Pittsburgh @ Texas preview
Choctaw Stadium
Last Meeting ( Jun 22, 2010 ) Pittsburgh 3, Texas 6
With more than a week left in the month, Josh Hamilton has virtually secured player of the month honors for June.
He is on a 17-game hitting streak and is hitting .485 with six doubles, eight home runs and 24 RBIs during that stretch.
Hamilton had a solo home run on Tuesday night, his sixth homer in the past 12 games, and will look to continue that red-hot streak when the Rangers host the Pittsburgh Pirates for Game 2 of a three-game series on Wednesday night.
Texas sends right-hander Dustin Nippert to the hill while Pittsburgh will counter with left-hander Paul Maholm.
But the story is the Rangers’ nine-game winning streak, fueled in large part by Hamilton and an offensive outburst in which the team has scored at least five runs in its past six games.
In June, Hamilton is hitting .476 with eight home runs, seven doubles, 26 RBIs and 21 runs scored.
The Rangers activated Nelson Cruz on Tuesday night and he came through with a sacrifice fly. And, after a slow start to the season, Julio Borbon is heating up. Borbon had a three-run home run Tuesday night, giving the Rangers a lead they wouldn’t surrender.
Pitching-wise, the Rangers seem to know where Neftali Feliz will be for the foreseeable future. There were some questions as to whether Feliz would start or come out of the bullpen, but he has turned into a dominant closer.
Feliz saved his 20th game of the season on Tuesday, which ties him for second most by a rookie prior to the end of June in baseball history. Former Royals closer Mike MacDougal had 20 in 2003 and Boston’s Jonathan Papelbon had 24 saves before the end of June in 2006.
The Rangers hope Nippert, who started against the Pirates back in 2005, can get Feliz the ball tonight. Nippert, who is in the rotation in place of Rich Harden, is making his second start of the season.
He went three innings, allowing three runs on seven hits with a walk and four strikeouts, in his first start of the season against Florida on Wednesday.
The Pirates, meanwhile, are looking for Maholm to build off his last start. Despite giving up four runs, Maholm threw six scoreless innings before running into trouble in the seventh inning.
Maholm has never faced the Rangers in his career.
Offensively, Pittsburgh's lone bright spot Tuesday came in the first inning, when Garrett Jones extended his hitting streak to 12 games with an RBI single.
Outside of that, the Pirates face the harsh reality of an 11-game road losing streak and a 2-8 record in interleague games.