Texas @ Baltimore preview
Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Last Meeting ( Aug 20, 2010 ) Texas 2, Baltimore 0
After seeing what C.J. Wilson did to the Baltimore Orioles, Cliff Lee has a hard act to follow.
Lee tries to shake off a pair of sub-par starts on Saturday when he leads the Texas Rangers into battle with the Orioles in the third contest of their four-game series at Camden Yards.
Entering Friday's contest with a four-game losing streak, a six-game road skid and a five-game slide against Baltimore, the Rangers used a brilliant performance by Wilson to wipe out all of them. The left-hander allowed just three hits and a walk while striking out a career-high 12 in 8 2/3 innings, coming within one out of his first career complete-game shutout.
Julio Lugo recorded two of the hits off Wilson, a first-inning single and a two-out double in the third. After the two-base hit, Wilson retired the next 16 batters before Brian Roberts led off the ninth with a double.
Two outs later, Texas manager Ron Washington replaced Wilson with Neftali Feliz, who got the last out for his 30th save of the year and the Rangers' first in August. Wilson notched his team-leading 12th win and Mitch Moreland hit his third home run.
With the victory, Texas improved to 1-4 on its seven-game road trip and 13-22 against AL East opponents.
Acquired from the Seattle Mariners in early July, Lee is 2-3 with a 3.44 ERA in eight starts with Texas. He has yielded four or more runs in four of those outings, including each of the last two in which he is 0-1 with a 6.43 ERA but has 21 strikeouts.
On Monday, Lee surrendered six runs and nine hits while striking out 10 in 7 2/3 innings of a 6-4 loss at the Tampa Bay Rays.
In his first start as a member of the Rangers on July 10, Lee tossed his sixth complete game of 2010 but suffered the loss by allowing six runs and nine hits in a 6-1 defeat against the Orioles. The 31-year-old is 4-1 with a 3.14 ERA in six career outings vs. Baltimore, including a 5-1 triumph while with Seattle on May 11 in which he gave up one run in 7 1/3 frames.
Lee leads the AL with seven complete games.
Baltimore will counter with Brad Bergesen, who has pitched well of late after a lengthy stretch of struggling.
After going 0-7 in his previous 12 starts, Bergesen is 1-0 with 2.22 ERA over his last four outings. He has allowed three earned runs or fewer in each of his four most recent starts.
Bergesen will be making his second career appearance against the Rangers. On April 26, 2009, the 24-year-old was tagged for five runs and 10 hits in four innings but did not figure in the decision of Baltimore's 8-5 victory.
In 11 starts at home, Bergesen is 2-4 with a 5.84 ERA. The right-hander has not won at Camden Yards since May 12, when he surrendered just one run and five hits in 7 2/3 innings of a 5-2 triumph.
The Orioles are 11-7 overall and 8-4 at home since Buck Showalter took over as manager. Friday's loss the fifth in seven games for Baltimore, which fell to 9-3 in its last 12 games against AL West teams.