Rangers' Trip Off to Good Start

Jun 26, 12:30 AM

Current Headlines: DETROIT _ The sleep-deprived Texas Rangers may not remember much about Monday night's 8-3 win over Detroit.

That's a shame. What happened had to be seen to be believed.

Just to jog their memory: Kameron Loe outpitched Jeremy Bonderman. The Rangers scored seven of their eight runs with two outs. Akinori Otsuka, throwing curveballs not many people knew he even threw, breezed through the heart of the Detroit order in the eighth inning. And the Rangers began an 11-day stretch against the teams with the three best records in baseball by snapping Detroit's seven-game win streak.

It all happened less than 24 hours after the Rangers came back from five runs to tie a game against Houston in both the eighth and ninth innings only to lose. Then they got on a plane and flew to Detroit. They didn't arrive at their hotel until about 5 a.m. Monday.

"We've been playing good baseball lately and we emphasized after (Sunday's loss) that it was just one day," said Jerry Hairston Jr., who delivered a two-out homer in the ninth for the knockout punch. "If we keep doing a good job day in and day out, we're going to get the job done more times than not."

It was something they could apparently understand, even through half-lidded eyes.

Loe was the one wide-awake Ranger. He flew ahead of the team and had a full night in Detroit to ruminate on the beating the Tigers administered him nearly three weeks ago. The nine hits and nine runs he allowed in only 22/3 innings June 7 were enough to convince the Rangers that Loe needed a minor league tutorial.

Circumstances, of course, intervened, and with only a single bullpen session in the minors and a new arm slot, Loe returned a changed man. He worked out of jams in the first and second innings and ended up giving the Rangers seven innings on a night when the bullpen was precariously thin.

As he did in his last two starts, Loe relied on his sinking fastball and was more willing to throw off-speed and breaking pitches. He was not nearly as predictable as he had been when the Tigers mashed him.

"You can be successful in this league if you can sink the ball and you can change speeds," manager Ron Washington said. "He did an outstanding job of that."

That's what Loe has done in all three of his starts since a torn callous on Brandon McCarthy's finger necessitated his quick return. All three have qualified as quality starts. In those starts, he's gotten 40 ground ball outs to 10 fly outs.

Loe allowed a first-inning run from a bases-loaded, one-out jam. In the second, he allowed the first two runners to reach but got a sacrifice bunt and then two grounders. The Rangers then gave him four two-out runs in the top of the third.

"I don't want to say I got lucky, but maybe I did get a little bit," Loe said. "But I definitely had some extra motivation against these guys."

Loe wasn't the only one with extra motivation.

Otsuka, who was held back from Sunday's game with Houston so he could potentially close Monday (or perhaps be showcased for Detroit) came in to face Gary Sheffield, Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen with a 4-2 lead in the eighth. He retired the terrifying trio on nine pitches. Ordonez and Guillen both made outs on curves. Otsuka has primarily used a slider for his breaking ball, but has become more aggressive with the curve.

The Rangers were able to use Otsuka in the eighth because two innings earlier Eric Gagne convinced them he could pitch a third consecutive day. That's no small feat, considering the last time he did it was Sept. 9-11, 2004, before arm and back surgeries cost him nearly two seasons. He got up and began throwing in the top of the ninth, but when the Rangers scored four runs in the inning, the team was able to use Frank Francisco instead.

"My arm felt better than it has all year," Gagne said. "It felt great."

Maybe, being sleep-deprived, he just didn't know any better.

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