Cleveland Indians @ Texas Rangers (June 2nd-5th)

[Molina00]

Game 1 Recap
After a 21 run affair against Oakland, it was another offensive bombardment in the series opener against Cleveland. Both teams combined for 22 runs on 31 hits including a Marlon Byrd grand slam, but the Indians came out ahead taking a 13-9 victory over Texas. It also marked the first time the Rangers lost multiple games in a row since dropping three straight from May 18th-20th.

Making his third start of the season for Texas, rookie Doug Mathis was hammered for 8 runs on 12 hits over 3.2 innings. The offense bailed him out of the loss though by scoring 5 runs in the 5th to tie the game at 8 and securing a no-decision for Mathis. The big blow in the 5th came off the bat of Marlon Byrd in the form of a grand slam, his 2nd homerun of the season. Josh Hamilton also pitched in with his 16th of year, a two run shot in the 3rd.

If anybody even remembers Michael Young, he notched 3 hits on the day and after the second game of the series is currently on pace for 198 hits this year. Not quite 200, but still well within range of reaching the mark once again.

[Molina00]

Game 2 Recap
The 2nd game was an offensive reversal of fortune for the Rangers. For the second straight game both teams combined for 31 hits, but this time the Rangers came out ahead in the runs catagory taking the 2nd game 12-7.

It was all about the homerun ball as the Rangers hammered Cleveland pitchers for 5 homeruns, a pair of solo shots by Milton Bradley, Josh Hamilton's 17th blast of the year, and solo shots by Saltamacchia and Murphy.

David Murphy finished the day going 4 for 4 with 3 runs scored and Bradley/Saltalamacchia combined to go 5 for 6 with 3 homeruns, 4 runs scored, 4 RBI, and 4 walks.

A.J. Murray made his 2nd start of the season going 2.1 innings allowing 1 run on 6 hits and striking out 3 Cleveland hitters. Frankie Francisco, the only Ranger pitcher to not allow an earned run, pitched 1.2 innings in relief of Murray to notch his first win of the season.

With yesterday's win the Rangers got back to the .500 mark, and will look to get above that tonight when they send Sidney Ponson to the mound on only three days rest.

[Molina00]

Game 3 Recap
The three days rest experiment with Ponson didn't go all that well. He struggled over the first two innings throwing a lot of pitches and giving up four runs, although only a couple of them were earned. In the end Ponson lasted 4 innings and allowed 6 runs on 8 hits. The Rangers defense was pretty sloppy early on though committing 3 errors resulting in only 2 of the 6 runs allowed being earned.

By comparison, reliever Elizardo Ramirez pitched much worse than Ponson. He pitched 2.2 innings in relief and gave up a whopping 9 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks giving him a season ERA of 30.38. By the time Ramirez was pulled the Rangers were down 15-6. Kam Loe came on and stopped the bleeding pitching 2.1 scoreless innings. The Rangers tried to mount a 9th inning rally scoring 3 runs but fell short as the Indians went on to win 15-9.

Josh Hamilton's streak of homering in four straight games was snapped, but Milton Bradley pitched in his 12th blast of the year, a 3rd inning two-run shot off Cliff Lee.

[Molina00]

Game 4 Recap
A day after falling a game below .500 the Rangers got back up to that mark in yesterday's game with a 9-4 win over C.C. Sabathia and the Indians to close out the series.

The Indians struck early scoring 4 runs against Kevin Millwood in the first inning, but Millwood then proceeded to shutdown the Indians offense for the next 5 innings. The bullpen was just as good finishing out the final 3 innings also holding Cleveland scoreless.

Trailing 4-0 after the first inning the Rangers scored a combined 4 runs over the 2nd and 3rd innings off Sabathia to tie the game at 4. Texas added one more run in the 6th, Milton Bradley hit his 13th homerun of the year in a 3 run 7th, and Mike Young homered in the 8th to give the Rangers a 9-4 lead and the eventual win. Millwood finished allowing 4 runs on 9 hits and striking out 6 over 6 innings to improve to 4-3 on the season.

With a 3 for 5 performance, Michael Young also extended his season high hitting streak to 21 games and is now on pace for 204 hits this year.

On 0 for 4 performance snapped Ian Kinsler's 19 game hit streak.