Game 138: Rangers 11, Indians 9

by Ryan on Sep 8, 2009 8:25 PM EDT in Game Recaps

After the Indians were quickly down 5-1, the offense scored eight more runs, but today the bullpen couldn't keep the Rangers down. Carlos Carrasco again couldn't throw strikes, and had to be pulled after five innings. The right-hander allowed 11 baserunners and two more home runs.

The lineup, meanwhile, solved Tommy Hunter. In his last start against the Indians, Hunter threw 7.2 scoreless innings. Tonight the Indians tagged Hunter for eight hits in 5.1 innings of work. Rangers manager Ron Washington pulled Hunter in the sixth, replacing him with young phenom Neftali Feliz, who in his short career has dominated opposing hitters. But tonight's results seemed to go against the grain, and the Indians plated both of Feliz's inherited runners in the sixth, and scored a run off him in the seventh.

But the Rangers kept scoring runs, and although the Indians tied the game in the sixth, they never relinquished the lead. Marlon Byrd ended Chris Perez's long scoreless streak by blasting a three-run homer in the top of the seventh.

Next Up: Game Two, minutes from now.

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via www.fangraphs.com

Highest WPA		Lowest WPA
Travis Hafner	.172	Chris Perez	-.278
Michael Brantley	.160	Carlos Carrasco
Matt LaPorta	.081	Jhonny Peralta	-.190

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Well no one else has anything to add so I guess I will.

I went to the first game (take that, Cliff Lee!), so I was one of the 350 people that Castrovince tweeted being there. I don’t have much to say about Carrasco. He threw hard, and it went out hard. While Choo made a nice dive in right he also took what looked like a horrible route to what would end up being Ivan Rodriguez’s double, one of the many back-breaking if-only moments in the game. LaPorta’s shot made me warm inside, it stopped raining, the economy got better, and Derek Jeter was arrested for tax evasion. All for that brief moment.

The end result was sucktastic but it was nice to sit back and realize I might be talking about seeing one or many of these players in action before everyone fully appreciated them: Carrasco, Brantley, LaPorta, Marte, Valbuena, Perez, and Neftali Feliz.

Steel Nick

by nickjs21 on Sep 9, 2009 10:05 AM EDT reply actions