Despite striking out three times, Nelson Cruz still added to his American League-leading home run and RBI totals. With his long ball in the third inning off losing pitcher Justin Masterson, Cruz now has six home runs in eight games.
Cruz’s homer helped the Rangers jump out to a 4-0 lead after three innings. The Rangers, who outhit the Indians 9-1 after four innings, finished with 15 hits to the Indians’ 5. Colby Lewis went to the mound a day early as C.J. Wilson tries to recover from a sudden case of food poisoning. According to the TV broadcast, Wilson said he lost seven pounds during the illness. Tuesday’s off-day allowed Lewis to pitch on the normal amount of rest.
To start the scoring, leadoff man Julio Borbon got to second base with nobody out. Josh Hamilton’s RBI double scored Borbon before the duo of Vladimir Guerrero and Cruz swung at three strikes each.
The top of the inning went much smoother than Lewis’ 37-pitch adventure for the bottom half. Full counts were common throughout the night. A 10-pitch at-bat with Grady Sizemore turned into a walk rather than an out, and the same held true for a drawn-out Shin-Soo Coo at-bat. Travis Hafner absorbed a ball to his body to take his base. But bearing down, Lewis recorded consecutive strikeouts, the first two of his career-high 10 punchouts in 5 1/3 innings, to wipe out the bases loaded threat. Lewis tallied two strikeouts in each of the first four innings, one in the fifth and one in the sixth.
In the second, Chris Davis smashed a ball to left center for a two-bagger. Matt Treanor and Joaquin Arias failed to advance him, but with two outs, Elvis Andrus delivered an RBI to make the score 2-0. Prior to Cruz’s blast, Young reached on an error and Hamilton singled for his second of three hits on the night. Guerrero grounded out for an RBI, and Cruz immediately put his stamp on the game.
A single by Matt LaPorta, walk by Luis Valbuena and a Michael Brantley double just beyond the reach of Chris Davis resulted in two Indian runs in the sixth. That was all the offense the Indians could muster, despite leaving a dozen men on base. Cruz robbed Valbuena in the eighth of an extra-base hit with a well-timed jump and catch.
The Rangers have now won three in a row and go for a fourth at 11:05 a.m. Thursday morning. Matt Harrison will likely start, while Wilson will be pushed back to this weekend against the Yankees.
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