Indians-Rangers : Texas Win Ends the Four-Game Series with a Split

The wild four game slug-fest between the Indians, the Rangers, and Mother Nature ended Thursday night with a Ranger win, Mother Nature showing numerous hot dog wrappers who’s the boss, and a series split. The Rangers took the last game 9-4.

In a game plagued by garbage literally blowing all over the field, C.C. Sabathia and Kevin Millwood did what no other starting pitchers could do. They both held the game to fairly low numbers—although right out of the gate, it didn’t appear it would be that way for Millwood.

The Tribe ripped off four runs in the first.  Grady Sizemore doubled, starting the game with a bang.  Ben Francisco struck out, but Victor Martinez singled to score Sizemore.  Garko singled, putting runners on first and second, then Jhonny Peralta doubled to score Martinez.  David Dellucci doubled scoring Martinez and Peralta.

It was a great start—to what looked like another crazy slug-fest of a game.

The bottom of the second dealt Sabathia a bit of bad luck.  He hit Milton Bradley with a pitch, leading off the inning.  Murphy singled, and Byrd grounded into a double play.  With Bradley on third, it looked like Sabathia might squeak out of the inning unscathed—but no.

Sabathia laked Laird, Shelton hit a dribbler to third, Casey Blake fielded and threw to first—just missing Shelton—and Bradley scored.  Vasquez singled scoring Laird from second, and right fielder Shin-Soo Choo let the ball travel right under his glove.  Having a long run to chase it down, Shelton scored all the way from first, and Cleveland’s lead was down to one at 4-3.

The Rangers scored again in the third on a Young double and a Bradley single, knotting the score at 4-4.  After a horrible first inning, clean-shaven Kevin Millwood just kept mowing down the Indians.

In the sixth, the Rangers took the lead for good.  They played a bit of small ball, getting this run on a double, a sacrifice bunt, and an infield single.

At this point, the home run was remarkably absent from both teams' stat lines. But that was rectified by Texas in the seventh, and again in the bottom of the eighth.  They added another run in the seventh after a triple and a single.  The triple was another common reccurrence in this series.

The Indians ended up with four runs on nine hits.  The Rangers had nine runs on twelve hits.  C.C. Sabathia took the loss, going six innings and giving up five runs.  Rafael Betancourt was tagged for three runs on two hits in two-thirds of an inning—another poor outing for him.  Mutica closed out the pitching for the Indians, going one and a third and giving up one run.

Kevin Millwood earned the victory, also going six.  Four other pitchers took to the hill for Texas, with Guardado and Francisco earning holds. 

David Dellucci and Ryan Garko had two hits apiece, accounting for almost half of the offense.  Francisco leads all Indians hitters with a .330 average. 

The Indians close out their road trip with a four-game series against the Detroit Tigers.  This is an important series for both clubs.  The Indians are third in the AL Central, and three games up on the Tigers.  Detroit is riding a three-game losing streak.

Michael Young extended his league-leading 21 game hitting streak, while Ian Kinsler's 18 game hitting streak was snapped. 

Friday’s 7:05 start time pits Paul Byrd against Justin Verlander.