Texas Rangers humiliate Tampa Bay Rays 11-5 - MLB Update
The Texas Rangers’ batting line-up shined as the club overpowered the League rivals Tampa Bay Rays 11-5 to win the three-game series opener at Tropicana Field on Monday, May 30.
The Rangers started positively to earn their third-straight win after defeating Kansas City Royals in two consecutive games. Left-fielder Josh Hamilton doubled to the deep right side of the field for an RBI single and Adrian Beltre scored the second RBI
single off the Rays’ starter Wade Davis in the first inning to achieve an early 2-0 lead.
After Davis threw a fast second inning, the Rangers’ Mike Napoli hammered a 416-feet three-run homer to left-field to elevate the lead 5-0. Then Eric Chavez blistered a 347-feet long home-run to take it 6-0, followed by Hamilton’s sacrifice fly to cement
the Rangers’ position at 7-0.
As Davis has given seven runs on twelve hits over just two innings, the Rays’ manager Joe Maddon replaced him with Brandon Gomes. The 26-year-old right-hand pitcher gave away a 423-feet long one-run homer to Mitch Moreland on his fourth pitch. He then gave
four hits but none of these scattered any run and he completed his two innings pitching in the fifth.
The Rays’ opened their account in the fourth inning with an RBI single by Matt Joyce but it could not open the Rays’ bat completely. The score went to 9-1 when Napoli launched his second homer of the game off the Rays’ reliever Andy Sonnanstine in the top
of the sixth inning.
The Rays strived hard to come-back in the game as Ben Zobrist launched a 406-feet long one-run homer and Justin Ruggiano blistered a three-run homer off the Rangers’ well going starter Derek Holland in the sixth inning to reduce the lead to 5-9.
After this hit, Holland handed the ball to reliever Mark Lowe up the middle of the sixth inning to avoid further runs. Lowe tossed 15 strikes of 23 pitches to complete the remaining inning while allowing just two hits, walked one and took one batter.
While reliever Darren Oliver threw scoreless seventh and eighth innings, Napoli scored another RBI single to lead off the eighth. Chavez added the 11th run with a bunt single to left-field off the Rays’ closer Juan Cruz.
Maddon was furious over the pitching depth and said, "We didn't play good. It was one of our less impressive games overall. But when you get off to that kind of a start pitching-wise, it really makes things little more difficult."
The Rays’ Joel Peralta, Cesar Ramos and Adam Russell did not give any run over their short spells. On the other hand, the Rangers’ closer Dave Bush gave one hit and struck-out one batter over one inning to confirm the Rangers another victory for the season.
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