Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Texas Rangers 6, Toronto Blue Jays 4
ARLINGTON — The Texas Rangers helped their playoff chances tremendously Wednesday night, defeating the Toronto Blue Jays 6-4 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The win, their third straight, improved Texas to 75-58 on the season.
Photo not provided by the Toronto Blue Jays, Texas Rangers
The Blue Jays pitching staff, pictured, had no answer for Texas' hitters.
With both the Boston Red Sox and LA Angels losing, Texas gained valuable ground in both of their playoff chases. The Rangers are now just 3 1/2 games behind the Angels for first place in the AL West, and 2 1/2 behind Boston for the wild card.
Rangers rookie starter Tommy Hunter was on his game against the Canadian menace, surrendering four runs on five hits over seven innings. Hunter improved to 7-3 but saw his ERA skyrocket to 3.14, the highest its been all season. Frank Francisco pitched a scoreless ninth for his 22nd save and third in the past two days.
Down 3-1 in the fourth, Texas battled back but may have lost center fielder Josh Hamilton as a result. Hamilton, who re-injured his back on the fake turf in Minnesota, left the game with back problems halfway through. The Rangers were already without Michael Young for the next two weeks.
In the bottom of the fifth, Young's replacement in the order, Elvis Andrus, hit a two-run home run to tie the game at 4-all, and Nelson Cruz his his 30th home run of the season the next inning to put the Rangers ahead for good.
Posted by Todd M.
