Boston @ Texas preview
Choctaw Stadium
Last Meeting ( Aug 13, 2010 ) Boston 9, Texas 10
Need further proof that these are not your father’s Texas Rangers. Witness Friday’s series opener against the Boston Red Sox.
Staring at a six-run deficit after just 3 1/2 innings and getting buried under a hail of Boston home runs, the Rangers dusted themselves off and clawed back to tie the game and force extra innings.
Nelson Cruz then supplied the requisite dramatic ending, unloading on a Tim Wakefield knuckleball to lead off the 11th inning and give Texas an exhilarating 10-9 win over the shell-shocked Red Sox.
Despite hitting five homers, Boston suffered back-to-back walk-off losses for the first time since 2004.
Mind you, this was a Rangers club that was coming off a gut-wrenching loss to the New York Yankees in which the bullpen coughed up a five-run lead.
Also, with a game-time temperature of 99 degrees coupled with the fact that Texas entered the night with a healthy 7 1/2-game cushion atop the AL West standings, it would have been understandable for the Rangers to go into the fetal position after the Red Sox drilled three consecutive homers to build an 8-2 lead in the top of fourth.
Normally, such a lead is a lock for Boston with Josh Beckett on the mound. But to the chagrin of the Red Sox brass, this is not the ace pitcher that the franchise lavished a four-year, $68 million extension upon in April.
Instead, Beckett was treated like a batting practice pitcher for the second straight outing as the Rangers, behind Josh Hamilton, came storming back and knocked the 30-year-old right-hander out of the game after five innings while elevating his ERA to a ghastly 6.51.
A historical note here: Beckett was the second overall pick in the 1999 major league draft. The only player picked before him. Yep, it was Hamilton, and he seemed intent on showing Beckett there was no mistake.
Hamilton went 4-for-5, including a solo homer, to boost his batting average to a major league-leading .362. He also scored four runs, including the tying run from second base on an infield single. And for good measure, he made a pair of sensational catches in center field.
The Red Sox, who were already wobbled by blowing a four-run, ninth-inning lead in Toronto on Thursday, looked like a dazed fighter after taking a Hamilton-fueled haymaker that kept them four games behind the Tampa Bay Rays for the AL wild-card spot and just one in front of the Chicago White Sox.
To add injury to insult, the Red Sox may have lost center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury to another rib injury. In just his ninth game back since missing more than two months with cracked ribs, Ellsbury injured his side when he tumbled to the ground while trying to avoid Texas pitcher Tommy Hunter at first base.
The team immediately sent Ellsbury to Los Angeles for X-rays and an MRI exam – more bad news for a team with six starters currently on the disabled list.
Left-hander Jon Lester (12-7) will try to get Boston back on track when he opposes Colby Lewis on Saturday.
Lester snapped a four-game losing streak with 6 1/3 scoreless innings against the Yankees on Monday. He is 2-1 in six career starts vs. Texas.
Lewis (9-8) is 0-3 in his last four starts but owns a victory over the Red Sox on July 16, allowing three runs on four hits in five innings.