D

Post-Game Show: Indians 5, Rangers 0

D-tails
• Boxscore, AL West standings, Wild Card standings

Story of the game
In his first outing as more than just an emergency starter, RHP Dustin Nippert became the third Ranger pitcher to reach double-figures in strikeouts this year, but one inning’s worth of location problems did him in. Nippert allowed all five of Cleveland’s runs in the third inning. After back-to-back singles to start the inning, Nippert hit OF Shin-Soo Choo, then walked 3B Jhonny Peralta to force in a run. A single by DH Travis Hafner and a two-run double by SS Luis Valbuena made it a very big inning. A sacrifice fly by Trevor Crowe made it the first inning of five or more runs the Rangers have allowed since New York scored five in the fifth on June 4 in an 8-6 Yankees win.

Nippert, who pitched six innings, allowed only four baserunners (a walk, two hits and an error) in his other five innings. He also had 10 strikeouts, joining RHP Kevin Millwood and RHP Derek Holland as the only Rangers to reach double figures this season. Nippert earned his 10th strikeout on his final pitch of the night, a 96 mph fastball to OF Grady Sizemore.

Three Up
•Thanks to Nippert’s 10-strikeout game, the second by a starter on the road trip, the Rangers are averaging 8.8 strikeouts per nine innings on this three-city road trip. They had averaged 5.9 per nine for the season.
• RF Josh Hamilton had his fifth multi-hit game of the road trip and is batting .379 on with a 1.009 OPS on the trip. Pretty good, considering he had kind of a big “distraction” smack dab in the middle of it.
• In perhaps his last ever trip to Cleveland as a player, 2B Omar Vizquel got a huge ovation to start the game, then had a pair of hits to inch within eight of the 2,700 hit plateau. Since 1900, only 53 players have reached that mark.

Three Down
• If RHP Dustin Nippert intends to make the most of his starting rotation audition, five-run innings are not going to make much of an impression, regardless of his strikeout totals.
• DH Andruw Jones, the cleanup hitter, was hitless in three at-bats to extend his current 0fer to 11 hitless at-bats. He is hitting .154 since August 1 and .190 since the All-Star break.
• The Rangers lost ground to Boston in the wild card race and now trail by 1.5 games, just 48 hours after pulling into a tie. And the Angels.

Stat of the Day
0.72: RHP Doug Mathis’ career relief ERA after pitching two perfect innings on Tuesday. He has allowed two runs – both in his last outing – in 25 relief innings.

Player of the Game
Your candidates: Rangers RHP Dustin Nippert (6 IP, 10Ks), OF Josh Hamilton (two hits), Indians RHP Aaron Laffey (6.2 IP, 6 H, 0R), S Luis Valbuena (1-for-3, 2-run double, walk). Vote here.