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Loe, three homers allow Rangers to avoid sweep

Jun 15, 2007 - 3:15 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Kameron Loe might have given the Texas Rangers the jolt they needed.

Loe, just recalled from Class AAA, tossed eight scoreless innings to lead the struggling Rangers to a 6-0 victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday.

Texas came in a season-low 19 games below .500 and had lost the first two games of the series with the Pirates by a combined score of 15-6.

But Loe, owner of a 1-6 record and 7.40 ERA coming in, silenced the hot Pirates bats in place of scheduled starter Brandon McCarthy to earn his first win since April 21. McCarthy was scratched and placed on the 15-day disabled list on Wednesday with a blister on his pitching hand.

"I knew when I was up here (earlier in the season), things weren't going quite right and I needed to get something together," Loe said of his demotion. "But maybe something subconsciously clicked (in the minors).

"I don't want to go back down there that's for sure, so I'm going to continue to work hard, as I always do, and I'll take that into my next start."

Loe had lost six consecutive decisions and in his most recent start, June 7, lasted just 2 2/3 innings while surrendering nine hits and nine earned runs. Thursday, however, he allowed just five hits and three walks while striking out seven.

"He showed us what we knew he always had," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "Previous to this start, he just never had it for the whole time he was out there. Tonight he had it for the whole time he was out there.

"He was finishing his pitches off, he was making pitches when he had to make them and he relied on his sinker. When he got into a situation when he had to make a pitch, he threw his sinker, which is his bread and butter."

The Pirates had only two players reach second base against Loe. Once in the fifth when Ryan Doumit got a two-out double, then Jose Castillo was walked intentionally. But Pirates starter Tom Gorzelanny bounced out to second to end the inning. In the following inning, Chris Duffy hit a one-out single and stole second base. But he was stranded there after Freddy Sanchez struck out swinging and Jason Bay grounded out to shortstop.

"He had a very, very good sinker and to his credit, he threw a lot of strikes early in the count," Pittsburgh manager Jim Tracy said of Loe. "His ball-strike ratio tonight was very, very good. He was throwing a lot of strike ones and then getting us to swing. The type of game he pitched tonight, I find it hard to believe that all the previous games that he pitched (this season) were similar to the way he pitched tonight."

Not only did Loe shine on the mound, but he also got his first career major-league hit with a single to right to lead off the eighth. It also snapped an 0-for-30 streak for Texas hurlers at the plate. It had been since June 12, 2005, since a Rangers pitcher had a hit (Ricardo Rodriguez).

Loe eventually scored on a single by Michael Young.

Loe (2-6) was the beneficiary of the Rangers' ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark as five of the Rangers' runs came via the long ball. This after they had failed to hit one out of the park in their previous four games.

Jerry Hairston, Jr., led of the game with his second home run of the year and his sixth career leadoff homer. Rookie Travis Metcalf added another run when he hit a solo homer - his first major league hit - to lead off the sixth.

"It was exciting, I'm glad it's finally out of the way," Metcalf said of the hit. "It's only been a couple days since I have been up here but it seemed like the first one took a couple months."

The knockout blow came in the seventh, when Young and Marlon Byrd each singled and then Gerald Laird blasted a ball into the left field bleachers to give the Rangers a 5-0 cushion.

"He threw me three changeups on that at-bat and I figured if I could stay back on one of them, I'll hit something hard," Laird said. "(On a) 3-2 (count) he threw me a changeup again and I hit it pretty good. He had good stuff, I tip my cap to him, but tonight we put some good swings on and our guy was a little better."

Gorzelanny (6-4) was on the other side of all three homers. He came in ranked sixth in the National League in ERA but surrendered seven hits and five runs in seven innings.

"You can't say you pitched good when you give up three home runs," Gorzelanny said. "Three unlucky pitches and stuff happens."

Duffy and Doumit each had two hits for Pittsburgh, which failed to get its first interleague series sweep since 2001.

"Especially for us, you win the first two (games in the series), it's almost a good-enough feel sometimes not that that was the case (tonight)," the Pirates' Jason Bay said. "But that's one of those games that if we're going to get better, we have to have that killer instinct and not just think that the two out of three is good enough. In order to get better, we're going to have to do better in that situation.