fireworks

The Rangers gave up another lead today as the bullpen gave up a few runs in the 8th but the offense carried the pitching today scoring a couple runs in the bottom of the ninth for a nice 4th of July win. The Rangers pick up a game in the standing with the Angels loss to the Twins. The Rangers have won five of their last six, including Monday night's 6-5 win against the Red Sox that provided a triumphant ending to what has been quite an interesting first half of the season. Despite leaving 11 men on base (nothing new there) and twice leaving the bases loaded, the Rangers came back from a 5-3, eighth-inning deficit thanks to some clutch hitting by a pair of All-Stars and a potential reserve. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th with one out, Kevin Mench, the object of Showalter's late All-Star campaigning, lined Keith Foulke's first pitch down the left-field line, sending the season-high crowd of 50,492 at The Ballpark into a pre-fireworks frenzie. It marked only the second time in 35 chances that the Rangers have won when trailing after eight innings, and shocker of all shockers, they didn't even hit a home run.