Scott Feldman took the mound to start this game, and sadly, we got the 2010 version as opposed to the 2009 version. This wasn’t good, as we still had to play games in Detroit, a city we haven’t won even so much as a single game at in years and years.
So Feldman’s performance certainly didn’t help. Just five innings with seven hits and two walks. Of which three of the hits were home runs pretty much led to the five earned runs that Feldman gave up. Two of the home runs were by Miguel Cabrera, which isn’t a shame, really, as he’s a great hitter, but still, it just felt like it was more Feldman’s pitching than Cabera’s bat.
The Rangers scored a bunch early on, with a two spot in the first (two run homer by Kinsler), and three in the third (couple of singles, etc). The problem is that Feldman couldn’t hold that up. The Tigers scored a run in each of the first three runs. Then two of the home runs came in the bottom of the fifth when Feldman allowed two solo home runs, and the Tigers tied the game at this point. The Rangers and Tigers traded solo runs in the seventh and eighth, allowing to a feeling that the Rangers were going to lose the game, adding to the despair of Detroit.
When Feldman first came out of the game, he was replaced by Dustin Nippert, who got an out, but the second batter got the ball came back and hit Nippert on the head, which bounced into left field. Dustin laid on the ground for awhile, and when he went off the field he was actually smiling. It’s quite amazing and a blessing by God that he wasn’t hurt. Quite a blessing.
Darren O’Day came in and finished off Nippert’s inning, and was followed by Alexi Ogando who gave up the tying run, although it was technically Francisco who allowed the run to score. We were saved so to speak by Matt Harrison who came in and pitched four innings. He did allow two hits and four walks, but most importantly no runs.
The game lasted a very long time – in all just a few minutes short of five hours. I hung around watching all of the game. I did think we were going to lose once when the bases were loaded, but we got out of it by a double play.
We got to the fourteenth inning, and Nelson Cruz saved the day with a two run home run in the top of the inning. It just barely cleared the wall right next to the right field foul pole. I initially thought it was going to be reviewed, as it appeared that a fan might have interfered with it, but it was allowed.
Feliz came in and got the save and the Rangers finally broke the streak of losses in Detroit. It just made you feel good finally about the team. It’s pretty cool how well we’ve played in Boston & Detroit after the debacle at home with Baltimore.