Rangers lose in Cliff Lee’s shortest outing of the season
A poor game from Texas Rangers starter Cliff Lee and a good one from Minnesota Twins starter Francisco Liriano was enough to defeat the Rangers 6-4 Thursday night.
Working so deep into every game could finally be catching up to Cliff Lee. For the second start in a row Lee looked nothing like the ace that the Rangers thought they were getting when they got him from the Seattle Mariners in early July.
Lee lasted only five innings giving up seven hits and five earned runs while striking out five and walking one to earn his eighth loss of the season. It was the first time this season that he only lasted five innings; in his last start against the Baltimore Orioles he lasted two outs into the sixth inning before getting pulled.
He insisted that his struggles of late have nothing to do with working in the heat in Texas or arm fatigue from going as deep into games as often as he does. Even though, manager Ron Washington has not ruled out possibly giving Lee some extra rest in the near future.
“I haven’t been locating pitches as well as I expect myself to and they haven’t missed them,” Lee said. “It’s just been a handful of pitches and they happened to capitalize on them. I’ve got to do a better job of staying out of the heart of the plate. That’s really it.”
Lee has only won two games in ten starts for the Rangers, losing five of them. The Rangers have only won three games which Lee has started.
The Texas offense did not have much of an answer for Liriano. His combination of an off-speed pitch and fastball kept the Rangers offense off-balance enough to hold them to just five hits and two earned runs over seven innings.
Vladimir Guerrero got the Rangers back in the game with a two run home run off Twins reliever Matt Guerrier for his third home run in the last five games. Josh Hamilton was quiet on the night getting walked twice and striking out twice.
The loss dropped the Rangers to 72-55 on the season. With the Oakland Athletics losing to the Cleveland Indians their lead in the AL West remained at eight and a half games.
Tommy Hunter is scheduled to take the mound for the Rangers Friday night as the open a three game series with the Oakland Athletics; Brett Anderson is scheduled to pitch for the A’s.
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