Rangers With Close Win, Take Series Against ChiSox

The Texas Rangers picked up a close win this afternoon to take two out of three against the Chicago White Sox.

On The Mound

The Texas Rangers sent lefty ace Cole Hamels to the mound this afternoon against the Chicago White Sox and Mat Latos. Hamels didn’t have his best performance ever but pitched well enough to keep Texas in the game. The lefty went 5.2 innings allowing five runs with just three of those earned. However he did strike out nine along the way, his season high.

The Rangers set four pitchers to the mound in relief who combined to get the job done the rest of the way. Tony Barnette ended up with the win Wednesday afternoon despite only pitching a third of an inning. Tom Wilhelmsen and Jake Diekman both threw shutout innings in the seventh and eighth respectively setting up Sam Dyson to get his first save of the year throwing a shutout ninth.

At The Plate

The Rangers battled with the Sox throughout the game leading 2-1 at the end of the third. Chicago scratched across three runs in the fourth to take a 4-2 lead. In the bottom of the fifth, the Rangers responded with two runs of their own to tie it up a 4 a piece. In the sixth, Chicago picked up a lone run and Texas tied it up in and scored the game winner in the bottom of the inning.

Ian Desmond found himself in a new spot in the lineup hitting second Wednesday and going 2-4 upping his season average to .260 while driving in 2 runs. Nomar Mazara, the normal two-hole hitter, hit third and went 2-2 with a walk continuing to stay hot with a  .314 average. Prince Fielder and Ryan Rua also put together multi-hit games for Texas as well.

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Adrian Beltre went just 1-4 but had arguably the biggest hit of the day with his single in the sixth inning that drove in Desmond and proved to become the game-winning run.

Stats

WP- Barnette (2-2): .1IP, 0H, 0ER, 0K

LP- Jennings (1-1, BS 1): 1.2IP, 3H, 1ER, 2K

SV- Dyson (1): 1IP, 0H, 0ER, 1K

Desmond: 2-4 2R, 2RBI

Mazara: 2-2 R, RBI, BB

Fielder: 2-3 2 2B

Up Next

The Rangers are off Thursday but will take on the Toronto Blue Jays this Friday night in Arlington with the game starting at 7:05 pm.

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