Rangers Lose 4-3 to D-Rays in a Sorry Series Opener
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by user ASwaff
First of all, Adam Eaton got clobbered in tonight's loss. He wasn’t hit hard, but he was hit often. 11 hits for the D-Rays in just five innings managed to score them the four runs they needed to win. As is always the problem when he gets hit, Eaton didn't keep his pitch count down. In his five innings, he threw 115 pitches.
The odd thing about the game tonight was the way the Texas Rangers got kicked around by the bottom of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays lineup. Their 7-9 hitters (Damon Hollins, Josh Paul and Tomas Perez) went 7-10 with two runs, two RBI and a double. The other big bat for Tampa (making up for Carl Crawford’s 0-5 performance) was first baseman Greg Norton. He went 4-4 with three doubles and two runs.
The Rangers played catchup through the entire first half of the game. Tampa Bay scored their first two runs in the second inning on a single by Damon Hollins and a double by Tomas Perez. Mark DeRosa managed to prevent further damage by throwing out Josh Paul at home on Perez’s double, ending the inning. Texas responded with a Hank Blalock two-run homer in the third inning to tie the game.
But, the Devil Rays scored another run to re-take the lead in the fourth inning. The Rangers tied up the game once more in the fifth inning, only to have the D-Rays score in the bottom of the fifth to regain the lead, 4-3. Of course, that would be the end of the scoring.
Rangers relievers C.J. Wilson and Rick Bauer gave the Rangers a chance to tie up the game again (or, gee, I don’t know...actually take the lead for once?) by pitching three shutout innings in relief of Eaton. But, the Rays bullpen was even better, as Brian Meadows and Seth McClung held the Rangers to one hit in three inning in relief of James Shields. McClung's save tonight was his first of the season.
Nobody for the Rangers reached base after the sixth inning until Rod Barajas singled with two outs in the ninth. With the tying run on base, Gary Matthews flew out in foul territory to end the game, and continued his struggles against D-Rays pitching. He went 0-5 tonight with a strikeout and two left on base.
The Rangers managed eight hits off Shields, but they also struck out seven times in six innings. Most of that came from the middle of their lineup. Even with Hank Blalock’s two-run homer, the 4-6 hitters stunk tonight. Mark Teixeira, Blalock and DeRosa combined for six of the Rangers’ nine strikeouts, and left 11 runners on base.
I don’t care who you are, when the middle of the lineup puts up numbers like that, you’re not going to win.
They’ll certainly need to put up better numbers than that tomorrow night as they go into an uphill battle against one of the best young pitchers in baseball, Scott Kazmir.
With the loss tonight and an incredibly unlikely come-from-behind win by the Oakland Athletics, the Rangers find themselves now 7.5 games out of first place, and 1.5 games behind the LAA Angels (who did not play tonight). Watch the Rangers tomorrow night at 6:15 CST, because you never know when they might just decide to actually play.
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Date
Mon 08/21/06, 10:45 pm EST
