Rangers Defeat Rays 8-6, Even Series At One Game Each

Just like Friday night, the Baseball Nation staff live-blogged the game. If you missed it, here’s a few of the highlights.

The Rays escaped unharmed, and after a scoreless first, Tampa Bay headed back to the dish and took advantage of Holland’s shaky control. With one on and two out, Matt Joyce tagged Holland, giving his Rays a 3-0 lead.

The Rangers built a 7-6 lead over the Rays without any home runs, which seemed somewhat odd since they finished second in the American League this season with 210 round-trippers, relying all season on big (and surprising) boppers like Ian Kinsler and Mike Napoli.

Moreland’s home run tonight didn’t travel as far, but it meant a lot more. Gomes did eventually escape the eighth with no more damage, but the Rangers’ two-run lead looks a lot better than a one-run lead as the Rangers head into the ninth inning, looking to draw even in this best-of-five series.

I’m not smart enough to know whether Ron Washington is admirably flexible or painfully indecisive.

Washington’s reasoning, we were told, was that he would be playing Hamilton in center field in most of the games, and he didn’t want him shifting back and forth. So he might as well play Hamilton in center field in all the games.

Try and figure this game.

That was it for Uehara, who turned a four-run lead into a one-run lead in the space of about three minutes.

Cruz’s single came on Shields’ 100th pitch, at which point Joe Maddon came out and removed Shields in favor of hard-throwing lefty Jake McGee.

Which brought Maddon from the dugout again, and Juan Cruz into relieve McGee.

You know, like what happened in Game 2 tonight?

After Moreland’s ground out, Shields put his head down and walked towards the dugout. The only problem? It was the second out, and a run scored on the play to make it 5-3 Rangers. Whooooops. It’s possible that Shields was a little rattled.

Rays 3, Rangers 0

They say football is a game of inches.

Which it is.

The first inning of Game 2 almost went just as badly for the Rangers.

Well, that’s great. Except you’ve still put a guy on base who might eventually score.

Of course, they got there in different ways. Shields pitched 11 complete games, and four of them were shutouts; Holland pitched four complete games, and all of them were shutouts. And Shields’ 2.82 ERA obviously has it all over Holland’s 3.95 mark.

Still, the point is that Holland does have excellent stuff and is capable of pitching brilliantly on a given night.

Well, that’s not something you see every day: middle infielders at the top of the order, left fielder and first baseman at the bottom.

Here’s the lineup they’ll use for the second game of the ALDS:

Joyce was one of the Rays’ hottest hitters in September, and he’s hitting ninth. At this point, I think it’s exceptionally likely that Joe Maddon is just screwing with us.

For a Beyond the Boxscore perspective of the game, be sure to check out Bill Petti’s preview of the series. Check out our Tampa Bay Rays blog DRaysBay and Texas Rangers blog Lone Star Ball for more Game 2 analysis.