But this years group of guys is looking more and more like the playoff teams of the late 90's and not the overpaid bunch of frontrunners the teams has been running out there since the A-Rod signing.
In the finale of the three-game set with Anaheim, Texas swept the Angels out of Arlington, getting yet another great start out of Scott Feldman, who threw six innings of shutout baseball.
Anaheim's Jared Weaver was equal to the task until David Murphy hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 7th, scoring Hank Blalock. Texas added two more in the bottom of the 8th thanks to a triple by Omar Vizquel and doubles from Kinsler and Marlon Byrd.
Quality pitching from the Rangers bullpen, coupled with an amazing catch by Josh Hamilton in centerfield put the game away for Texas.
Darren O'Day closed out the final 1 1/3 innings, picking up his first save of the season. O'Day said the crowd of more than 37,000 definitely brought out a little extra in him.
"When they started to chant 'Sweep!,' I had to step off the mound and take a deep breath," reliever Darren O'Day said. "It was pretty awesome."
104,859 fans showed up for the Angels series, making it the largest crowd total the Rangers have had for a three-game series in two years. This fact was not lost on the Rangers players, many of whom seemed blown away by the support.
"It was a great homestand, and the crowd was unbelievable today," second baseman Ian Kinsler said. "They were just incredible. It was really loud out there. If we can get crowds like that and as loud as they were for the rest of the year, we're going to win a lot of games at home."
Texas sold an impressive 10,682 tickets on Sunday, idicating that Rangers fans are starting to believe this team might just be for real.
"We had an absolute blast playing behind this crowd," third baseman Michael Young said. "They packed it in today, and we had fun."
The Gold Glove moment of the game came in the top of the 7th, with the score tied at 0-0, when the Angels' Howie Kendrick hit a shot to right centerfield that Josh Hamilton made an amazing play on, divin into the wall and pulling it in, saving at least one run on the play.
"[That was] one of the most unbelievable catches I've ever seen," left fielder David Murphy said.
Hamilton pulled a groin muscle on the catch but doesn't expect to miss any time. He's almost certain to play Tuesday in the first game of the Detroit series.
"You get so wrapped up in the game and wanting to do well as far as the team winning," Hamilton said. "That's the most important thing. If I have to run into a wall once in a while and tweak parts of my body ... that's OK."
"Another solid game -- pitching, great defense, timely hitting," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "Just awesome."
After going undefeated (6-0) on the homestand, the Rangers now hit the road, starting a three-game series in Detroit. Texas now has a 4 1/2 game lead in their division.
No comments:
Post a Comment