Rangers-Rays: Texas Wins 6-3 To Avoid Three-Game Sweep

Sunday afternoon the Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays locked horns for the final game of a three-game series, with the Rangers trying to avoid being swept.

The Rangers, recent off parting ways with Sidney Ponson, received more bad news before today's game.

Two-time AL Player of the Month Josh Hamilton was scratched with a viral infection. With the scheduled day off tomorrow, Hamilton expects to return to the lineup for the Rangers three-game series in Kansas City.

Michael Young, currently with a major league leading 22-game hitting streak, also sat out today's game, still nursing his hairline fracture on his left ring finger and sore groin suffered in yesterday's game. 

Young played Saturday with his fractured finger and said that it didn't bother him. Young expects to return to the lineup for Tuesday's game as well.

The Rangers' final problem was facing Ray starter Matt Garza, who a couple of weeks ago shut Texas down for eight innings.

However, today would be different.

In the first inning, David Murphy (pictured above), batting third in place of the injured Hamilton, laced his eighth home run of the season.

After threatening with runners in scoring position in the next two innings, newly promoted German Duran parked his second home run of the season, plating Ramon Vazquez for a 3-0 lead.

In the fifth inning, catcher Gerald Laird singled in Milton Bradley off Rays reliever Jason Hammel. 

Tampa Bay would quickly cut the four-run deficit in half with a two-run homer from B.J. Upton, his fifth of the season, forcing Ranger starter Doug Mathis from the game.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, after Bradley stole his second base of the game, Marlon Byrd singled him in to extend the Ranger lead to 5-2.

The Rangers would add-on their sixth and final run of the game when Vazquez lead off the eighth connected on his third home run of the season.

A Jason Bartlett sacrifice fly in the ninth scored  Willy Aybar, but closer C.J. Wilson was able to strikeout Carl Crawford, the potential tying run, and close out the Ranger victory.

With the win, Texas brought their record back within one game of .500 at 32-33, and Tampa Bay dropped back to 37-26, 1.5 games behind the AL East leading Boston Red Sox.

Tampa Bay starting pitcher Garza and catcher Dioner Navarro, after Murphy's solo home run in the first inning, seemed to have a heated discussion about pitch location/selection.  At the end of the inning, the discussion turned much more heated, and both players had to be pulled apart in the dugout.

The Rays boiling point seemed to spill over again in the sixth inning, when Eric Hinske was ejected for arguing a called third strike with home plate umpire, James Hoye.

Milton Bradley, now with an AL leading .340 batting average, went 1-for-2 with three walks and scored twice. 

Ranger starter Mathis was unable to record a quality start, but he still got his second career win, going 5.1 innings and allowing only two runs (on the Upton two-run homer).

Tampa Bay heads out to Los Angeles for a three-game series against the Angels, while the Rangers will enjoy an off-day before playing the Royals in Kansas City.