C.J. Wilson had to work his way out of a tricky situation in the top of the first. He had to work his way out of a tricky situation in the top of the second, too, when consecutive singles by Jhonny Peralta and Ramon Santiago gave the Tigers two on with one out. A strikeout and a ground out, though, let Wilson off the hook, and kept the Tigers off the board.
Rangers vs. Tigers: We Have A Score, Thanks To David Murphy, Ian Kinsler
Then, in the bottom half, we got our first runs. Against Justin Verlander, of all people. Playoff baseball!
Mike Napoli grounded a single to lead off, which didn't seem so bad until David Murphy got a 2-2 changeup that Verlander left sitting over the heart of the plate. Despite being well in front of things, Murphy still launched it deep into the right-center gap for a triple that put the Rangers in front.
It looked like Verlander would limit the damage there, when he got Mitch Moreland to ground back to the mound. Verlander looked over at Murphy and kept him in place before throwing Moreland out at first.
But the Rangers struck with two outs, as Ian Kinsler shot a single through the hole between first and second. That's where the scoring stopped, but two innings in, it's 2-0 Rangers, and Verlander's thrown 49 pitches already.
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