Wilson & Napoli Lead Texas In 4-0 Win Over Boston
ARLINGTON (AP) - C.J. Wilson threw 6 2-3 scoreless innings for his 13th victory and Mike Napoli hit a three-run homer as the AL West-leading Texas Rangers returned home with a 4-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Monday night.
Wilson (13-5) struck out four while limiting the Red Sox to four singles.
Napoli's 21st homer, in the sixth off Erik Bedard (4-9), extended the Rangers' 1-0 lead and his hitting streak to a season-best 11.
Bedard is 0-2 in his four starts for the Red Sox since being acquired July 31 in a trade from Seattle. The left-hander struck out four and allowed seven hits over six innings.
The Rangers were coming off a 7-3 roadtrip that ended with a 10-0 loss at the Chicago White Sox. They had a season-high scoreless streak of 17 consecutive innings before Elvis Andrus' RBI single in the third after a potential inning-ending double play instead became a blown call and hit for Ian Kinsler.
The four-game series is a potential playoff preview. Texas (74-55) extended its division lead over the idle Los Angeles Angels to 4 1/2 games while the Red Sox (77-50), who have the second-best record in the AL, dropped a full game behind the New York Yankees in the AL East.
Boston hasn't won a game against the Rangers this season. The Red Sox were swept in a three-game series at Texas to open the season as part of their 0-6 start.
Wilson is 3-0 with a 1.37 ERA in his four August starts. The left-hander had finished July by allowing 14 hits and 13 runs (10 earned) in 7 2/3 innings over two starts.
The Red Sox had runners at first and third, the only time they had a runner 90 feet from home plate, when Wilson came out of the game. Koji Uehara immediately got Jarrod Saltalamacchia on a groundout.
Mike Adams and Neftali Feliz each pitched a scoreless inning without allowing a hit to wrap up the Rangers' 15th shutout. Boston was held scoreless for the ninth time.
Napoli homered to left-center on a ball that kept drifting and dropped into the first row of seats just beyond the 14-foot-high wall. With his back turned to the plate watching, Bedard could only say "Wow!" Josh Hamilton and Michael Young had reached on consecutive one-out singles.
Kinsler's sinking liner to right in the third appeared to be caught by Josh Reddick.
Baserunner Craig Gentry was stranded between first and second base unsure which way to go until umpire Doug Eddings finally waved safe, ruling that the ball was trapped. Gentry scooted to second while Reddick threw to first thinking he had completed a double play.
Manager Terry Francona argued to no avail and Reddick mouthed "There's no way." Replays showed clearly that Reddick caught the ball a few inches off the ground.
Andrus followed with his single to left-center with Kinsler going to third, but he cost the Rangers the chance of another run.
With Josh Hamilton at the plate, Andrus was caught off the base by catcher Saltalamacchia. Hamilton then hit a flyball that would have been deep enough to score Kinsler, but instead was the last out of the inning.
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