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A Game is Won – Maybe More – by Texas Rangers

ARLINGTON - Over the first eight innings on Sunday afternoon, the Rangers put the stretch in stretch drive. Their pitchers worked from that position with men on base to 18 of 30 hitters (aside from the eight leadoff batters). Bosox were aboard in every inning, hovering like locust.

Texas pitchers walked the tightrope and handed a one-run lead to closer Frank Francisco. The man who was torched on Friday night retired Boston in order to preserve the 4-3 victory. Francisco finished with strikeouts of Dustin Pedroia and Victor Martinez, each of whom doubled off him during the seven-hit, six-run calamity. With the series win, the Rangers earned a half-game lead in the A.L. wild-card chase.

That’s the short-term benefit of Sunday’s events for Rangers fans. To listen to Francisco after the game indicates a long-term dividend was also achieved.

In the wake of the Frankie Friday collapse that Boston turned into an 8-4 winner, Rangers manager Ron Washington indicated everyone on the club had shrugged off the loss. Including Francisco. “He’ll bounce back,” Washington said before Sunday’s game.

Francisco agreed that the worst outing of his big-league career, only one strike away from escaping, was pretty much old news by the time his head hit the pillow. But not totally.

“I stay awake until … late,” he conceded. How late? “Three maybe.”

Having thrown more than 50 pitches combined on Thursday and Friday, Francisco was unavailable on Saturday night when the Rangers evened the series with a 7-2 victory. Neftali Feliz made his Rangers Ballpark debut in front of a sellout crowd and once again mowed down the opposition, this time over the final two innings for his first save.

Blogging fans anointed Feliz the new closer. Frankie who?

Washington has stuck with Francisco after making him the closer late last August. Malady and injury this season have meant he wasn’t always physically up to the closer’s duties, and C.J. Wilson filled in.

There was no hesitation on Washington’s part come Sunday’s ninth inning: “I’ve given the ball to the guy I want to have it.”

Francisco, a quiet man, spoke firmly about what Washington’s commitment to him and his own commitment to his team.

“It’s important that a manager has faith in his players,” he said. “That’s the most important thing he can do. It helps you grow. I had two out [on Friday night], and I thought I could get the [last] guy out. I should have gotten the guy out.

“I know I went out there and gave my one hundred percent like I do every single time. That’s why I don’t ever feel bad … I feel bad every time we lose … but I can go and look myself in the mirror.”

This was the second consecutive series that the Rangers have won after dropping the opener. Of their 36 series so far of at least three games, they’ve lost the opener 17 times and rallied to take six of those. Gotten better at it lately, doing so in five of the last eight such situations.

They’re 16 games over .500 for the first time since the end of the surprising 2004 season (89-73). The Red Sox must be glad they’ve seen the last of the Rangers this season; Texas won the season series 7-2 for its best winning percentage ever over the Bosox.

Half of Dustin Nippert’s four wins have come against them. He wobbled frequently on Sunday but was never toppled. He left with a 4-2 lead after six innings with the help of Julio Borbon’s sprinting catch in left on Jacoby Ellsbury to open the game and a high bounce on Alex Gonzalez’s shot to left-center that became a grounds-rule double and stranded Mike Lowell at third.

In his previous start in Cleveland, Nippert was sunk by one bad inning (five hits, a walk and a HBP producing five runs). He collected a career-high 10 strikeouts that day, which – listening to him on Sunday – might have been part of the problem.

“I was trying to force an out instead of just letting it happen,” Nippert said. “Today, I just kind of believed in [Taylor] Teagarden. Whatever he put down, I was throwing.”

Except for Nippert’s five-run hiccup in Cleveland, no Texas starter has allowed more than two earned runs over the last eight games.

Solid fielding has been a factor in the Rangers’ equation all season, and middle man Doug Mathis helped rescue himself after allowing a one-out home run to Pedroia and a walk to Martinez. Jason Bay banged a sharp grounder back to Mathis. He then had to fire a strike from the mound, this time to a moving target in the opposite direction – to Ian Kinsler, racing to the bag with the hope of doubling Bay. Indeed, 1-4-3 ended the threat.

Mathis was told before Bay stepped in that Kinsler, not shortstop Elvis Andrus, would cover on a ball hit back to the mound. He said that was contrary to standard execution of the play.

“I have a hard time making that play if I just turn and look to Elvis,” Mathis said. “The good thing was I took my time and set my feet.”

The Rangers are a combined 16-5 against the Red Sox and the West leading Los Angeles Angels. Next up will be four games against the Minnesota Twins, a couple of games below .500. Continuing a high standard of play against an opponent with a lesser record, Washington said, is part of the growing process for his club.

“When you play teams that have been there and done that, your intensity level does go up automatically,” he said. “We have to learn to play with that intensity every day as the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees and the Angels do. They play at a certain level every day. If they lose, they lost at that level.

“We’re getting there.”

Borbon’s 2-for-3 Sunday gave him six hits in eight at-bats as the left-handed leadoff man on Saturday and Sunday, primarily against right-handed pitching. Washington said he’ll stick to his plan to sit Borbon against lefty starters like Minnesota’s Francisco Liriano on Monday night and return Kinsler to the leadoff spot. Kinsler had two homers in two games since returning from the disabled list and being put in the No. 6 hole.

Washington said he will still sit Teagarden, who hit his third homer in seven games on Sunday, and have new back-up catcher Kevin Richardson make his major league debut with former Triple-A Oklahoma teammate Tommy Hunter.

“Everybody’s got to play,” Washington said.

Nelson Cruz and Brandon McCarthy are scheduled to play for Oklahoma on Monday night at home against Salt Lake. Cruz is beginning an injury rehab assignment, and McCarthy will make his latest rehab start.