Cleveland Indians defeat Texas Rangers 12-6 – MLB Update
The Cleveland Indians put in a remarkable performance as they defeated the Texas Rangers 12-6 in their Cactus League game at the Goodyear Ballpark in Arizona on Friday, March 18.
This fourth successive loss has moved the Rangers to a 9-11 record while the Indians made their eighth victory in spring.
Rangers’ starter Matt Harrison faced some problems in pitching and consumed four runs including four earned runs in four innings. He also allowed one homer posted by short-stop Asdrubal Cabrera, who added two runs on two hits and scored three RBIs in three
at-bats span. Despite knowing his problem, Harrison made two wild pitches.
“It took me until the fourth inning to find a proper release point,” Harrison said. “I threw 88 pitches, way too many. I've just got to forget about this outing and move on.”
Harrison, competing for a rotation spot in club, was not the only one to have a bad day, as Cody Eppley consumed three runs on two hits and Mark Lowe permitted valuable four runs in just one inning. However, he managed one strike-out, but it did not have
a considerable impact on the game. The only successful hurler in the Rangers was Darren Oliver who tossed a hitless inning and struck-out one batter.
Indians’ pitcher Carlos Carrasco proved expensive as he consumed five of six total runs scored by the Rangers. He pitched just over four innings allowing seven hits including two homers posted one each by short-stop Elvis Andrus and centre-fielder David
Murphy who earned three-runs on his solo grand slam.
Shin-Soo Choo coming back to the plate, after having a jolt on the helmet by one of Harrison’s pitches in the eighth inning and tripled on a fly ball to centre-fielder Murphy. Rangers made their sixth run in the eighth inning when Chad Tracy singled on a
line drive to left-fielder Chad Huffman.
Indians were moving to their best performance of the spring, as their injured out-fielder Grady Sizemore practiced sliding for the first time in a work out after coming from arthroscopic surgery. The manager had said earlier this week that Sizemore is likely
to come back in the camp on Sunday’s game against his former club the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Cleveland managed to put in a good effort as they contained the Rangers’ offence from scoring off their pitching line-up. The Rangers will be looking to improve their performance and get their rotation finalised before the regular season, so that they can
become more competitive. It will be interesting to see how the Indians’ carry their momentum into their next match-up and gain some more confidence before the regular season begins.
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