Lewis’ pitching, defense carry Rangers over Tigers

The mark of a good team is its ability to win in a number of ways.

Judging by the way the Texas Rangers have played since the All-Star break, they’ve become a good team.

They have won high-scoring games. They have come from behind to win games. They have manufactured runs to win games. Even their bullpen has won them games.

On Friday, pitching and defense carried the day in a 2-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers. Colby Lewis was aided by several key defensive plays over seven scoreless innings, and Keone Kela and Shawn Tolleson finished off Lewis’ league-best 14th win of the season.

The Rangers turned three double plays behind Lewis, and newcomer Will Venable contributed an RBI double and an outfield assist on a play at the plate as the Rangers won for the seventh time in their past nine games and improved to 20-13 in the second half.

“We’re just conscious of going out there and competing,” Lewis said. “We’ve got a good group of guys together. All we want to do is go out there and win ballgames.

“Early in the year, I feel we were trying to get to know each other. I feel like we know what kind of team we are, and that’s the team we’ve always been. We go out there and have fun, we give each other a hard time, we get on each other when we need to, and we win.”

The win Friday, though, didn’t help the Rangers in the American League West standings. Houston beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-0 on a no-hitter by Mike Fiers, keeping the Rangers four games back in third place.

But the Rangers were only a game out of the second wild-card spot pending the outcome of a late game between the two teams holding down wild-card spots, the Toronto Blue Jays and LA Angels.

The Rangers’ win was delayed some seven minutes in the bottom of the eighth inning after Tigers center fielder Anthony Gose sent a line drive on a Kela fastball foul behind the Tigers’ dugout and struck a female fan in the head. She was removed from the stands in a medical chair wearing a neck brace but appeared to be alert.

“The ballgame got put in perspective for us,” manager Jeff Banister said. “We really hope the lady that got struck is all right, and we pray for her.”

Lewis (14-5) breezed through the first two innings before finding trouble in the third. But he escaped thanks to an inning-ending double play, the first of three double plays behind him.

The Rangers ended the sixth when Rougned Odor, playing in shallow right field as part of a defensive shift, jumped to catch a Victor Martinez liner and threw to second for an out that stood after a review that got Tigers manager Brad Ausmus ejected.

Elvis Andrus and Odor turned another double play in the seventh to erase a leadoff single by J.D. Martinez.

“They’re every pitcher’s best friend,” Lewis said of the double plays.

The biggest defensive play, though, came in the fourth. Cabrera, who had three doubles, was still at second when Nick Castellanos singled to left field, and the two-time MVP rumbled home.

Venable threw to the plate, and Bobby Wilson applied the tag. Cabrera was called safe, but replay overturned the call and preserved the 2-0 lead the Rangers had taken after three innings against Justin Verlander.

Venable drove in the first run with two outs in the second. He took a close pitch from Verlander to fill the count, then sliced the next pitch into left-center to score Andrus.

Delino DeShields started the fourth with a bunt single and went to third two batters later as Verlander threw wildly on a pickoff try. Prince Fielder then lofted a sacrifice fly to easily score DeShields.

The defense and Lewis, Kela and Tolleson, who struck out the side in the ninth after Cabrera’s third double, made those two early runs stand up.

“The guys have been throwing the ball well, so that’s the least we can do for them — give them good defense,” Andrus said. “Today, Colby and Verlander were pretty good. We were able to score early, but all the credit goes to the Colby and the bullpen.”

This story was originally published August 21, 2015 at 10:47 PM with the headline "Lewis’ pitching, defense carry Rangers over Tigers."