Rangers Beat Padres
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ARLINGTON, Texas — Maybe all the Texas Rangers needed to have some success at home was to get a lead.
It took until the sixth game of an eight-game stand at Globe Life Park for it to happen, but the Rangers took their first lead and never let it go in beating San Diego 4-3 on Friday night.
The win snapped a five-game losing streak for Texas, which had lost eight straight at Globe Life Park. The Padres have lost a season-high six straight games.
It all started with Texas taking a 1-0 lead on a run manufactured by center fielder Delino DeShields in the first inning. It gave the Rangers their first lead in 45 innings and they never trailed.
“Obviously when you get a lead it takes a little pressure off our guys,” Texas manager Jeff Banister said. “I felt like they relaxed. They know the situation. They know what’s at stake and then know where we’ve been at home, the number of consecutive losses at home. They want to get it right here too. They’re not tight. They’re still a relaxed group. It’s a lot easier playing in front than coming back.”
After reaching base with a walk, DeShields stole second, got to third on a passed ball and scored on designated hitter Prince Fielder’s popup to third baseman Will Middlebrooks that was officially a
sacrifice fly.
Texas doubled its lead in the third when catcher Carlos Corporan’s grounder brought home second baseman Rougned Odor, who led off the inning with a triple. The Rangers doubled the lead again an inning later on the back-to-back homers from Fielder and Beltre.
Beltre’s homer was his first since May 25 and it marked the fourth time the Rangers have it consecutive homers. The Fielder-Beltre pairing has done it three times.
Fielder had two RBIs and knows that getting Beltre going after he missed three weeks with a left thumb injury his huge.
“I think he’s doing great,” Fielder said of Beltre. “He’s coming off a tough injury. Any time you have an injury to your hand, it’s tough. It’s not easy. It’s already hard enough.”
Texas needed all four of the runs as San Diego chipped away with a single run in the sixth on a home run from center fielder Melvin Upton Jr. and two runs in the eighth. Left fielder Justin Upton’s sacrifice fly trimmed the lead to 4-2 and right fielder Matt Kemp scored on an error to make it a one-run game.
Shawn Tolleson closed out San Diego in the ninth for his 13th save. Left-hander Wandy Rodriguez (6-4) won for the first time in Arlington this year by allowing one run and three hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Middlebrooks said that with three players converging on the popup by Fielder, it allowed DeShields to score the early run that the focus became making the play first and worrying about the runner second. That was a pivotal early moment.
“It seems like there’s always one play offensively or defensively that is turning the game for us one way or the other,” Middlebrooks said. “It’s been a tough stretch. We’ve been playing some pretty good baseball and one play or one pitch or whatever it might be has been determining the outcome for us.”
That play stuck out for San Diego interim manager Pat Murphy.
“There was a bunch of guys converging and sometimes when a bunch of guys converge, and there was a little bit of contact, so I was told, sometimes takes you out of your game,” Murphy said. “You don’t expect a guy to tag, a short ball like that. So it was a heads-up play by them and a not-so-heads-up play by us.”
San Diego starter Ian Kennedy didn’t help much either as he was charged with four runs in his 4 1/3 innings. Once Kennedy exited, the San Diego pitching was strong. The bullpen allowed just two hits in the final 3 2/3 innings.
