Rangers Beat Rays
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — With the Texas Rangers on the lookout for some offense, they were able to find it in a familiar place — Adrian Beltre.
And for Beltre it was not a moment too soon.
Beltre had a home run and two RBIs to lead the Texas Rangers to a 2-1 win against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field on Sunday.
The Rangers third baseman connected on his 398th career home run off Rays starter Jake Odorizzi in the top of the fourth inning to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. The homer tied him with Dale Murphy for 54th on the all-time list.
“It’s about time I contributed,” Beltre said. “I take full responsibility for this. If we’re losing because we’re not putting enough runs on the board it’s because of me.”
It appeared that the one run was all Rangers starter Wandy Rodriguez would need after the left-hander retired the first 15 batters he faced. However, the Rays got to Rodriguez in the sixth inning when second baseman Tim Beckham led off with a single to end the perfect-game bid.
“I used a lot of my curveball,” Rodriguez said. “Today I had a good (curveball) and I was
very good with my fastball too. I just tried to make good, quality pitches to every hitter.”
The Rays would get runners on first and second with one out in the inning, and left fielder Brandon Guyer tied the game with an RBI single that scored center fielder Kevin Kiermaier from second. Tampa Bay eventually loaded the bases with one out, but third baseman Evan Longoria lined into a 6-4 double play.
Beltre struck again in the top of the eighth inning against Rays reliever Kevin Jepsen.
The Rangers had runners on first and second with no outs when Beltre singled to left and drove in shortstop Elvin Andrus to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead.
“When runs are tough to come by, we need some really good at-bats,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. “We put a couple bats together that really gave us the opportunity to win.”
Jepsen, however, limited the damage by getting first baseman Kyle Blanks to ground into a double play, and reliever Ernesto Frieri finished the inning off by getting outfielder Leonys Martin to fly out in foul territory.
“When you walk that many guys in an inning, especially in the middle of the lineup, I’m lucky to get out of there with one run, I guess,” Jepsen said. “It was closer than it should’ve been. I’ve got to throw the ball over the plate.”
The Rays put runners on the corners with one out in the ninth, but Rangers closer Neftali Feliz struck out shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera and retired Beckham on a fielder’s choice groundout for the save.
“I tried to throw the fastball, good pitches, to get a ground-ball double play,” Feliz said. “But after that, when I had two strikes, I tried to get a quick pitch to strike him out and get to the next hitter.”
Rodriguez gave up a run and two hits in six innings with six strikeouts for the Rangers. Odorizzi gave up one run on seven hits in 6 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts for the Rays despite dealing with the flu. Jepsen took the loss in relief, giving up one run and walking three batters in two-thirds of an inning.
“I tried to give us as many innings as possible with what I had,” Odorizzi said. “It was a tough one, but I was able to get through it and the defense really helped me out. I was just trying to pitch to contact to get as many outs as I could as quick as I could.”
Rangers reliever Keone Kela pitched the seventh inning to get the win.
