C. J. Wilson pitches eight scoreless innings as Texas Rangers defeat Oakland Athletics 8-1
The Texas Rangers were on top of their game on Sunday, September 11 when they beat the Oakland Athletics 8-1 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The game was played on a day that marked a decade since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New
York. C. J. Wilson went on to the mound to work out eight scoreless innings against the A’s.
Oakland’s hurler, Josh Outman, took the pitching duties for the club and went up against Wilson. He however was ineffective as the Rangers punished him with four runs off eight hits in his 4.2 innings of pitching. Wilson was more than compelling on the other
side as he pitched five innings, striking out 11 hitters and picking up a scoreless stint.
Oakland was quiet till the late ninth inning as the Rangers brought on Koji Uehara in place of Wilson. The damage however was done and the A’s lost the series in a three-game sweep. The Oakland hurler summed the situation well when he was available in the
press conference after the game.
"Right now, we're playing for pride and we're playing to spoil something, so going out and getting it handed to us like that was disappointing," said Outman.
For the Texas ace, things are falling well into place.
"My mechanics are locked in a little bit," Wilson said. "It's just coming together. I feel like all the preparation and conditioning is paying off. I still feel good. The scoreboard was reading 94 [degrees], but I didn't think it was that hot. It felt great
to go out there today."
The Rangers kicked off their scoring bid in the fifth inning through Craig Gentry. The centre-fielder ran home from third base when Ian Kinsler drew a single line drive towards right-field. Kinsler later scored as Josh Hamilton came in to pop a sacrifice
fly.
The score went to 4-0 in favour of the Rangers when Adrian Beltre walked in to smash an eye-popping homer to left-field. The play got Michael Young home as well. The two-run homer was the first of two from Beltre.
He would smash his second in the bottom of the seventh to bring his career tally of homers to 300. Gentry pulled a shot to the centre in the same inning to allow Mike Napoli to run home for the sixth run. Gentry also scored again when Elvis Andrus pulled
off an RBI single.
The Rangers scored their eighth and last run in the bottom of the eighth when Esteban German ran home from a Matt Treanor sacrifice fly.
The A’s responded with an Eric Sogard homer in the ninth, but it was pointless as the club fell far behind in the chase.
Texas manager Ron Washington was happy with Beltre, who smashed two homers.
"He's a pro, 13 years at it. The good thing about it is when he first came back, he saw pitches. He didn't come in and just start hacking."
The Rangers managed to put in a tremendous performance as they beat the Athletics in convincing fashion.
With the Rangers winning, their lead in the American League West is on 3.5 games. The Oakland club is out of the post season race, though. The only team in contention now is the Los Angeles Angels.
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