Friday, August 29, 2008

LA Angels 7, Texas Rangers 5

By Pegasus News wire

The Texas Rangers fell back to earth Thursday night, losing 7-5 to the Angels in California. Texas was just coming off a sweep of the pathetic Royals, but could not maintain their big lead late against the AL-leading Angels, and dropped to 66-69 on the season.

Photo not provided by the Texas Rangers

The Rangers' collapse in the eighth should come as no surprise to their long-suffering fans

Texas was ahead for almost the entire game, benefiting from a four-run first inning, and were up 5-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth. That's when troubled middle reliever Jamey Wright suddenly became incapable of getting a single out, and between Wright and Warner Madrigal, the Rangers bullpen gave up five runs off five hits and a pair of walks, while striking out none.

Texas actually wasted a terrific effort by starter Brandon McCarthy, who just recently came off the 60-day disabled list last week. McCarthy, pitching just his second game, gave up two runs --only one of them earned-- over six solid innings of work. McCarthy now easily leads the Rangers staff in ERA with a decidedly non-Rangers-like 1.80 ERA, having given up just two earned runs over ten innings, but neither outing has resulted in a win for the Rangers.

The Rangers' big first inning was primarily due to a three-run blast by Milton Bradley, followed by a Chris Davis RBI double that drove in Marlon Byrd. Davis later added to his impressive offensive numbers with a solo shot in the top of the fourth, but that was all the scoring Texas was able to muster against one of the league's top pitching staffs. Davis was the only Ranger with more than one hit in the game.

Angels reliever Francisco Rodriguez closed out the game for his 51st save of the season, just six shy of Bobby Thigpen's record set in 1990. Thursday's game was also one of the three using the controversial instant replay on home runs, but all three hit were not questionable.

Posted by Todd M.

See more stories in:

• Baseball > MLB > Rangers