Rangers get the better of Angels again, 1-0
As Muhammad Ali used to say, “It ain’t bragging if you can back it up.”
Texas left-hander C.J. Wilson did just that Friday night, giving up four hits in eight innings to outduel Angels lefty Joe Saunders and lead the Rangers to a 1-0 victory at Rangers Ballpark.
Michael Young’s first-inning home run to left field was the difference in the ninth 1-0 game in the hitter-friendly stadium’s 17-year history.
Closer Neftali Feliz threw a one-two-three ninth for his American League-leading 27th save, whiffing Bobby Abreu with a 96-mph fastball for the final out, as the Rangers won the first two games of a four-game series and extended their division lead to seven games.
“It’s a learning experience,” Saunders said, when asked how the Angels, winners of five of six division titles, were adapting to being hunters instead of the hunted. “It will show what this team is made of, whether we’re going to fold or [go all out] the rest of the year.”
Wilson, a former Fountain Valley High standout, appears to have learned a little something too.
Wilson raised some eyebrows in the Angels’ clubhouse on July 1 when, after a 2-1 loss to the Angels in Anaheim, he said the Rangers were “the better team, 100%. When we play up to our capabilities, it might not even be that close.”
Asked whether he noticed those comments, Angels center fielder Torii Hunter said, “I don’t miss a thing.”
Hunter didn’t want to engage Wilson in a war of words, but he said the 29-year-old should know better.
“That’s immaturity,” Hunter said. “You can express that in the clubhouse, but not in the media. You don’t want to wake up a team. That can make you look bad.”
No doubt, someone in the Rangers’ clubhouse got that message across to Wilson. After limiting the Angels to four singles, not allowing a runner to reach second and retiring 15 in a row from the third through eighth innings, Wilson praised his opponent.
“Despite the gap in the standings, they’re right there with us on the field,” said Wilson, who struck out three and walked none to improve to 9-5. “They’re good.”
Saunders certainly was, giving up one run and seven hits, striking out six and walking one in seven innings, easily his best effort in a park in which he was 0-5 with an 11.68 earned-run average before Friday.
With the help of two superb defensive plays by second baseman Howie Kendrick in the seventh, Saunders (6-10) retired the last nine batters he faced and threw a career-high 126 pitches, 78 for strikes.
“I threw 172 pitches — in seven innings — in a Babe Ruth League game when I was 13, so hopefully 126 won’t hurt me,” Saunders said. “We won that game, but both of my parents were like, ‘Let’s not do that again.’ ”
The Angels got well-pitched games from Jered Weaver on Thursday and Saunders on Friday; they hit the ball hard with little to show for it Thursday; and they played crisp defense Friday.
And still, the Rangers won both games. Texas leads the season series, 5-2, but six of the seven games have been decided by one run, so there is not a huge gap between the teams.
But could there be some thought creeping into the Angels’ heads that Texas is the better team?
“I don’t think so,” Saunders said. “If you look at the games, they’ve been close. It’s either one pitch, one mistake or someone comes up with a great play and we come out on the losing end. But we still play them 12 more times, it’s not panic mode yet.”
Hunter said the Rangers have the best defensive team he’s seen in his 12 years in the big leagues, and he is impressed with many of Texas’ pitchers, but he was not about to concede that the Rangers have the better team this season.
“I would never say that,” Hunter said. “I’m a competitor. If I hear one guy in this room saying that, we’re fighting. I don’t care if they’re 20 games up, I would never say that.”
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