Cliff Lee thumps the Rays out of the arena (Pt. 4)
The Texas Rangers had a hard task on their hands when they went up against the Tampa Bay Rays in the Tropicana Fields, in front of a crowd of 41,845 fans. The match was scheduled to be played on Tuesday and the day did not
face any compelling problems in terms of pitch worries. The home team had pushed the series into a deciding 5th game. The outcome was essential to go up against the New York Yankees in the American League Championship. For the visitors,
that task looked harder as they lost the previous two games against the hosts, in front of their own home crowd in the Rangers Ballpark.
The fixture was going to be the last chance the visiting Texans would get on repelling the hard bashing East side title holders, Rays. In addition to their inability to maintain a consistent result, there was the problem
concerning Josh Hamilton’s form on bat. The possible Most Valuable Player in the American League was facing a hard time in front of the pitchers. Ron Washington knew what the next game was going to bring on and with the title bid hanging in the balance, Cliff
Lee was given charge for the pitching duties in the 5th match on Tuesday.
The two sides were heading into the bottom 4th inning and Cliff Lee was going to face the Rays hitting faction. Prior to the inning, Nelson Cruz scored the 2nd run for the Texas
side to be the club 2 – 1 against the Rays in the match. Cliff had conceded a run against Sean Rodriguez and David Price lost the first run to Elvis Andrus in the game.
As the Rangers got back into the leading position with 2 runs on the board, Cliff Lee was firing up and his display in the bottom 4thproved that point as the veteran struck out all three; Carlos Pena, B.J. Upton
and Dan Johnson. David Price tried to emulate Master Lee’s performance and he was successful till the top 6th inning went into play for the game. Hamilton started the inning with a fly out to the right. Vladimir Guerrero missed the
fielder this time to make it the first base on a single to the centre. Nelson Cruz came on next and he made a point against the rivals with an infield single to the shortstop, moving Guerrero to the second. With the players set on the first bases, Ian Kinsler
walked on to face Price. The hitter wasted no time and grounded into fielder’s choice to first. The Rays made a terrible mistake in the process. While Price paid more attention to the call on Kinsler from the umpire, Vladimir made the hosts suffer with a scoring
run at the last base.
The damage had been done and if the first lapse in fielding during Elvis Andrus’ scoring run didn’t add to the insult, this surely did as the team descended into chaos.
No runs were further scored and it wasn’t till the top 9th that the Texans were leading the game with a 3 – 1 score line. Kinsler had made an unintended effect on the game and in the 9th inning
he imposed more hurt on the home team. Nelson Cruz was sitting on first base in the 9th inning when Ian came in smashed a stellar and thunderous 392 feet homer to the left. That shot led the Rangers to a score line of 5 – 1 and ended
Joe Maddon’s any hope of getting a dream like win in front of a strong crowd in the stands.
The Rangers had done something they were not looking like doing in a long while. They qualified for the American League Championship and rekindled their flame against the New York Yankees who they will face in the next round.
With a great win in the post season, there is much to be seen and expected when the two goliaths face off against each other in the bid for the World Series title.
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