Rangers move into first in AL West with win over Astros
The numbers associated with the Texas Rangers ascension to the top spot in the American League West are pretty mind boggling.
Tuesday night's 6-5 walk-off win over Houston pushed the Rangers half game ahead of Houston in the West.
It also triggered stats like Texas becoming just the sixth club since 1969 to take sole possession of the division lead for the first time in Game 144 or later. Pretty historic stuff indeed for a team that was eight games out of first place last month, but the Rangers are getting worked up about the recent hot streak.
They know a half-game lead on Sept. 15 doesn't mean much if they can't close the deal next month.
"We haven't looked at us being in first or wherever we're at right now," said first baseman Mitch Moreland, whose sacrifice fly in the ninth gave Texas the walk-off win and moved them 10 games over .500 for the first time this year. "We're not done. We've still got a couple of weeks in the regular season and we're going to keep focusing on each game one game at a time and keep playing good baseball."
The Rangers didn't play good baseball all the way through their Silver Boot-clinching win Tuesday, but they played it at the right time.
A 4-0 lead after the first inning evaporated as left-hander Derek Holland struggled with his command. The game was tied at five after four innings and both teams missed several scoring opportunities over the next four frames.
That changed for Texas in the ninth though. The suddenly hit Prince Fieler, who had three hits and was on base four times, singled to open the inning. Adrian Beltre followed with a single to left off Will Harris to move pinch runner Drew Stubbs over to third.
All that was left for Moreland to do was finish things, which he did by lining a 1-0 pitch to shallow center. The throw by Colby Rasmus never had a chance, sending the first-place Rangers to first base to mob Moreland.
"It feels good, but we can't really enjoy it too long," said Fielder, who has scored five times in the first two games of the series. "It's just the thing, we're taking it one game at a time and tomorrow's another game and we'll see what happens. We're just playing good baseball."
Good enough to get left-hander Derek Holland off the hook.
The Rangers pounced on Houston starter Collin McHugh for four runs in the first inning, which given the way Holland had pitched recently would have seemed like plenty.
But Holland, who was moved up to make the start, struggled throughout his start.
Houston got three of the runs back against him in the second and then took a 5-4 lead in the fourth on a two-run single from Jake Marisnick.
Luckily for Holland, the Texas offense got him off the hook in the bottom of the inning Beltre's RBI double.
"I couldn't get in a rhythm," Holland said. "My fastball was very erratic. Different have a good tempo or have anything going the way I wanted it to. I have to do a better job than that. I'm really upset with myself. But at the same time, not having your best stuff and still competing as well as I could and let my defense make the plays and keep us in the game and we ended up on top."
While Holland struggled, he did make it through 5 2/3 innings to bridge the gap to the back end of the Texas bullpen. They got the job done as Houston had 10 hits off Holland but none against the four Texas relievers that followed him.
That gave Texas enough time to muster some first-place magic.
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