Matt Harrison's streak of scoreless innings ended Thursday. His stretch of spectacular starting pitching, however, remains intact.
Harrison's scoreless streak was snapped at 22 innings when Seattle's Russell Branyan drove home a run with a groundout in the fourth inning. A two-out double by Wladimir Balentien made it 2-0 Seattle. But Harrison's day was only getting started. Teaming with his personal catcher, Taylor Teagarden, he pitched a second straight complete game. Because he stuck around until the end, Harrison got the benefit of ninth-inning homers from Hank Blalock and Chris Davis that led to the Rangers' 3-2 win.
Harrison needed just 102 pitches to pick up the complete game. After he was done with the ninth, the Rangers rallied for three runs to give him the victory.
Harrison, who was 9-3 after his mid-July call-up last year, picked up his 13th career victory in just his 22nd major league game. He's the first left-hander to pile up that many wins in 22 starts since Cleveland's Vean Gregg in 1911.
The Rangers have won all four starts Harrison and Teagarden have made together. The pair has a 1.80 ERA in 30 innings together and has allowed opponents just a .202 batting average (lefties are hitting .138 in that span). Also impressive: Harrison has averaged just 14.2 pitches per inning with Teagarden, well below the AL average of 16.5 pitches per inning.
RANGERS 3, MARINERS 2: For the second time in less than 20 hours, the Rangers shocked Seattle with a walk-off hit.
On Thursday, it was 1B Chris Davis who capped a three-run ninth inning rally with a two-run homer. DH Hank Blalock, whose two-run double ended Wednesday's game, led off the ninth with a homer.
After a one-out double by OF David Murphy, Davis came to the plate against RHP Brandon Morrow. On the fourth consecutive four-seam fastball from Morrow, Davis drove the ball over the wall in center. It gave the Rangers consecutive walk-off wins for the first time since 2000.
