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From Rangers’ Clubhouse: Benson Pitches In At Right Time

ARLINGTON _ Little known record set during the Rangers’ 19-6 drubbing of Baltimore on Wednesday night: Josh Rupe started warming up in the top of the second inning and finally made it to the mound more than two and half hours later.

Rupe was hustled up when it appeared starter Kris Benson might not make it through the second inning. Benson had walked Adam Jones with two outs to force in a run to increase the Orioles’ early lead to 3-1, going over 50 pitches in no time. Then he went 3-1 on lefthanded hitting Nick Markakis.

But Benson got Markakis to fly out to left. After throwing 57 pitches in the first innings, he threw only 54 over the next four innings as the Rangers provided a massive cushion. It all resulted in Benson’s first major league win since 2006.

“It’s a huge monkey off my back,” said Benson, who only officially joined the roster on Feb. 21 and earned a starting spot in March. “Trust me. I’ll be able to relax a lot more now that I have this one.”

On to some of the hows and whys of Benson battling off the ropes.

First time out as a Ranger, Benson allowed seven earned runs on 10 hits in five innings at Detroit last Friday in the Tigers’ 15-2 win. He opened Wednesday night’s game with a walk to Brian Roberts before Jones doubled past Nelson Cruz in right to put the first two batters of the game on second and third. Consecutive grounders to Ian Kinsler gave the Orioles a 2-0 lead.

The Rangers cut that deficit in half with the beginning of Kinsler’s career night at the plate. He doubled to left and scored on Josh Hamilton’s one-out single to center. But Luke Scott opened the Baltimore second with a double over Cruz’s head. After Benson retired Felix Pie and Chad Moeller, Cesar Izturis walked and Roberts singled to load the bases.

Here is how Rangers catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia assessed Benson’s start: “There were just some pitches on the outside corner, a couple of balls off the plate that looked good but it wasn’t the umpire’s zone. So we just had to move in a little bit more. I like to start off a little away, see how [their] guys react, and work from there.”

Pitching coach Mike Maddux visited the mound before Jones came up with the bases loaded. Benson said Maddux’s emphasis was to keep the ball down. At he thinks that’s what he thinks was mentioned.

“Most of the time, I don’t even pay attention to what’s being said,” Benson said. “More than anything, he was just giving me a breather. I felt like I just needed to make one pitch to get out of the inning.”

Against Jones, Benson fell behind 2-0, got the count to 2-2, then missed inside on a change-up and a slider to walk in a run.

“Against Jones, you definitely have to be careful,” Benson said. “He’s had a good series. I fell behind a bunch of hitters, just tried to make them hit the ball. Even late in the game when I fell behind guys and had those long innings and tried to find it again, I was just trying to put the ball in play. I wasn’t trying anything out of the ordinary to strike ‘em out.”

Next was Markakis, who in the first inning pulled a grounder to Kinsler to bring in the game’s first run. Benson got a called strike one with a change on the outside corner. Then he was inside on a change, outside on a fastball and outside in the dirt on another change to go 3-1. A fastball up in the strike zone was fouled off for a full count. A slider in about the same spot resulted in a fly ball to left to end the inning and leave the bases loaded.

“We weren’t afraid to go off-speed with him, which we did,” Saltalamacchia said. “Went 3-2 slider. We both felt it was a good pitch. No damage done. One run.”