On this date in franchise history, the Texas Rangers started to take control of the 2010 American League Championship Series.
The game at Yankee Stadium, played on Oct. 18, 2010, saw the Rangers shut out the Yankees, 8-0. The Rangers were able to start Cliff Lee, who was dominant in Game 5 of the American League Divisional Series against Tampa Bay, but needed to get his scheduled rest. Opposite Lee was Yankees veteran Andy Pettitte.
The final score actually doesn’t do the game justice. Lee was impressive, throwing 122 pitches in eight innings while fanning 13 Yankees. He allowed just two hits. Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton gave Lee two runs to work with in the top of the first with a two-run home run. But, from there, the Rangers were unable to put another run on the board until the ninth inning.
That made Lee’s performance all the more impressive.
Pettitte was no slouch. After giving up the home run, he kept a lid on the Rangers’ offense into the seventh inning, before handing the ball off to Kerry Wood for a scoreless eighth inning.
But, in the ninth, with the Yankees hoping to have a shot at Rangers closer Neftalí Feliz, the Rangers’ offense put the Yankees in a deep hole. Hamilton doubled, followed by back-to-back singles by Vladimir Guerrero and Nelson Cruz, the latter of which scored Hamilton.
From there, it was on.
The Rangers pecked away at the Yankees with singles and doubles — along with a couple of key Yankees errors — and handed Feliz a lead that was easy to protect.
With the win, the Rangers went up 2-1 in the series.
Also on this date …
Oct. 18, 1999: Rafael Palmeiro was named the Major League Baseball Player of the Year by The Sporting News, through a player vote. Palmeiro hit .324 with 47 homers and 148 RBI that season, his first with the Rangers since 1993.
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