Vladimir Guerrero notched a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the Texas Rangers to a 6-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday night.
On top of sweeping the Pirates, the Rangers have now won 11 straight games.
With the score tied 5-5 and one out in the ninth, Elvis Andrus drew a walk, moved to second on a single from Michael Young and then to third on a fly ball from Ian Kinsler. That brought up Guerrero, who delivered the game-winning knock off Steven Jackson (0-1).
Rangers reliever Frank Francisco (6-3) earned the victory with an inning of work.
Texas had to overcome a 4-0 deficit after Pittsburgh scored four runs in the first. The Pirates had an RBI single from Garrett Jones, a two-run double from Pedro Alvarez and a run-scoring single from Ryan Doumit.
After the Rangers scored a run in the second, the Pirates regained a four-run lead on a sacrifice fly from Neil Walker in the fourth inning.
But Texas managed to score five unanswered en route to its victory. Nelson Cruz and Justin Smoak had sacrifice flies in the fourth. Then in the seventh, Young and Kinsler added RBI hits.
Pittsburgh | Texas | |
Jeff Karstens | Player | Scott Feldman |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
5.1 | IP | 6.0 |
5 | Strikeouts | 7 |
7 | Hits | 12 |
3.38 | ERA | 7.50 |
Pittsburgh | Texas | |
Garrett Jones | Player | Josh Hamilton |
3 | Hits | 3 |
1 | RBI | 0 |
0 | HR | 0 |
3 | TB | 5 |
.750 | Avg | .750 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Pittsburgh | 14 | 0 | 16 | .389 | 15 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Texas | 12 | 0 | 16 | .333 | 15 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 |