Texas Rangers 10, Cleveland Indians 5

by PegNews wire

The Texas Rangers completed another doubleheader sweep Tuesday night, defeating the Cleveland Indians 10-5 in Cleveland. The wins snapped a two-game losing streak to lowly Baltimore, and improved Texas to 78-60.

With the wins, Texas gained some ground in their playoff races. The Rangers are now just two games behind the Boston Red Sox in the wild card race, and four and a half games behind the LA Angels for first place in the AL West.

Rangers starter Brandon McCarthy, in his second start since coming off the disabled list, was excellent at first but seemed to wear down quickly. McCarthy did not give up a hit until the fourth, but gave up five runs over the next three innings to make the game appear competitive. McCarthy ended up allowing five runs on five hits over six-plus innings, improving to 7-2 on the season.

The Rangers lineup, shut out two days ago, had no problems getting on base against the Indians. The team collected 18 hits and struck out just six times, with Chris Davis leading the charge. Davis went 3-for-4 with two runs scored, four RBI and a critical three-run home run in the top of the ninth to put the game out of reach.

Marlon Byrd set a franchise record with seven hits in the doubleheaders, as he followed a 4-for-4 performance in the first game with a 3-for-5 showing in the second. Ian Kinsler also had three hits in the leadoff spot, while Nelson Cruz, Taylor Teagarden and David Murphy all had multi-hit games themselves.

Posted by Todd M.