Sports
Chad Wilson, Sports Editor 469-517-1455 | chad.wilson@wninews.com
Monday, October 11, 2010 Waxahachie Daily Light 7
Photo by Clay Scarborough/Special to the Daily LIght
Ranger pitcher Tommy Hunter walks off the field after finishing an inning during Sunday’s 5-2 loss to Tampa. Hunter allowed three runs in five innings of work.
Homewrecked
Lee tabbed as Game 5 starter By ALEX RILEY
Daily Light sports writer
ARLINGTON – The day he left Seattle to join Texas, pitcher Cliff Lee talked about being in a pressure situation with the season on the line and being the guy to take the mound. Thanks to a two-game swing by Tampa over the weekend, Lee will get his wish. The 32-year-old lefty will make his second start of the series on Tuesday at Tropicana Field with the Rangers needing a win to advance to the American League Championship Series to face the Yankees. Pressure? What pressure? “We’re in the playoffs. It’s down to one game to decide whether we move on. At that point (in Seattle), this is exactly where I want to be in a situation like this,” Lee said. “I had no control over the choice or matter (of moving) but to end up here and end up in a 2-2 series, playing the last game, it’s win or go home at this point. This is playoff baseball at its best right here.” Lee opened the Division Series with a 5-1 victory of the Rays going seven innings with five hits allowed while striking out 10, a franchise postseason record. The question – can he do it again? Rangers manager Ron Washington seems to think so calling Lee “the guy.” A fitting title for a man hired with these type of moments in mind. “Down to one game, we’ve got Cliff going and we certainly feel good about it. We proved we can win there. This is what it’s about,
Rangers denied first home playoff win, series by Rays By ALEX RILEY
Daily Light sports writer
ARLINGTON – The champagne isn’t the only thing still on ice. Texas starting pitcher Tommy Hunter got pegged for three early runs by the Tampa bats, the Ranger bats never got on track and the end result was a 5-2 Sunday loss in Game 4 of the American League Division Series for homestanding Texas. The dream of winning the franchise’s first playoff series and its first playoff game at home was put on hold but for how long still remains up in the air. The Rangers travel to Tampa for the series deciding Game 5 on Tuesday with the winner moving on to the American League Championship Series. “It would have been nice to celebrate at home but right now we can’t do that,” second baseman Ian Kinsler said. “We need to focus on playing a good game in Tampa and if we have the opportunity to celebrate there it’s going to be a lot of fun.” After holding the Rays to just one run at home in the first two games of the series, the Rangers were reminded why the AL East champions won the title and were the No. 3 run scoring team in the American League during the regular season.
A 6-3 loss on Saturday came after Texas held a 2-1 lead with just four outs remaining in the series. An RBI single by Carlos Pena tied the game at 2-2 and would score on a John Jaso single two batters later to give Tampa a lead. Pena added a two-run home run in the top of the ninth to finalize the scoring in Game 3 and finish the game 2-for-3 with three RBI, two walks and a home run. On Sunday, Pena picked up right where he left off sending a 1-2 offering by Hunter to the wall for a triple in the second inning. Matt Joyce followed Pena with a high pop up into right field that landed in between Kinsler and right fielder Nelson Cruz. The error allowed Pena to score for a 1-0 Tampa lead. After Evan Longoria’s leadoff double to start the fourth, Pena doubled to tack on another run. In the process the first baseman batted for the cycle in his last four atbats. He would score three batters later on a B.J. Upton double, the third extra base hit of the inning for a 3-0 lead. From his strikeout of Upton to end the second inning to the final out of the fourth inning, Hunter posted a roller coaster line with six strikeouts, four hits and two runs allowed, all earned. Of those four hits, three were doubles. He would be pulled in favor of Derek Hol-
land before the start of the fifth. “I felt pretty good the entire time. I just left the ball up, left a first pitch more middle than it should have been and they took advantage of it,” Hunter said. The Rays would tack on two more runs thanks to a Longoria home run in the fifth for a 5-0 lead. That would be more than enough to easily claim the win, tie the series and earn a trip back home to play a winner-moves-on matchup. After hosting the largest crowd in stadium history on Saturday (51,746) and another sellout on Sunday (49,218) the Ranger fan base must now play the waiting game to see if they’ll get to celebrate a playoff win at home. The Rangers are hoping to oblige before it’s all over. “We obviously want to do it for them (the fans) and we want to do it for us. We knew coming into spring training how great of a chance we had to go to the postseason and deep into the postseason,” left fielder David Murphy said. “Obviously we made a statement the first two games, they played good baseball and shut us down a little bit the next two. It’s fun to go to a fifth game where the winner goes on and the loser goes home.” Contact Alex at alex.riley@ wninews.com or at 469-517-1456.
five games and we took it five,” Washington said. Lee’s teammates share Washington’s sentiment with the majority saying the dominating left-hander gives them a great chance to win. He’ll face off against Tampa ace David Price for the second time this series. Price, the AL starting pitcher in this year’s all-star game, is attempting to bounce back from that Game 1 start when he allowed nine hits and five runs in 6.2 innings. Calling on Lee might have been an option earlier if the Rangers had been able to spot some runs on the board during the last two home games. Lee said he was ready to go in the bullpen either of the two games at the Ballpark if his services had been needed. Now, they are needed more than ever as the team looks to extend its season while ending more than three decades of postseason futility. Not an easy task but Lee wouldn’t have it any other way. “For me it’s not a matter of being mentally focused or whatever, I’m always ready. It’s about competition and competing at the highest level,” Lee said. “I enjoy it and have fun with it. At this point in the year, I’m ready whenever they want to let me pitch.” Contact Alex at alex.riley@ wninews.com or at 469-517-1456.
Offense goes silent, searches for answers By ALEX RILEY
Daily Light sports writer
ARLINGTON – David Murphy probably had a dream of celebrating a long awaited win with the Ranger fans at the conclusion of Sunday’s game. By the time it was over, the dream was more like a nightmare. After scoring 11 combined runs for two convincing wins to start the American League Division Series, the Texas lineup has been stagnant at best. Game 4 capped that lackluster effort as the Rangers scored just two runs in a 5-2 loss to Tampa to tie the series one day after scoring just three in Game 3. The nightmare’s source – Rays starter Wade Davis. “I can’t speak for everybody else but today it felt like I was waking up in 0-2 counts,” Murphy said. “When you’re fighting back from 0-2 every single at-bat that makes it tough when the pitcher gets ahead. You’ve got to tip your cap when guys are getting ahead and hitting their spots.” Davis was far from hitting spots early as three of the Rangers’ first five batters reached base thanks to a single and two walks. He finally settled into some semblance of a groove by scattering two hits over the next three innings while striking out five. Benji Molina’s leadoff single to left field in the fifth was followed by two quick outs as Davis appeared to have dodged danger thanks to solid defense and hitting those spots. But when Michael Young got an infield hit and Josh Hamilton walked to bring up Vladimir Guerrero, the wheels appeared to be coming off. Instead, Davis retired the designated hitter on four pitches with a swinging strikeout to end the bases loaded threat. The Rangers would never threaten again. “I thought the kid today did a good job of mixing. I thought when he had to make pitch-
es he did and that’s what it’s all about. Good pitching stops hitting and he pitched good,” Rangers manager Ron Washington said. The hitting slump has stretched up and down the lineup card since returning home to Arlington. After powering past Cy Young candidate David Price and James Shields with 11 runs on 19 hits, the offense has gone silent in a hitter-friendly park. The Rangers have scored just five runs in the last 22 innings with three of those coming via solo home runs while leaving eight runners in scoring position. Second baseman Ian Kinsler cited the Rays’ defense and the inability to come through in the clutch as the two big factors that have hindered the team thus far. “We hit some balls hard, they made some nice plays,” Kinsler said. “We’ve had runners on base, we just weren’t able to really get anything going. That’s basically it. It’s nothing different than we’ve gone through before.” Meshed in with the team’s overall slump is the side story of MVP candidate Josh Hamilton who has been a non-factor since returning to the lineup. After sitting out the better part of the last month with a rib injury, the AL batting leader has struggled in the postseason with just two hits, two walks and one run scored in four games. Jokingly, Hamilton said he had 48 hours to figure out what his personal hitting problem is. The big hitting lefty says his rib injury is not affecting his swing. “I wish I could use that as an excuse but they’re not. I’ll figure it out,” Hamilton said. “That’s the whole thing that makes baseball fun. You have no clue what they’re throwing. You figure them out, they figure you out, then it goes back and forth.” Contact Alex at alex.riley@wninews.com or at 469-517-1456.
Photo by Clay Scarborough/Special to the Daily Light
Texas left fielder David Murphy watches as the bat flies out of his hand on a swinging third strike during Sunday’s loss to Tampa. After scoring 11 runs through the first two games, the Rangers had just five in the next two games. Sudoku Solution #1953-D
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