesn't excuse the pitching staff giving up a whopping 10 runs on 15 hits.

While Texas cannot win the series Wednesday afternoon, they can still salvage a .500 record in a brutal eight-game stretch against the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Rays. First pitch is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. with Derek Holland (2-1, 4.19 ERA) getting a shot at a spot in the starting rotation for Texas, while James Shields (10-11, 4.98) takes the hill for Tampa Bay.

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