Texas Rangers Sailing, Sinking And Finally Walking Off With Series Clincher Over Los Angeles Angels

ARLINGTON - For those who have recoiled at the sight of Rangers scores like 3-1 and 2-0 and pined for the days when watching them required Dramamine, well, blasts and blown saves appear back in fashion. What looked like a laugher turned nail-biter against the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday night. The second of DH Hank Blalock’s two home runs thumped onto Greene’s Hill for a walk-off 9-7 win after the Rangers had given back a 7-1 lead over the final three innings.

The improbable victory gave the Rangers another series win over the first-place Angels – five out of six games this season, all played at Rangers Ballpark – to pull them back within a half game of the division leaders. They hit nine homers in the series and allowed five ninth-inning runs. The first half of the schedule will close Monday with the first of 10 games to be played at Angel Stadium spread out over July, August and September.

“We’re going to see these guys again in four days,” said reliever C.J. Wilson, an unsung series hero for throwing 48 pitches over the last two games without major incident. “But if you’re going good against a team – and we’re going pretty good against Anaheim this year – we can use it to our advantage.”

For much of the night, it appeared there was little the Angels could do right. The aggressive base-running that has helped them score lots of runs without lots of homers was backfiring. It resulted in bizarre double plays and putouts rarely seen in a game played without Walter Matthau managing. Meanwhile, Angels starter Jered Weaver responded in kind with maybe his worst start of the season, at one point provoking a lecture on the mound from manager Mike Scioscia.

“That’s how the Angels play,” Blalock said of plays like your garden variety 1-6-5-4 double play to nab a wayward Juan Rivera in the second and a 9-4-5-6-5 putout of Chone Figgins in the top of the ninth when the speedster failed to stretch a leadoff double into a triple. “They’re so tough. They get so many extra bases and put pressure on the defense. You do the best you can to try to keep that from happening.”

Rangers starter Kevin Millwood, almost untouchable at home this season, couldn’t last through the seventh inning for only the fourth time, raising his home ERA from 2.17 to 2.49. Darren O’Day finished the inning without further damage following three runs, leaving the Texas lead at 7-4.

Wilson jogged in to pitch the eighth, having thrown 27 pitches the night before when entering with a five-run lead. On only one other occasion this season has he undertaken a similar two-day challenge, in the series in New York the first week of June. He threw 27 pitches in working 1.2 innings in the seventh and eighth in the series’ second game to earn a hold in a 4-2 win. Wilson was back on the mound the following afternoon, starting the bottom of the eighth in a 6-6 game. He gave up a two-run homer to Melky Cabrera and was tagged with the 8-6 defeat.

Wilson said he learned from that one-two punch and went into Tuesday night’s game thinking about what he needed to do to be able to pitch again Wednesday night.

“I was mad at myself after that New York series ’cause I felt like I overexerted myself in that first game,” he said. “So I tried to leave a little bit in the tank [Tuesday night].”

He gave up a leadoff single to Kendry Morales, then struck out the 7-8-9 hitters to preserve the three-run lead using 21 pitches.

But Frank Francisco, re-proclaimed the closer by manager Ron Washington on Wednesday afternoon, didn’t have control to match his velocity. Figgins led off with a smash into the right-field corner but stumbled after hitting second base to get nailed in a rundown, but even that couldn’t save Francisco. He walked Bobby Abreu and Torii Hunter and served up a game-tying home run to Rivera. (In his last three outings, Francisco has allowed five earned runs in two innings.)

No big deal, Wilson said: “As a relief pitcher, you like to go and pitch in the late innings because this team’s going to score runs behind you. Even if you go out and there and give up a run or two, you still have a chance to come out unscathed. Everyone in our dugout was like, ‘OK, if we’re not going to win easy, we’ve gotta win hard. So let’s go.’ ”

Michael Young opened the ninth with his third hit and was bunted to second by David Murphy. After Marlon Byrd was caught looking. the Angels could have walked Blalock, who’d homered in the fourth, to face newcomer Julio Borbon. But Scioscia said reliever Justin Speier convinced the staff that he could get Blalock out.

Instead, the ball went out, on a first-pitch fastball away.

“Sometimes it’s a little tricky when you hit it to center,” said Blalock, whose three homers in four starts during the homestand equaled his HR output in 16 previous starts. “Once I saw Torii’s mannerisms, I knew that we were going to win whether it hit the wall or went over.”

From 7-1 to 7-7 to 9-7. Just like old times, huh?

“We won,” Francisco said with only a hint of a smile. “That’s the important thing.”