Angels @ Rangers (September 14th-17th)

[Molina00]

Bottom of the 8th
Mark Teixeira grounds out to secondbase for the first out.
Carlos Lee walks. Runner on 1st with 1 out.
Hank Blalock strikes out swinging. Runner on 1st, 2 out.
Mark DeRosa walks, Lee to 2nd. Runners on 1st and 2nd, 2 out.

Pitching Change: Francisco Rodriguez replaces Scot Shields.

Ian Kinsler strikes out swinging to end the inning.

Angels lead 2-1 through 8 innings.

[Molina00]

Ron Mahay, after giving up a game winning homerun to Carlos Guillen in his last outting, shut down the Angels in the 9th to keep the game at 2-1. Unfortunately Francisco Rodriguez came on and flat out dominated the Ranger hitters, striking out 3 in 1.1 innings for his 42nd save.

Volquez showed some promise after 3 rocky starts allowing just 2 runs over 5 innings, although he did take the loss to fall to 1-5 on the season. Angel pitchers held the Rangers to just 5 hits, all of them singles. Michael Young went 0 for 4.

[Molina00]

It's another pitchers deal in Texas tonight. The game is currently scoreless in the top of the 5th. Although Tejeda is running into some trouble with runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out.

[Providence A's]

score some runs damn it! wtf...isn't that what the Rangers do?

[Molina00]

score some runs damn it! wtf...isn't that what the Rangers do?

Is somebody getting a little worried about their 5 game lead?

[Molina00]

Six innings down and the game is still scoreless. The 6 scoreless innings by Tejeda have lowered his season ERA to 4.66. The Rangers have only 1 hit off Weaver but also 3 walks and his pitch count is almost 100 now.

[Providence A's]

Is somebody getting a little worried about their 5 game lead?

being up by 6 in the loss column? not really...they'd have to go 12 - 3 (15 games left) if we went 8 - 9 (17 games left) the rest of the way just to force a tie...I'm just saying you guys are an offensive team, score some runs already.

[Molina00]

There is something really wrong with the Ranger offense right now. They just lost their 2nd straight game by a score of 2-1. The game was scoreless going into the 9th before a double by Blalock drove home pinch runner Jerry Hairston Jr. to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. The Angels came right back in the bottom of the 9th to score a run off Aki to tie the game at 1. The game lasted until the 11th when Frankie Francisco gave up a Vlad Guerrero homerun to leadoff the inning and lose the game.

[Molina00]

Game 3 Recap
Ranger starter Adam Eaton didn't pitch real well, but considering the Rangers finally broke out the bats for 12 runs, it was good enough for his 6th win of the year.

The Rangers broke out quick and early scoring 4 runs off Angel starter John Lackey in the 1st inning. The Angels rallied in the 2nd scoring 2 off Eaton to make it a 4-2 Ranger lead. With that same score, the Rangers added 2 more runs in the 4th to take a 6-2 lead and chase Lackey from the game.

Going ahead into the bottom of the 7th with the Rangers leading 8-4, Chris Bootchek came on to pitch for the Angels and he never registered an out. The Ranger hitters hammered him for 4 runs on 4 hits and a walk before Dustin Moseley came on to pitch the rest of the game for the Angels. He went 2 scoreless innings.

The Angels tried to get a 9th inning rally going against Ranger reliever Nick Masset, but they only managed 2 runs off of him and Texas won their first game of the series 12-6.

Offensive Highlights
Matthews: 2 for 3, 2 Runs, 1 RBI, 1 BB
M. Young: 3 for 4, 3B, 4 Runs, 1 RBI, 1 BB
Teixeira: 4 for 4, 2B, 2 Runs, 4 RBI
Lee: 2 for 5, 2B, 1 Run, 2 RBI
Cruz: 2 for 5, 2 Runs

[Molina00]

With teams like the Rangers and Angels you sure wouldn't have thought 3 games of a 4 game series would be pitcher's duels. It's still early but so far today's game is scoreless in the bottom of the 3rd.

[Molina00]

Bottom of the 3rd
Miguel Ojeda grounds out to shortstop.
Nelson Cruz singles to centerfield. Runner on 1st, 1 out.
Gary Matthews Jr. grounds out to firstbase, Cruz to 2nd. Runner on 2nd with 2 out.
Michael Young singles to centerfield. Cruz scores. Runner on 1st, 2 out, Rangers lead 1-0.
Mark Teixeira pops out in foul territory.

Inning over.
Rangers lead 1-0.

[Molina00]

Top of the 4th
Vicente Padilla gets Vlad Guerrero to ground out to short. Guerrero now 0 for 2 today.
Padilla strikes out Garrett Anderson for the 2nd out. Anderson is also 0 for 2 on the day.
Curtis Pride grounds out to 2nd base to end the inning.

Rangers lead 1-0
Vicente Padilla now has a 1-hitter going through 4 innings.

[Molina00]

Bottom of the 4th
Carlos Lee leads off the inning with a walk. Now 0 for 1 with a walk today.
Hank Blalock flies out to leftfield. Also 0 for 1 with a walk today.
Mark DeRosa singles to centerfield. Lee to 2nd. Runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out.
Ian Kinsler strikes out swinging for the 2nd out.
Miguel Ojeda doubles to centerfield. Lee and DeRosa score. Rangers lead 3-0. Runner on 2nd with 2 out.
Nelson Cruz is retired on the first pitch he sees to end the inning.

Rangers lead 3-0 after 4 innings.

[Molina00]

Six innings in the books now. The Rangers added 1 more run in th 5th thanks to a Mark Teixeira sac fly and now lead the Angels 4-0 going into the 7th inning. Padilla has allowed 4 hits, 1 walk, and struck out 3 in 6 innings and is still in their for the 7th.

[Molina00]

Top of the 7th
Pitching for Texas: Vicente Padilla (6 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 3 K)

Garrett Anderson leads off the inning with a double.
Curtis Pride walks. Runners on 1st and 2nd, no out.
Adam Kennedy singles to rightfield. Bases loaded, nobody out.

Pinch Hitter: Kendry Morales replaces Robb Quinlan

Kendry Morales strikes out looking for the first out.

Pinch Hitter: Juan Rivera replaces Jose Molina

Juan Rivera grounds into a double play to end the inning.

Rangers lead 4-0 going into the bottom of the 7th.