Rangers Jump Out Early, Hang On For Win

Joe Saunders should just skip all future road trip through Arlington. Despite offering nothing the way of consistency for the entire month of June, the Rangers offense jumped all over Saunders last night to the tune of 8 earned runs over 3 2/3 innings. He is now 0-5 with an ERA of 11.62 in 5 career starts in the Ballpark.

Ian Kinsler got the ball rolling early, drilling a lead-off homerun in the bottom of the first, his 19th homer of the year. After a Michael Young walk, Marlon Byrd followed with a 2-run blast.

Rangers starter Scott Feldman allowed three runs in the top of the 2nd, allowing the Angels to tie the game up but Nelson Cruz hit a solo blast to give Texas the lead again in the 3rd. Texas would never trail again.

"We definitely needed to win tonight," Washington said. "Hopefully tonight is the night we can get back to playing Texas Rangers baseball. We did tonight."



Marlon Byrd put a little more distance between the two teams, hitting his 2nd homerun of the night, a 3-run blast, in the bottom of the 5th, putting Texas up 8-3.

"Obviously the way we swung the bats tonight was awesome," David Murphy said. "Hopefully it will create some momentum for us."

Despite his early struggles, Scott Feldman settled down, giving Texas six innings of work, picking up his 6th win of the year. He finished his day retiring 13 of the last 14 batter he faced.

"I didn't do anything different, I was just more aggressive," Feldman said. "It wasn't that I was trying to be too fine, but I followed through more and brought everything more toward the plate."

Despite some struggles at the end of the game from both C.J. Wilson and Frank Francisco (who's fastball was topping out at just 91 mph), Texas hung on for the big win, keeping them within striking distance of the Angels.