Cole Hamels pitches gem, stops Rangers’ three-game losing streak

Cole Hamels said that he doesn’t focus on how his team has done entering his next start.

“I just want to go out there and win,” the left-hander said Friday night.

The Texas Rangers, though, had lost three straight games — two in walk-offs and one in a blowout — entering the opener of a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers. The Rangers needed their ace to deliver, especially against a pitcher who was coming off one of the finest Aprils in history.

Hamels did what aces do, what the Rangers needed him to do and what they hoped he would do.

He wasn’t just the winning pitcher as the Rangers beat Jordan Zimmermann and the Tigers 5-1. Hamels dominated over seven innings, allowing only a leadoff single to Ian Kinsler and two walks, to help the Rangers win for the first time since Monday.

“This is why we have him and why he’s part of this ballclub,” manager Jeff Banister said. “He’s our ace. He’s the guy that we look to, to be that stopper as a starter, if you will, to halt any kind of slide, and that’s exactly what he did. He put a foot down for us and gave our hitters an opportunity to go to work.”

Hamels struck out nine in his finest start of the season, but he had help along the way from second baseman Rougned Odor and catcher Bobby Wilson. Odor went 3 for 5 with a homer and three RBIs, and Wilson collected two hits and worked with Hamels to lay out a game plan against the team that traded him back to the Rangers on Tuesday.

“He didn’t tell me too many secrets,” Hamels said.

Maybe not, but Kinsler’s blooper into right field as the Tigers’ first batter was all Hamels (4-0) would surrender. The Tigers didn’t make solid contact often, if at all, and Kinsler was the only runner to get to third against Hamels.

He retired 10 straight following the Kinsler single, and then retired seven in a row after a walk to Miguel Cabrera in the fourth. Hamels’ final pitch was a called third strike to Nick Castellanos, who entered with the best qualifying average (.383) in the majors.

Banister said that Hamels, who allowed four runs in five innings Sunday against the Los Angeles Angels, repeated his delivery better and was more in rhythm on normal rest after having 10 days’ rest before the Angels start because of a sore left groin.

Hamels, though, said it came down to better focus and getting ahead of hitters.

“It’s probably more just mentally bearing down a little bit,” said Hamels, who has won his past 11 decisions. “In the situations that I put myself in in that previous game, I wasn’t really establishing fastballs for strikes early, and from there I wasn’t putting myself in good counts. Here, I was just trying to execute pitches down, and if they were going to be aggressive, they were going to be aggressive.”

The Rangers scored each of their runs with two outs, starting with Elvis Andrus doubling in Mitch Moreland from first base in the second inning. Wilson followed with single for a 2-0 lead that marked the first time this season that Zimmermann had allowed more than one earned run in a start.

“I wasn’t going to give in,” said Wilson, who sent a liner into left field on the eighth pitch of the at-bat. “I want to beat those guys now. I was cheering for them a few days ago, but I want to win here.”

Zimmermann, who posted a 5-0 record with a 0.55 ERA in April to be named the American League Pitcher of the Month, didn’t allow another run until Odor homered deep to right field in the fifth.

Odor, the team leader in homers with five, slapped a double to left-center field in the ninth to score two more runs.

“We look to Roogie to be a force in the lineup,” Banister said. “When he gets a ball to hit, he tends to find the barrel.”

The five runs were more than enough for Hamels, who did what the Rangers needed him to do even if he wasn’t looking at it that way.

“I’m just going out there trying to win no matter what the situation is,” Hamels said. “Whether we’ve got a 10-game winning streak or we’re on a one-game losing streak or, obviously, a three, I just want to help this team win and help this ballclub move forward to the next day with a victory.”

This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 10:13 PM with the headline "Cole Hamels pitches gem, stops Rangers’ three-game losing streak."