Texas wins a close one with a big 11th inning

The Texas Rangers defeated the Detroit Tigers by the score of 7-3 on Wednesday night. The final score isn’t an indicator of how good of a game it was. The game was tied in the eleventh inning when Texas scored four runs and then held on for the win. Matt Harrison and Rick Porcello started and were both good. Alexi Ogando blew a save for the Rangers and Jose Valverde took the loss for the Tigers.
Harrison started for the Rangers and he pitched five innings giving up three hits and two runs. He walked two and struck out three. Ogando pitched two innings and blew the save. Ogando gave up a hit, run and a walk with two strikeouts. Mike Adams gave up a hit and a walk in one inning, Darren Oliver pitched a perfect inning and Scott Feldman picked up the win pitching a perfect inning with a strikeout. Neftali Feliz pitched a perfect inning. Porcello started for the Tigers and he pitched 6 2/3 innings giving up eight hits and three runs with two of them being earned. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out six. Al Alburquerque pitched 1/3 of an inning and walked a batter, Joaquim Benoit pitched two innings walking one and striking out two. Valverde took the loss pitching 1 1/3 innings giving up three hits and four runs with a walk and two strikeouts. Phil Coke faced two batters and retired them both.

The Texas offense was led by David Murphy and Mike Napoli and the big blow was from the bat of Nelson Cruz once again. Murphy had three hits, Napoli had two hits and an RBI and Cruz had a hit, three RBI and a walk. Ian Kinsler had a hit, RBI and a walk, Elvis Andrus had a hit and an RBI and Josh Hamilton had a hit. Michael Young had a hit and an RBI, Adrian Beltre had a walk and Yorveat Torrealba had a hit. Murphy, Kinsler and Hamilton each had a double. Cruz hit a homerun, the Rangers were 4-9 with runners in scoring position and left five men on base. Kinsler had a stolen base and Cruz was caught stealing. Cruz had an outfield assist.

Austin Jackson drew a walk, Ryan Raburn had a hit and Miguel Cabrera had a hit, two RBI and three walks. Victor Martinez had a hit, Brandon Inge had two hits and an RBI. Cabrera had a double, Inge had a homerun. The Tigers were 1-3 with runners in scoring position and they left five men on base. Jackson was caught stealing and Porcello made an error.

In the third inning Cabrera hit a two run double to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead. In the sixth inning Kinsler hit an RBI double, Andrus hit an RBI single and Young had an RBI single to give Texas a 3-2 lead. In the seventh inning Inge hit a solo homerun to tie the game at three. In the eleventh inning Napoli hit an RBI single and Cruz hit a three run homerun to give Texas a 7-3 lead which they would hold onto for the victory.

The final score once again said 7-3 like the other night but the game was another great game. It was close and then in the end Texas broke out, just like the other night. You really need to watch these games to get a feel for it and see how good they have been. It has been an amazing postseason for baseball and even though Texas is one win away from the World Series this has been a good series. The Rangers lead the best of seven series three games to one and Game Five will be on Thursday afternoon at 3:19PM. If the Tigers win and stave off elimination there will be an off day on Friday and the series will resume back in Texas on Saturday. The Rangers got their first outfield assist in postseason history. The Texas manager walked Miguel Cabrera intentionally which will be talked about. Cabrera took out the catcher Napoli on the play but he was out anyway as Napoli held onto the ball. The pitching matchup on Thursday will be C.J. Wilson vs. Justin Verlander. Game Four was delayed by over two hours due to rain.

Yanks in Minnesota

The New York Yankees had a workout today in Minnesota and were a happy group as you can expect after last nights thrilling victory. The Yankees will take on their former teammate if you can call him that tomorrow. I am sure they will really want to stick it to Carl Pavano and will be looking to hit him all over the ballpark. Andy Pettite will look to close out the series and send the Yankees back to NY to await the start of the ALCS. The big topic today was still the umpire missing that call down the line on Joe Mauers double that he called foul. A lot of talk has been about maybe instituting replay for other things. I am against replay, it is ok with the homeruns but this is baseball and the human element has always been a part of the game. I don't want to ruin the flow of the game by having too many replays. There really wasn't any news today from the workout, a lot of reporters were talking to A-rod and he continued to praise his teammates. A scary thing to think about though is a relaxed A-rod as he could carry the Yankees all through the postseason, he is that good. I don't know how if A-rod is hitting in the clutch and A.J. Burnett is pitching well the Yankees could lose but this is baseball and we will see what happens. If the Yankees do win they will have homefield advantage once again and open up the ALCS at the stadium next friday. The Yankees and Angels can both move on tomorrow and that would be strange having the whole week off before resuming play.