Wilson, Young lead Rangers to big win over Angels

Arlington, TX, United States (AHN) – When Michael Young’s first-inning home run disappeared into the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s bullpen beyond the left-center field wall, no one could have figured that would be the only time anyone would cross home plate.

But thanks to a couple of outstanding pitching performances, most notably from C.J. Wilson, who tossed eight shutout innings, the Texas Rangers held on for a nail-biting 1-0 victory over the Angels Friday night at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

The win was the Rangers’ second in a row over the Angels and extended their lead in the American League West Division over them to a season-high seven games. Los Angeles has now lost four of their last five.

“That was just a hell of a game right there,” said Young, whose home run, his 14th of the season, marked the second straight night that he belted put the Rangers ahead early with a first-inning blast. “Two pitchers throwing really well, two teams going really hard, trying to win that ball game. Obviously, you can’t say enough about the way C.J. threw the ball tonight. And we needed it, because their pitching staff was throwing really well also. It was all pitching and defense tonight.”

For Texas, Wilson (9-5) had a masterful outing, allowing no runs on just four hits through eight innings while striking out three and retiring 15 in a row at one point. He was so dominating, no Angel runner even made it to second base.

“I don’t think we can be any happier with what C.J. did tonight,” Rangers manager Ron Washington said. “No one reached second base. He went through that lineup and that’s a tough lineup to go through. He was in command from the first pitch. I really believe he came into his own tonight. He was just outstanding.”

Neftali Feliz came in for the ninth to get the final three outs and earned his league-leading 27th save.

Angels starter Joe Saunders (6-10) nearly matched him pitch-for-pitch, tossing seven strong innings, allowing just the one run on seven hits, while walking one and striking out six. Saunders also threw a whopping 126 pitches, a career-high for the fifth-year left-hander.

“It’s frustrating,” said Saunders, who is now 0-4 in his last four stars against Texas, with a 10.70 ERA. “Obviously, this is a big series – every series we play against them from now on is going to be a big series. I’m frustrated that we didn’t come out with the win tonight. I just kind of made one mistake, it cost us the game. So tip your cap, they threw the ball well, they played great baseball.”

For the second straight night, Young, batting second, drilled a solo home run in the first inning, off a 3-2 pitch, but this time the one-run lead lasted all night.

“I wouldn’t have thought we’d win that game 1-0,” Washington admitted, “but C.J. was determined and he did the job, kept them off-balance, used his sinker tonight, got quite a few ground balls. He was in control the whole night.”

The Rangers threatened again in the fourth inning when back-to-back singles by Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz put runners at first and third with one out, but Saunders managed to induce David Murphy to pop out to second and then struck out Matt Treanor to get out of the jam.

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