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Soto, Profar lift Rangers over Rays

Sep 9, 2012 - 5:21 AM St. Petersburg, FL (Sports Network) - Geovany Soto and Jurickson Profar hit back-to-back, two-out doubles in the 10th inning to lift the Texas Rangers over the Tampa Bay Rays, 4-2, in the middle test of a three-game series at Tropicana Field.

Josh Hamilton, who hit a two-run homer earlier in the contest, was later hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring in another run for Texas, which played in extra innings for the third straight game.

Mike Adams (5-3) stranded a runner on second in the bottom of the ninth to earn the win and Joe Nathan tossed a scoreless 10th for his 31st save of the season as the AL West-leading Rangers won for the fifth time in seven games.

Kyle Farnsworth (1-4) surrendered the deciding runs to take the loss for the Rays, who have lost two of their last three but still sit two games behind the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees for the top spot in the AL East.

Both starting pitchers sparkled despite not receiving a decision as Yu Darvish allowed two runs -- one earned -- on two hits and two walks while striking out eight over eight innings and Chris Archer, who made his third career start in place of an injured David Price, gave up two runs on four hits and two walks with 11 strikeouts through seven frames.

"I was able to keep my team in the game and that's pretty much what the goal was," Archer said.

Farnsworth retired the first two batters in the 10th inning before Soto doubled and came home on Profar's two-bagger down the first-base line for the deciding run.

Ian Kinsler followed with a walk and Elvis Andrus hit an infield single to load the bases before Hamilton was hit on his back foot with a slider in the dirt to bring home Profar for an insurance run.

Ryan Roberts was given a free pass with two outs in the bottom of the 10th to bring the tying run to the plate, but Nathan caught Carlos Pena looking at a 2-2 slider to end the game.

Pena argued the call with home plate umpire Mike Estabrook and was ejected from the game.

"These guys play us tough," Rangers left fielder David Murphy said about the Rays. "Anything that we can pull out like tonight is a great win."

Texas broke the scoreless tie in the fourth inning when Andrus worked a one- out walk before Hamilton hammered a ball over the center-field wall.

Darvish, meanwhile, faced the minimum through the first five frames until Jeff Keppinger singled to lead off the sixth inning and Roberts followed with a walk.

Both runners advanced a base on a wild pitch before Sam Fuld brought home Keppinger with a groundout to short.

Roberts advanced to third on the play, but B.J. Upton flied out to left field to end the inning and keep it a 2-1 game.

The Rays were able to knot the game in the eighth inning after Keppinger walked with one out and pinch-runner Rich Thompson stole second.

Pena came on as a pinch-hitter and hit a grounder to the right side of the infield that could have ended the inning, but Kinsler, who was playing in shallow right field, had the ball glance off his glove, allowing Thompson to score on the error.

Upton hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the ninth inning and later stole second with two outs to place the winning run in scoring position, but Adams induced a Matt Joyce line out to left field to force extras.

Game Notes

Texas' Michael Young had his streak of six straight games with an RBI snapped ... The season series between the teams is now tied, 4-4 ... The Rangers went 2-for-5 with runners in scoring position and left six men on base ... Tampa Bay hit 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and stranded four.