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Vazquez, Young help Rangers top Indians

Jun 6, 2008 - 4:45 AM By John Tranchina PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- The offense just keeps coming for the Texas Rangers.

Ramon Vazquez drove in three runs and Milton Bradley and Michael Young each homered among their three hits, leading the Rangers to a 9-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Thursday night.

Texas became just the ninth team since 1956 to score eight or more runs in six straight contests. The Rangers have compiled 55 runs over that span, although this was just their third triumph.

"Everybody's working their butt off out here," Vazquez said. "Everybody's going out there with a good plan and they're sticking with it. Every day is a different plan. We got different pitchers coming at us, and they do reports and we know how they pitched to us before, making adjustments - that's how everything is working."

Bradley continued his torrid pace by going 3-for-4 with two RBI, including his 13th homer of the season in the seventh that put the Rangers up, 6-4. He has homered in three straight games and four of his last nine at-bats.

"It just feels good to have some balls fly out of the ballpark and get some wins," Bradley said. "I'm just having a good rhythm at the plate, my timing's good with it. I'm getting square to the plate, I'm seeing the ball early and it's jumping out of the park for me."

On a night when the wind was gusting between 25-42 miles per hour, the Rangers overcame a 4-0 deficit in the first inning to climb back to the .500 mark at 31-31.

"It's tough," Bradley said. "I didn't really notice (the wind) too much at the plate, but on the bases or on deck, it's just blowing right in your face, dirt getting in your eyes. Once they watered down the (warning) track and everything, it was a lot better. It was tough, there was paper and all kind of stuff blowing around, but you just got to stay focused."

Texas pulled even in the third, when Bradley's RBI single scored Young, who hit a leadoff double to extend his hitting streak to league-best 21 games.

The Rangers snapped a 4-4 tie in the sixth as Gerald Laird led off with a double and, three batters later, scored on a slow grounder to shortstop that Young beat out for an infield single.

Texas added three runs in the seventh to blow open the game. Young's sixth blast of the season in the eighth provided the final margin.

The Indians jumped to a 4-0 lead against Kevin Millwood (4-3) before the Rangers even had a chance to swing the bat.

Victor Martinez laced a run-scoring single to center field, Jhonny Peralta hit an RBI double and former Ranger David Dellucci added a two-run, two-base hit to cap.the four-run first frame.

"The first inning was just a weird inning for me," Millwood said. "I felt like I made some good pitches. They hit some good pitches, what do you do? After that, I felt like I settled down. I kept making good pitches and started getting some outs."

After the rough beginning, Millwood settled down to retire 15 in a row before the Indians loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth, a jam the righthander escaped by striking out Shin-Soo Choo.

"That's where you'd really like to see us try to break it open or extend it a little bit there," Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. "Choo put up a good at-bat, but in the end, Millwood threw a fastball by him."

"The last out in the sixth was huge," Millwood said. "It's one of those situations where you definitely want to keep the game tied and give our guys a chance. I knew the guy was a good fastball hitter, but that's what I needed to throw right there, and to get it by him was huge."

Millwood gave up four runs and nine hits, striking out six without a walk.

Texas sliced the deficit to one in the second against C.C. Sabathia (3-8). Chris Shelton had an RBI single, and Vazquez's base hit to right field plated Laird before Shelton came around to score on Choo's fielding error.

Sabathia, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, lost his third straight decision, allowing five runs - four earned - and nine hits in six innings. The lefthander struck out eight and walked three.

"I can't be frustrated, I just didn't pitch that well," Sabathia said. "I'm more frustrated that we're not winning games than about my performance."

"C.C. pitched a lot better than his line," Wedge said. "They had a couple of swinging soft ground balls that they scored runs on. We made a mistake or two behind him, too, and they took advantage of that. I just wish we could have done a better job for C.C. He gave us a chance to win the ballgame. We were just a run down when he came out of the ballgame, but their bullpen did a better job tonight, too, and we weren't able to get to those guys."

Despite all his team's offense, Texas' Ian Kinsler went 0-for-4 with a walk, snapping his career-high 19-game hitting streak.