Rangers @ Devil Rays (August 21st-24th)

[Molina00]

Greg Norton crushes the first pitch of the inning into the very deep rightfield seats. The Ranger lead is down to 3-1.
Dioner Navarro drills a single into rightfield. Runner on 1st, no out.
Travis Lee flies out to deep right-centerfield. Runner on 1st, 1 out.

[Molina00]

It was another close one last night but once again Tampa Bay came out on top. Padilla didn't pitch a bad game but he got peppered for 10 over 6.2 innings and could not overcome a very solid game by Scott Kazmir who allowed only 1 earned run and struck out 8 over 6 innings. Michael Young and Mark Teixeira were the offensive stars for Texas combining to go 4 for 8 with a double, 1 run scored, and 3 RBI but the Rangers rallied late and won the game 5-3.

[Molina00]

The Rangers dropped another one. Once again managing to score only 3 runs for the 3rd night in a row against TB. Two of them were off a Mark Teixeira homerun, his 21st of the year. Jorge Cantu and Carl Crawford both hit 2-run shots for TB handing the Rangers their 3rd straight loss in the series. After an Oakland win the Rangers are now 7.5 games out of first place.

[Roy31]

Just brutal

[brewersfan19]

C. Lee is having a nice start to the game tonight

[Molina00]

One of these games is finally going right for Texas. Middle 8th and the Rangers are leading 4-2. Carlos Lee breaks out of his dome slump (he doesn't like hitting in domes FYI) and is 2 for 4 with his 3rd homerun as a Ranger and 31st of the season. Robinson Tejeda is pitching another great ballgame. He has allowed just 2 runs on 4 hits over 7 innings and already has one quick out in the 8th.

[Molina00]

Russell Branyan grounds out to firstbase for the 2nd out in the 8th.
Tejeda pitch count is only around 85 right now so, if not for Aki, he could conceivably go the distance tonight.

[Molina00]

I think I cursed him. Right after I talk about how good he is doing he gives up a double to Zobrist then hits Baldelli. Wes Littelton now on in relief and he gets Upton out to end the threat.

4-2 Rangers going into the 9th.

[Molina00]

D-Ray pitcher Switzer got 2 quick outs on Stairs and Kinsler. Laird and Matthews followed with back-to-back singles putting runners on 1st and 2nd for Mike Young.

[Molina00]

Michael Young grounds out to end the top of the 9th,
and it's Aki time in Tampa Bay!

[Molina00]

This looks familiar. Aki gives up a triple to leadoff the inning. Luckily he left the guy stranded the last time he did it. Hopefully he'll leave Crawford stranded this time.

[Molina00]

So much for that. Crawford scores on a sac fly and it's now 4-3 Rangers.
Two outs away from victory and Navarro and Lee coming up.

[Molina00]

Navarro grounds out to firstbase. Two down.

[Molina00]

Getting into some more trouble now. Travis Lee and Jorge Cantu both with 2-out singles. Now runners on 1st and 2nd and 1 out away from the win. Slugger Russell Branyan up now.

[Molina00]

Branyan strikes out.
Ballgame!

Rangers with the 4-3 win in the series finale. Those 4 runs were a game high in this series after they were held to 3 runs in each of the first 3 games.

Thanks to the A's having an off-day today, the Rangers have finally managed to gain on them in the standings. Now 7 games back.