Cleveland @ Texas preview
Choctaw Stadium
Last Meeting ( Jul 6, 2010 ) Cleveland 1, Texas 12
Baseball took a back seat to the Texas Rangers-Cleveland Indians game on Tuesday night.
Instead of home runs and strikeouts, the story of the game was a male spectator falling an estimated 30 feet from the club level to the field level in the fifth inning after he lost his balance trying to catch a foul ball.
The man, described as a middle-aged white male, was transported to a Fort Worth hospital, and his injuries were not immediately known. The Rangers did not release his name, but said he had movement in all of his extremities and was responsive to paramedics.
After a 16-minute delay, the game resumed and the Rangers went on to rout the Indians 12-1.
The teams will close their three-game series on Wednesday night. Texas will send right-hander Colby Lewis to the hill while the Indians will counter with right-hander Mitch Talbot.
Eleven years after taking the hard-throwing Lewis in the 1999 draft, the Rangers gave him a two-year, $5 million contract this past offseason. Lewis was coming off an impressive two-year stint playing overseas in Japan.
And, so far in the first half of the season, Lewis has paid off for the Rangers. He was pushed back two days for his last start against the Chicago White Sox on Friday and ended up with a no-decision. He went six innings, allowing three runs on eight hits with two walks and three strikeouts.
In June, Lewis went 3-2 with a 3.06 ERA in five starts. When he faced the Indians back on April 14, Lewis earned the victory by going 5 1/3 innings and allowing two runs on three hits with four walks and 10 strikeouts.
Offensively, the Rangers had a strong showing, scoring 12 runs on 17 hits Tuesday. Josh Hamilton extended his home hitting streak to 26 games with a solo home run in the second inning. Nelson Cruz, Vladimir Guerrero and David Murphy also had home runs.
The Rangers will try to keep their offense going against Talbot.
In his last start, Talbot suffered a 3-0 loss to the Oakland A’s. He went 5 1/3 innings, allowing three runs - two earned - on five hits with four walks and five strikeouts.
In his start prior to that, a June 27 outing against the Cincinnati Reds, Talbot went seven innings, allowing one run on three hits with three walks and five strikeouts.
Talbot has had one of the better seasons so far among American League rookies. He has the most wins (8), innings pitched (102 2/3) and lowest ERA (3.86).
Talbot, who has never faced the Rangers, earned his first big league victory on April 16, going the distance in the Indians 6-2 victory over the White Sox.
Offensively, the Indians managed only one run on Tuesday, a solo homer from Jayson Nix in the first inning. It was Nix’s third home run of the series.