Rangers take game 1 of the ALDS

The Texas Rangers defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 5-1 in game 1 of the American League Divisional Series.  With solid pitching from Cliff Lee and even stronger batting throughout the lineup, the Rangers were in control the entire game.

Cliff Lee gave up only 1 run on 5 hits in his 7 innings, only facing difficulty in the 1st inning.  Lee gave up 3 hits to the first 4 batters before settling in and preventing the Rays from scoring with the bases loaded.  Lee went on to strike out 10 for the game, a Rangers post-season record.  He did not give up any walks.  Lee was pleased to get out of trouble in the 1st, “Any time you can have runners in scoring position with less than two outs, and you get out of that without giving up any, that’s huge.  It’s basically the same as scoring runs.  So huge momentum builder for us, and we responded.”

Offensively, the Rangers had 10 hits, including home runs by Nelson Cruz and Bengie Molina.  Once Texas started scoring in the 2nd, they kept scoring in every inning through the 5th, eventually taking a 5-0 lead.  The team gave credit to manager Ron Washington who gave them the green light to swing away on 3-0 counts.  Washington explained his rationale, “Well, you know that (Rays’ pitcher) Price didn’t want to end up walking those guys, so I took a chance on letting them hit 3 0.  Each one of the guys that I did it to, that’s the way you hit 3 0.  They were able to get a ball up in the zone and they didn’t miss it.  You know, that was the turning point for us as far as scoring runs go.”

Game 2 is in Tampa on Thursday.