Arnold Blast Sparks Rangers Win

  Second baseman Jelani Arnold connected on his first career home run and RHP Brad Clark pitched nine excellent innings to lead the Rangers to an 18-8 victory on Sunday at Gaunt Park. The win over the ‘Stros was the team’s eighth in the last nine meetings.

      The Rangers jumped out a 2-0 lead in the first after three straight singles off Astros starter Brian Girard, followed by a bases-loaded walk to Jonmarc Lippincott and a sac fly from Jared Bradley. The Rangers sent 13 men to the plate in the second and scored seven more runs to take a 9-0 lead. Five straight hits, including doubles off the bats of Steve Marshall and Matt Hood, followed by a handful of walks knocked out Girard after two innings of work.

The Astros struck back with 8 unanswered runs. Dustin Vincent’s sac fly scored Taylor Nakamura with the ‘Stros first run of the game. A fielding error by the Rangers allowed a pair of runs to score in the bottom of the third. The Astros big inning came in the fifth when five batters would score. Kenny Faulks and Mike Leach each had RBI singles. Adam Stewart cleared the bases with a two-out single to right.

Gregg Foster took over on the mound for the Astros in the third inning and retired six straight batters into the fifth inning. After Clint Wolf reached on a dropped fly ball, Lippincott drove him in with a single to right center to make the score 10-8. In the sixth, Matt Hood doubled to start the inning and came around to score on a single by Shane Fallen. Two more Rangers runs score in the seventh on a wild pitch and a sac fly from Lippincott.

The big blow came in the top of the eighth after Hood reached on his third hit of the day bringing up switch-hitter Jelani Arnold. After batting from the left side in his first three plate appearances, singling once, Arnold decided to switch things up a bit and bat from the right side. With a 3-0 count, Jelani deposited a Foster fastball into the trees in left center for his first career home run.

The Rangers finished off the scoring with three runs in the ninth. Wolf singled in a pair of runs and Lippincott contributed with his fourth RBI of the day with a single that plated Wolf.

Brad Clark pitched his first complete game of the year, evening his record at 2-2. Clark scattered six hits and struck out six, giving up three earned runs.

Offensive performances of note: Brad Clark 2-for-4, 4 runs scored; Clint Wolf 3-for-5, 4 runs scored, 3 RBI; Joe Staten 3-for-5 2RBI; Jonmarc Lippincott 2-for-2 4RBI; Jared Bradley 2RBI; Jelani Arnold 2-for-4 2 runs, 2RBI, HR; Matt Hood 3-for-4, 3 runs scored, 2 doubles; Shane Fallen 2-for-4 RBI; Aaron Armstrong 2RBI.