Dampened CJ Wilson earns his first win as Texas Rangers beat Seattle Mariners
C. J. Wilson finally picked up his first victory of the season and it was a memorable one to say the least.
The Texas Rangers’ ace went up against the Seattle Mariners in his second game of the 2011 Major League Baseball campaign. What made the contest special was the fact that the hurler went up against the 2010 Cy Young award winning pitcher, Feliz Hernandez.
Both players were going to enter Arlington under strange conditions. The Rangers have been hitting well and the Boston Red Sox knew all too well, as they were handed a series clean sweep defeat.
With Nelson Cruz on four home runs from five games and two victories over the Mariners so far, the third game was poised to heat the competition up.
The Rangers Ballpark favoured the 2010 American League Champions and Wilson used that to his advantage as he outpitched Hernandez, to pick up the all important win.
He was, however, low on energy. He told the reporters that he was not up to the mark for the game but was glad to pick up the win anyways.
"I didn't have any energy today", Wilson said. "I feel like I'm a little slow. The only thing I had exceptional was my sinker, at times, because the wind was blowing into me, so it was moving more. Other than that, it was very below-average stuff, I thought.
I was going in there not even thinking about the hitters, I was just trying to get the ball in there".
While Hernandez availed a loss with an earning runs average (ERA) of 2.25, Wilson picked up the win with a 2.84 earning runs average. He earned two runs and six hits in the game.
"I thought he matched [Hernandez] pitch for pitch", Rangers manager, Ron Washington, said. "He held his composure and got us through seven innings".
Washington further explained that the team was eventually able to come back into the game and get some runs for the winner. He went on to declare that this victory was, in fact, a deserving one for Wilson.
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