Cleveland, OH – Justin Masterson pitched into the eighth inning as the Cleveland Indians took a 1-0 win over the Texas Rangers in the second of a three-game series.
Masterson (12-7) won his second straight start as he gave up five hits and a walk with eight strikeouts over 7 2/3 innings. Michael Bourn's home run accounted for the only run of the game to help the Indians win a third straight game.
"Any time you pitch a game like that it's a humbling experience because there were a lot of groundballs and the guys behind me made a lot of nice plays tonight," said Masterson.
Yu Darvish (9-5) was the hard-luck loser as he was charged for just the one run on three hits with four walks and 11 strikeouts over six innings. Engel Beltre had two of the five hits for the Rangers, who have dropped eight of their last 10.
"After that home run they just couldn't hit him," said Texas manager Ron Washington about Darvish. "He was controlling the game, but we just couldn't do much at the plate."
The only run of this game came on the second pitch of Cleveland's first at-bat as Bourn drilled a 1-0 cutter over the right field wall for his fourth home run of the season.
Masterson's toughest inning was the fifth as Geovany Soto singled with one out, Ian Kinsler was hit by a pitch two batters later, and Beltre singled to load the bases. Nelson Cruz, though, hit a grounder to short for the forceout at second.
After setting the Rangers down in order in the sixth and seventh, Masterson got the first two outs of the eighth before stepping aside after Cruz singled.
Joe Smith, though, got Adrian Beltre to fly out and Chris Perez pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 14th save of the season.
Game Notes
It was the 13th shutout of the season for the Indians ... Cleveland has won four of the five games against Texas this season ... The Rangers have been blanked seven times this year.
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