Cliff Lee may have had his worst outing as a Ranger. You couldn’t tell it early on, as Lee piled up zeroes on the runs column for the first four innings. He then let the Rays on the board with a two spot in the bottom of the fifth, when a Willy Aybar single scored two. OK, not too bad. Two runs, we can live with that.
We actually made a game of it, and it looked good late. The Rangers offense was shut down by Chad Price, who went six plus innings. The first six, the Rangers had no runs at all. Then Price weakened, and we put up two in the seventh. The first scored during a double play the Rangers had hit into, and hten the other on a single. So no big power here, just a lot of small ball. But OK, game’s tied 2-2, and Cliff Lee’s on the mound. That’s good.
Even better in the eighth, when we duplicated the seventh by scoring a run in the middle of a double play, and then singling in the other guy. Now we’re up 4-2 going into the bottom of the eighth with Cliff Lee on the mound. Feeling good.
Nope, that was not the feeling I should have had given the outcome. The wheels fell off in the eighth, when Lee gave up a four spot to the Rays. None of those were power RBI’s either, as one was a fielder’s choice, and the other runs came on two singles.
Not Cliff Lee’s night, and you couldn’t blame the Texas heat for that one. He fell apart late. It’s OK, I suppose, it’s not like he’s going to go 34-0 in a season, he’ll lose some here and there. Better now than October I suppose. :)