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Catalanotto powers Rangers past Devil Rays

Aug 11, 2007 - 4:53 AM By Randy Krone PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- Frank Catalanotto helped the struggling Texas Rangers get back on track.

Catalanotto homered and drove in five runs as the Rangers posted a 7-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Friday in the opener of a three-game series.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia had two hits and scored twice for Texas, which had lost six of its last seven and nine of its previous 12 contests.

Catalanotto gave the Rangers a 5-3 advantage in the fifth inning when he sent a 2-2 offering from rookie Andy Sonnanstine (1-8) over the right field wall.

Saltalamacchia made up for a fielding mistake in the top half of the inning by leading off the fifth with a double down the right field line. After Ramon Vazquez's bunt single, Catalanotto blasted his eighth home run.

"He (Sonnanstine) threw me a good 2-1 pitch and I figured he might come back with it again," Catalanotto said. "He did throw me another changeup but he left this one up and I got a good swing on it."

Catalanotto struck again in the sixth, delivering a bloop two-run single down the left field line to open a 7-4 lead. The 11-year veteran is batting .252 with 33 RBI this season and is 11-for-24 (.458) with nine RBI in his last seven games.

"I was happy to get the fifth RBI," Catalanotto said. "I've driven in four runs several times but getting that fifth is special. It's nice to come up with men on base and you don't expect to get opportunities like that hitting leadoff."

Mike Wood (2-1) recorded the win for the Rangers after pitching 2 1/3 innings of one-run relief.

C.J. Wilson pitched the final 1 1/3 frames to garner his fourth save. Wilson has not allowed a run in 13 consecutive appearances.

"I wanted C.J. to get Crawford to end the eighth," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "Then in the ninth, I wanted him to get Pena. He got through (B.J.) Upton, got Pena swinging and at that point there's no way I'm going to take the ball out of his hands."

Tampa Bay took a 3-2 lead when Carlos Pena, Delmon Young and Brendan Harris each drove in runs in the fifth inning that ended starter Brandon McCarthy's night. None of the runs were earned due to first baseman Saltalamacchia's fielding error to begin the inning.

"I thought in the fifth, if we had made some plays, we could have gotten McCarthy through the inning," Washington said. "We tried to let him work through it but when the lead run got on, we had to shut it down."

Sonnanstine surrendered five runs and seven hits over 4 1/3 innings en route to dropping his eighth straight decision since earning his first major league win on June 10.

"The turning point of the game was when I left that changeup on that three-run home run," Sonnanstine said. "I'm going to the well too often with the changeup and the slider. I need to go more with the fastball."

Michael Young started the scoring for Texas in third frame with a two-run double to center field off the glove of a diving Upton, scoring Vazquez and Ian Kinsler. The 30-year-old Young is 35-for-83 (.422) over his last 21 games.

McCarthy lasted just 4 2/3 innings after tossing 102 pitches, yielding three unearned runs and six hits with three walks and three strikeouts.