Battle for the Boot, Part 1

[Molina00]

Backed by a 12-hit attack and a solid outing from Derek Holland, the Rangers opened up the season series against the Houston Astros with an 8-3 win. Hamilton, Beltre, and Gentry all had multi-hit games including Josh's 2nd triple of the year, and Mitch Moreland contributed his 9th homerun of the year to lead the Rangers offense. Craig Gentry also stole 3 bases, including a steal of 3rd, raising his total for the year to 9.

On the pitching side, Derek Holland lasted 7 1/3 innings allowing 3 runs on 6 hits to improve to 6-2 on the season and lower his ERA to 4.69. Relievers Mark Lowe and Darren Oliver finished off the Astros allowing just 1 hit over 1 2/3 innings to close out the win.

[zodious]

Josh Hamiltons career numbers vs Houston is amazing!

[Molina00]

The Rangers broke out the bats in an extra-inning win over the Astros in game 2. While not a high-scoring game, the Rangers only scored 5 runs, 4 of them were of the homerun variety. Trailing 1-0 in the 2nd, Michael Young hit his 4th homerun of the year to tie the game. The Astros put to more on the board in the 3rd to take a 3-1 lead. Nelson Cruz answered in the 4th with his team leading 16th homerun to make it a 3-2 game. Nore more runs were scored until the 7th when both teams put a run on the board to make it 4-3. Texas tied the game in the 8th on Josh Hamilton's 6th homerun of the year and it became a battle of the bullpens. The Ranger pen held the Astros scoreless for the next 3 innings before Mitch Moreland's walk-off homerun in the 11th inning, his 10th of the year and 2nd straight game with a home run.

C.J. Wilson struggled allowed 4 runs on 11 hits through 6 2/3 innings but the pen was lights out giving up just 1 hit over 4 1/2 scoreless innings of work.

The Rangers now lead the Texas shootout 2-0 and have outscored the Astros 13-7.

[HollywoodLeo]

battle for the boot? The Arkansas-LSU game came early this year!

[Molina00]

The Rangers hit a bump in the road in their effort to win the silver boot this year. The bump ended up being ROY closer Neftali Feliz. Lead 3-1 going into the 9th, Feliz gave up 4 runs on 4 hits including a 2-run home run as the Astros took a 5-3 lead. Texas could do nothing in the bottom of the inning against Houston ace reliever Mark Melancon, sporting a microscopic 1.83 ERA coming into the game. The Rangers did score a run off him in the 8th but could not do the same in the 9th and fell 5-3. That gave Feliz his 4th blown save of the year and his first decision dropping him to 0-1.

The Rangers lead the all-Texas series 2-1 and have outscored the 'Stros 16-12.