Matt Harrison came to the mound with a mission Sunday. After the lineup was shutout by former teammate Cliff Lee on Saturday, Harrison was fully aware there wasn’t any room for error.
The state of the bullpen doesn’t provide any peace f mind either.
Harrison’s answer was to throw 117 pitches over 8 1/3 innings to outduel former Astros ace Roy Oswalt. After losing two close games to Philadelphia on Friday and Saturday, the karma finally tilted the Rangers’ way. The Phillies hit some smashes right at people, and the Rangers outfielders ran down all the plays. (Nod to Craig Gentry, who will likely return to Triple-A after the anticipated activations of Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz for Monday’s game against the White Sox. The sputtering offense will also get a major boost with the return of the two All-Stars.
With the easy offensive firepower missing in action, the Rangers went to baseball fundamentals to score. Michael Young, the only guy in the order hitting consistently, led off the top of the sixth inning with a single. Adrian Beltre advanced him to second with a sacrifice groundout to the pitcher before Mitch Moreland doubled off the bottom of the wall to send him home for a 1-0 lead.
Beltre also doubled to start the second and Moreland allowed him to reach third on a groundout to the first baseman. Following a pitching change, Gentry came to the plate to face David Herndon. Gentry bunted at a pitch that was headed directly for him and thus executed the suicide squeeze to score the insurance run and did not get hit with the pitch.
Neftali Feliz recorded the two-out save, his first since the two blown saves in Chicago earlier this week.
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