The Texas Rangers have strengthened their grasp on the top spot in the American League West with their 11th straight win. The Rangers even added some excitement to their streak by getting their 11th win, and a series sweep of the struggling Pittsburgh Pirates, with a walk-off victory.
The Rangers’ best batter, right fielder Vladimir Guerrero, hit a line drive two-out single in the bottom of the ninth innings which scored Elvis Andrus and gave the Rangers a final winning score of 6-5.
The 11 game winning streak seemed heavily in jeopardy to start the game. With Scott Feldman on the mound, the Rangers fell behind 4-0 in just a single innings, and were down 5-3 going into the seventh inninsg.
Rangers manager Ron Washington described the situation: "Falling behind four early is not easy. But they kept fighting and putting innings together. Tonight they did it."
Third baseman Michael Young also spoke regarding the narrow comeback. Young said: "We were slow coming out of the gate but we just kept after it and kept battling. wasn't a clean game. Feldman had a tough first innings, but he battled and gave us a chance. I just like the way we are playing. It has nothing to do with wins. We're working hard and playing hard and our lunch-pail mentality is starting to pay off."
The Rangers now have the longest winning streak in Major League Baseball and are hot on the heels of matching the franchise record winning streak of 14 games, achieved in 1991. Additionally, all 11 of the Rangers’ victories have come against National League teams. This makes it the third longest Interleague streak since Interleague play was adopted 14 years ago.
As the Rangers themselves have noticed, the streak is bringing out stellar performances from all of their key players. "We're playing really good baseball," second baseman Ian Kinsler said. "Our starters are battling their tails off, everybody is playing extremely well. You can't say enough about bullpen. When we're down in the game, they come in and give us a chance to come back. When we're up, they're putting games away.
"There was no panic with our team at any point in the ballgame. They scored four in the first but we knew we were able to score runs and were able to battle back. There was never a sense of a let down. We knew if we executed our game plan and played the game hard, we would have a chance to win."
While the bullpen deserves praise, last night’s victory may have been more the result of the dugout. Young and Josh Hamilton continued their impressive offensive production and were the catalysts behind the Rangers thrilling comeback.
Hamilton went 3-for-4 against the Pirates and hit two doubles. During the Rangers winning streak, Hamilton is batting .500 with 36 hits in 72 at-bats. His offensive production pre-dates the Rangers streak, and he is currently in the midst of an 18 game hitting streak.
As Washington succinctly put it: "The man is swinging the bat, that's all you can say."
Young brought the Rangers within one with his 45th career triple, with which he passes Ruben Sierra as the Rangers’ all-time leader. Young downplayed the personal achievement in lieu of focusing on his team. "It's pretty cool," Young said when asked about the record. "I played with Ruben Sierra. It means a lot, especially in tonight's game. It was kind of a momentum shifter. I was just trying to get Elvis over and caught a break."
The Rangers are now 4.5 games ahead of the Los Angeles Angels, but the Angels consistently strong play should make competition for the top-spot in the AL West an exciting competition.
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