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Friday, Aug. 25 8:05pm ET
Rangers' Davis denies Wells his 19th win | |||||
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GAME LOG
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- Texas Rangers rookie Doug Davis approached Friday night as a personal challenge to deny David Wells' bid to become the first 19-game winner in the majors. Davis matched Wells for eight scoreless innings, then Rusty Greer's RBI single in the 11th gave the Rangers a 1-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. "Of course I knew who I was going up against and what he was going for," said Davis. "I was going to put a lot of zeros up, pitch as well as I could, and give him a run for his money. I wanted to make No. 19 tough for him." Wells allowed eight hits and one walk in eight scoreless innings, but failed to extend his personal high for victories in a season when the Blue Jays couldn't score off Davis and two relievers. Davis allowed four hits and five walks in eight innings before turning it over to John Wetteland. It was the longest scoreless outing in Davis' career. "He (Davis) was throwing strikes and being aggressive," said Rangers manager Johnny Oates. "He's thrown strikes out of the bullpen all year, then he's thrown strikes in his last two starts. It's probably more mental than physical. He might have been giving these hitters too much credit." Oates has been trying to decide if Davis' future is as a starter or out of the bullpen. Davis doesn't care, as long as he gets the ball. Davis was making his third straight start and was coming off a 6-2 complete-game victory over Boston on Aug. 20. "Before I was throwing across my body too much," Davis said. "I couldn't hit the inside corner throwing that way. So I opened up a little more." Bill Haselman led off the 11th with a single off Billy Koch (6-3). Pinch-runner Scarborough Green went to second when Koch hit Mike Lamb with a pitch while Lamb was attempting to bunt. Koch then was unable to field Scott Sheldon's bunt, which went for a single to load the bases. After Luis Alicea grounded into a force play at the plate, Greer hit line drive over the head of a drawn-in Shannon Stewart in left field to end Toronto's three-game winning streak. "We had some opportunities earlier in the game, situations where I didn't get the job done," said Greer. "I went with the pitch and tried to hit it hard." The Rangers were 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position before Greer's game-winner. Koch said the key to the 11th was his inability to field Sheldon's bunt. "I fell off to the side," Koch said. "I tried to barehand it, but I missed by about a foot and a half. It was just bad fielding -- that's it." Mike Venafro (2-1) pitched a scoreless 11th for the victory. This was only the second game in the majors this season to be scoreless after nine innings. San Diego and Florida also failed to score after nine innings on Aug. 12, before the Padres won 2-1 in 10 innings. Texas' last game that was without a run after nine innings came on Sept. 22, 1992. The Rangers went on to lose to Minnesota 1-0 in 13 innings. The Rangers threatened in the ninth against Kelvim Escobar. They loaded the bases with one out on a walk to Ricky Ledee, Haselman's double and an intentional walk to Lamb. But pinch-hitter Frank Catalanotto's fly ball to center was too shallow to score Ledee and Alicea flied to left to end the inning. Wells allowed baserunners in six of his eight innings, but pitched out of trouble to keep the game scoreless. Texas was able to get only one runner as far as third against Wells when Chad Curtis doubled leading off the fourth and went to third on a fly-out. But Wells struck out Gabe Kapler and Ledee to end the threat. Game notesThe umpiring crew had to wear makeshift uniforms because their equipment didn't arrive in time. The equipment is scheduled to catch up with the umpires in time for Saturday night's game. ... Toronto's Dave Martinez stretched his hitting streak to 15 games. ... Greer drove home the game-winner in the Rangers' final at-bat for the 17th time since the start of the 1995 season. ... Toronto is 1-6 in extra-inning games this season. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Toronto Clubhouse Texas Clubhouse RECAPS Baltimore 4 Tampa Bay 3
Texas 1
Los Angeles 3
San Francisco 16
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