Guardians 4 - 7 Rangers
Final
  for this game

Rangers use offense to once again subdue Tribe

Sep 16, 2011 - 5:47 AM

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Arlington, TX (Sports Network) - Josh Hamilton homered for a third straight contest and Alexi Ogando pitched six shutout innings, as the Rangers earned a 7-4 win to sweep the Indians in a three-game series and widen their lead atop the AL West.

Michael Young had a three-run double and Adrian Beltre followed in the fifth inning with two-run homer, as Texas won its fourth in a row and moved 3 1/2 games ahead of the Angels in the division. The Rangers head to Seattle this weekend, while Los Angeles travels to Baltimore.

Ogando (13-8) allowed two hits, walked two and had four strikeouts to win for the first time in his last five starts. It was his first triumph at home since July 6 against the Orioles.

This was complete domination for the Rangers in the series and this season when facing the Indians. Texas, which held a 26-9 scoring margin in these three games, went 9-1 vs. Cleveland this year and has won 11 of the last 12 meetings. The Rangers have captured 18 of the last 21 meetings and are 21-4 against the Tribe since the start of 2009.

Fausto Carmona (6-15) was charged with seven hits and six runs -- five earned -- over six innings to drop his third straight decision.

Endy Chavez made a nice catch against the wall to rob Jason Kipnis of a hit in the opening inning and Ogando survived a 39-pitch second frame. He fanned Lonnie Chisenhall and Lou Marson with the bases loaded to escape the jam.

"Competitive juices. He was in trouble and worked his way out of it," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "From that point on, he threw four pretty good innings."

Elvis Andrus bounced a single into left field to score Chavez in the third and the Rangers widened the gap to 6-0 in the fifth.

Chavez singled and stole second before Ian Kinsler walked. Both runners advanced on a sacrifice bunt from Andrus. Hamilton was put on intentionally to load the bases for Young, who laced a hit into the left field corner for his 40th double of the year.

Beltre then belted his 25th homer of the year, a shot to right-center field. He extended his hitting streak to a career-high 19 games, currently the longest mark in the majors.

Carlos Santana scored on Shelley Duncan's base hit up the middle in the top of the seventh, but Hamilton went deep off Rafael Perez to start the bottom half.

Ezequiel Carrera singled in a run in the eighth, then Grady Sizemore and Shelley Duncan scored on Lou Marson's double in the ninth.

Cleveland's loss reduced Detroit's magic number to one for clinching the AL Central title. Nonetheless, Indians manager Manny Acta said it's been a good year for his team.

"There are a lot of positives out of the year so far," he said. "We never anticipated we could survive all the things that happened to our ball club."

Game Notes

Young has 101 RBI on the year, marking his second career season with 100-plus RBI...Indians outfielder Shin-Soo Choo, who was activated from the 15-day disabled list prior to the game, left in the second inning with left rib cage aggravation... Texas has homered in eight straight to match the club's longest streak of 2011.






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