Arlington, TX – Matt Harrison worked five scoreless innings on Sunday and the Texas Rangers held on to knock off the Colorado Rockies, 4-2, in the finale of a three-game interleague series at Rangers Ballpark.
Harrison (10-3) struck out three and walked two while allowing just five hits to earn the win. Robbie Ross, Tanner Scheppers and Mike Adams each threw a scoreless inning of relief before Joe Nathan allowed two runs in the ninth, but finished off the victory for the Rangers, who have won eight of their last nine games.
Leonys Martin went 2-for-4 with a two-run triple and an RBI double, and Elvis Andrus added an RBI double in the win.
"We know the kid can swing the bat. It's just the other parts of the game that we're trying to make sure that he gathers," Rangers manager Ron Washington said about Martin. "He played great tonight."
Marco Scutaro ripped an RBI single and Carlos Gonzalez chipped in with an RBI on a sacrifice fly for the Rockies, losers in six of their previous eight contests.
Alex White (2-6) yielded four runs on six hits with three strikeouts and four walks in just 2 2/3 innings to absorb the loss.
After squandering a scoring opportunity in their first at-bat, the Rangers got on the board with a pair of runs in the second inning. Nelson Cruz worked a leadoff walk, stole second and moved to third on a Mike Napoli groundout.
Martin then brought him home with a double into the right-center field gap before advancing to third on a passed ball by Rockies catcher Wilin Rosario. Two batters later, Andrus plated Martin with a two-base hit into right field.
The Rangers extended their lead to 4-0 in the third when Martin laced a triple into right field to bring home Michael Young and Cruz.
Jonathan Herrera started the Colorado ninth with a base hit and Dexter Fowler walked before Eric Young Jr. was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. Scutaro laced a base hit through the hole into left field to score Herrera and Gonzalez brought home Fowler with a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 4-2.
Nathan then got some help from the Rockies due to poor base running. With Jason Giambi at the plate, a pitch got away from Napoli and Scutaro got caught in a rundown between first and second. He originally slid in to second safely, but came off the bag and was tagged out, essentially erasing all of the Rockies momentum in the inning. Giambi then struck out to end the game.
"We had it all set up. I don't know why he did that," Rockies manager Jim Tracy said about Scutaro's baserunning mistake.
Game Notes
Texas is 11-11 all-time against the Rockies in the regular season...Sunday marked the Rangers' 22nd sellout of the season, which established a new team record for sellouts in a season. The previous record was 21 in the team's first season at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington in 1994...Colorado went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base.
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