Major League Baseball

Rangers 4, Diamondbacks 2

Published Mar. 31, 2010 1:05 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

There was no great sentiment in Arizona Diamondbacks' final game at Tucson Electric Park, their spring training home since the franchise was born a dozen years ago.

Just a crowd of 5,184, about half of capacity, watching Arizona ace Dan Haren go through a routine final outing before his opening-day start and Texas' Colby Lewis shut out the Diamondbacks for seven innings in the Rangers' 4-2 victory on Tuesday.

The Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies will move from Tucson next spring to a new facility on the outskirts of Scottsdale. Arizona plays Colorado at the Rockies' Hi Corbett Field on Wednesday in the final spring game in Tucson.

Haren, who goes against San Diego in the opener on Monday in Phoenix, allowed three runs on eight hits in 6 1-13 innings, striking out seven and walking none. Lewis allowed two runs in 7 1-3 innings.

Asked if he had any special sentiment pitching in the Tucson finale, Haren said, ``Well, I won't be tearing up on the way out.''

``But the fans treated me nice,'' he said. ``I don't know, I'm just glad spring's over. It's a long spring. It's a long month and a half, waking up early. It's nice to get the real games started.''

Haren threw five scoreless innings before allowing two in the sixth and one in the seventh.

``I thought he looked very good,'' manager A.J. Hinch said. ``I'm glad his next start is for real.''

Haren had allowed 10 runs in his previous two outings over a total of nine innings.

``I tried to get focused there at the beginning of the game. The last two starts I gave up quite a few runs in the first two innings,'' he said. ``I was determined to get off to a good start for the day and I did and I felt pretty good. I felt real tired at the end but it was a hot day out there.''

``At the beginning of spring you get kind of the additional adrenalin and then it kind of wears off at the end,'' he said. ``It will be nice to get out there and compete and for it to count.''

Lewis rejoined the Rangers after pitching the last two seasons in Japan. His strong start follows a minor league outing when he gave up two runs and struck out 10 in six innings. He threw 105 pitches on Tuesday.

``I think our whole rotation is good,'' Texas manager Ron Washington said. ``We felt like Colby could do just what he did out there today for us. He's a strong guy, he's got good stuff, he throws strikes and keeps the ball in play. He lets his defense play for him and that's what we're trying to get done around here.''

The Texas right-hander was not surprised he was able to pitch so deep into the game.

``I was able to throw all my pitches for strikes,'' he said. ``When you do that, you're able to keep them off balance a lot.''

share

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Major League Baseball