The Rangers begin to celebrate around Mike Napoli after he slid under the tag of Royals catcher Brayan Pena (left) with the winning run on Sunday.
Texas took two of three games from both the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals over the last week in Arlington, beginning with the return of a pair of All-Star sluggers and capped off by a highlight-reel play at the plate to wrap up a 4-2 homestand.
Outfielders Nelson Cruz and Josh Hamilton each homered in their first game back from the disabled list on Monday, and right-hander Alexi Ogando tossed his first career shutout as Texas cruised to a 4-0 win over the Chicago White Sox at Rangers Ballpark. Hamilton, in his first big-league at-bat since Apr. 12, lined a solo home run over the right field wall in the bottom of the first to give the Rangers an early 1-0 lead.
From there, Ogando was in control, allowing only four singles and three walks over the final eight innings while striking out a total of six batters. In five starts at home this season, the 27-year-old has a record of 4-0 with a miniscule 1.08 earned run average over 33-plus innings.
Following Hamilton’s first-inning homer, left-hander John Danks kept Texas off the board until the bottom of the sixth, when Adrian Beltre drew a two-out walk and scored on Nelson Cruz’s towering home run into the left field stands. The Rangers added an insurance run in the eighth inning on a double by Hamilton, an infield single by Michael Young, and Beltre’s sacrifice fly to center.
On Tuesday, the White Sox waited through a rain delay of nearly three hours and rode Carlos Quentin’s first career three-home run game to an 8-6 victory over the Rangers.
Quentin homered on the first pitch he saw from Texas left-hander Derek Holland in the top of the first to give Chicago a 1-0 lead, though Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton tied the game with an RBI single in the bottom of the inning.
With two men on and one out in the third, Quentin connected for a three-run, opposite-field home run that put the White Sox back in front, 4-1. Texas scored again on Michael Young’s sacrifice fly in the third inning before a lengthy rain delay began with Chicago holding a 4-2 lead.
Prior to the Rangers’ at-bat in the bottom of the fourth, the game was halted as a cluster of severe thunderstorms made their way across the North Texas area, and play did not resume again for two hours and 58 minutes. Each team would score four more runs after the rain delay – including Quentin’s third homer of the game and a solo shot by Adam Dunn for the White Sox – and Chicago held on for an 8-6 win.
Less than 12 hours after the end of Tuesday’s contest, the Rangers and White Sox were back on the field Wednesday afternoon to play the rubber match of their three-game set in Arlington. Behind a solid outing by left-hander C.J. Wilson, Texas hung on to an early lead and held off a late Chicago rally to secure a 2-1 win in both the game and the series.
Leading off the third inning against White Sox starter Gavin Floyd, David Murphy reached on a fielding error by second baseman Gordon Beckham and advanced to third on Yorvit Torrealba’s ground-rule double. A Mitch Moreland sacrifice fly allowed Murphy to score, and Ian Kinsler singled to drive in Torrealba and give the Rangers a two-run lead.
Wilson faced the minimum 18 batters over the first six innings, giving up two singles but benefitting from double plays turned behind him each time. After retiring the leadoff hitter in the top of the seventh, he allowed three consecutive singles to Alexei Ramirez, Carlos Quentin and Paul Konerko as Chicago produced its lone run of the afternoon.
Despite walking two batters, closer Neftali Feliz tossed a scoreless ninth inning to earn his 10th save of the year.
Following an off day Thursday, Texas and Kansas City began a weekend series on Friday with an extra-inning slugfest won by the Royals after they scored five runs in the top of the 14th for a 12-7 final.
Although both starting pitchers were hit hard in the first couple of frames, Kansas City right-hander Nathan Adcock was pulled with two outs in the second while the Rangers’ Colby Lewis made it through the sixth, setting down 13 of the last 14 batters he faced.
With Texas leading 7-6 heading into the ninth, Neftali Feliz was called upon to get the final three outs of the game. But after retiring the first batter, he gave up a solo home run to Royals left fielder Alex Gordon to tie the score at 7-7. The blown save was Feliz’s third of the season, and all three have come against K.C. over the last two weeks.
Three relievers for each team combined to keep the game tied through the first four extra innings, though it was a different story for Rangers right-hander Dave Bush in the top of the fourteenth.
With one out, Melky Cabrera and Eric Hosmer connected for back-to-back solo home runs to give Kansas City a 9-7 lead. Following a single and an intentional walk, backup catcher Brayan Pena hit a three-run homer to put the Royals ahead by a final score of 12-7.
On Saturday, Texas pounded five home runs against Kansas City starter Sean O’Sullivan en route to a 10-1 victory in Arlington.
After allowing a two-run double to third baseman Adrian Beltre in the first inning, O’Sullivan gave up three consecutive home runs to Mitch Moreland, Mike Napoli and Endy Chavez in the bottom of the second. Beltre added a solo homer in the third inning before Nelson Cruz clubbed a two-run shot in the sixth, by which point the Rangers had built a 10-0 lead.
In the meantime, Texas left-hander Matt Harrison cruised through six scoreless innings of work despite recording just one strikeout, benefitting instead from seven ground ball outs – including two double plays – and four fly balls. Kansas City avoided a shutout when Billy Butler scored on an infield groundout by Matt Treanor in the top of the seventh.
Although the Rangers won by a nine-run margin of victory, right-hander Yoshinori Tateyama earned his first career save with three innings pitched in relief of Harrison.
In Sunday afternoon’s series finale, the Royals erased an early two-run deficit and took a 5-3 lead into the eighth inning, but Texas came back with multiple runs in both the eighth and ninth to tie and eventually win the game by a 7-6 final.
Against Royals left-hander Danny Duffy, the Rangers scored their first run on an RBI double by Mike Napoli in the bottom of the second, then added another on Ian Kinsler’s solo home run in the third.
Kansas City responded by putting five runs on the board against Texas starter Alexi Ogando in the top of the fourth. With one out, Wilson Betemit and Mitch Maier each connected for RBI doubles before catcher Brayan Pena hammered a three-run homer into the upper deck in right field.
Napoli cut into the Royals’ lead with a solo home run leading off the fifth inning, but Kansas City was still ahead 5-3 going into the bottom of the eighth. With two outs and a runner at third, Michael Young hit an Aaron Crow fastball just over the wall in right to tie the game heading into the ninth.
After the Royals had gone back ahead in the top of the inning, Cruz led off the Rangers’ half of the ninth with a game-tying home run to left field against closer Joakim Soria. Mike Napoli followed with a single into left before the next two batters struck out, setting the stage for Elvis Andrus.
With Napoli running on the pitch, Andrus lined a single into right that was fielded by Mitch Maier, who fired the ball into the catcher as Napoli was being waved home by third base coach Dave Anderson. Although the relay throw had him beat by at least 15 feet, Napoli slid under Brayan Pena’s glove and was ruled safe because the catcher did not apply the tag in time, giving the Rangers their first walk-off victory of the season.
Kirkman Up, Tomko Down as Texas Tweaks Bullpen
Prior to the start of their three-game weekend series against Kansas City, the Rangers recalled left-hander Michael Kirkman from Triple-A Round Rock on Friday and assigned veteran right-hander Brett Tomko outright to the minors.
This marks the second big-league stint of the season for Kirkman, who was roughed up for five earned runs in less than two innings pitched in his only appearance on Apr. 19 against the Angels. The 24-year-old began the season in Round Rock’s starting rotation, but four of his last five outings for the Express have come in relief.
Across 7 and 2/3 innings of work out of the bullpen at Triple-A, Kirkman has recorded nine strikeouts and held opponents to a .207 batting average while not allowing an earned run.
Tomko, 38, posted a record of 0-1 with a 4.58 earned run average in eight appearances for Texas since being called up on Apr. 20. He had signed a minor-league deal with the Rangers in mid-February after spending the most of last two seasons with Oakland.
Nate's Notes 
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