Rangers Beat Indians

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ARLINGTON, Texas — The much-maligned bullpen of the Texas Rangers was finally able to put things together for at least one day Sunday.

The Rangers got four scoreless innings from a relief staff that came into the game with the worst bullpen ERA in the majors this month and avoided a sweep at the hands of the Cleveland Indians with a 5-1 victory.

Texas manager Jeff Banister told the relievers before the game that there were no defined roles and then three of them allowed one hit over the final four innings in support of right-hander Nick Martinez (3-0).

“It was really nice to see (Ross) Ohlendorf and (Tanner) Scheppers and those guys come in and shut the door after we’ve scored some runs, allowed us to score some more runs,” Banister said. “We’re going to continue to do anything we can to put W’s on the board.”

Both Ohlendorf and Scheppers were brought up from Triple-A earlier Sunday and after Ohlendorf worked a perfect sixth, Scheppers retired the next six batters before Shawn Tolleson finished off the six-hitter.

First baseman Mitch Moreland sparked the Texas offense with a two-run homer

in the sixth inning. Moreland also had a double in the second inning that scored a run after an error on Cleveland right fielder Nick Swisher.

The Rangers also got an RBI single from designated hitter Prince Fielder and a sacrifice fly from third baseman Adrian Beltre. Martinez lasted only five innings and left in a 4-1 game but a Texas bullpen that had allowed 33 runs in the first 16 games in May was up to the task.

“We just have to always be ready,” said Tolleson, who has worked five-straight scoreless outings. “He (Banister) said there’s not going to be any roles. We just have to piece it together the best we can get it back on track and get things rolling down there. Today went really well.”

That wasn’t the case for Cleveland starter Carlos Carrasco. He only allowed seven hits but was touched for five runs in his eight innings.

“Well to his credit he pitched a complete game, which we really needed,” Cleveland manager Terry Francona said. “He made a couple of mistakes, basically to Moreland, a couple that really cost us the runs.”

The Indians did little to support Carrasco despite having Martinez in trouble early on. The Texas starter walked five and gave up five hits but he struck out six. The Indians left 10 runners on base and were just 1 of 10 with runners in scoring position.

The lone inning Cleveland did score in was indicative of how the game went for the Tribe. Designated hitter Michael Brantley doubled in a run in the fifth inning with no outs and the Indians had runners on second and third. Martinez retired the next two batters without allowing ball out of the infield in what was then a 2-1 game and then struck out centerfielder Michael Bourn looking to end the inning.

“You come up in those spots and you either get it done or you don’t,” said Swisher, who was walked with two outs to bring up Bourn. “Our guys, we didn’t get it done today. But it’s all right. That’s the good thing about baseball, we come back tomorrow. So I know those guys are really looking at those ABs and figuring out what we did wrong.”