Major League Baseball

RANGERS NOTEBOOK

Published Oct. 20, 2010 10:14 p.m. ET

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Hunter has had mixed results

ARLINGTON, Texas - With one more chance to wrap up the ALDS at home, the Rangers will go with a young right-handed pitcher in today's Game 4 who has had different results in two starts against the Rays this season.

Tommy Hunter pitched a complete game against Tampa Bay at Rangers Ballpark in his season debut June 5, allowing one run on five hits.

On Aug. 17 at Tropicana Field, though, he lasted three innings in a 10-1 loss.

The Rays scored three runs in their first three at-bats in that one, with Ben Zobrist drawing a leadoff walk, Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria each tripling, and Carlos Pe?a doubling.

Nevertheless, Hunter, 24, went 13-4 with a 3.73 ERA, including 7-0 with a 3.06 ERA at home, after his call-up.

"I like throwing here," Hunter said after the Rangers fell 6-3 Saturday night and saw their lead in the best-of-five series cut to 2-1. "Just the way they play defense behind me has been pretty impressive. Hopefully things don't change tomorrow."

Doing it on the fly

The Rangers have made it this far even though the club's top two starting pitchers breaking camp, Scott Feldman and Rich Harden, didn't make the postseason roster.

"That speaks to the Texas Rangers organization and the turnaround they've made in the last few years," Manager Ron Washington said. "Now, to be a Texas Ranger, you have to be able to perform or you have to get out of the way."

Feldman, the Opening Day starter who was moved to the bullpen in late July, went 7-11 with a 5.48 ERA. Harden, who earned $7.5 million this season but went 5-5 with a 5.58 ERA, was designated for assignment after the playoffs began.

The Rangers acquired an ace in July in LHP Cliff Lee and got a nice season from LHP C.J. Wilson, a former reliever. RHP Colby Lewis returned from two seasons in Japan as a better all-around pitcher, and Hunter won eight games before taking a loss.

Lewis started Saturday night's game and exited after five innings with a 1-0 lead. He allowed two hits while walking five and striking out five.

Long overdue

Before taking the field for his first home playoff game, longest-tenured Ranger Michael Young said he always believed the team would bring the postseason to Arlington.

"I visualized it happening many times," the six-time All-Star third baseman said. "We knew this year we had an opportunity to make it happen. We know in the postseason, we are playing good teams, facing good pitching. But this team has a lot of confidence."

Young, who came up with the team in 2000, said the club had opportunities in other years.

"Since I have been here, we have always had a bunch of guys that wanted to win," he said. "This year, we had better players, a better team. ? It is a very blue-collar atmosphere, guys that want to play hard and play to win."

Odds and ends

The jam-packed crowd of 51,746 was the largest in the history at Rangers Ballpark, which opened in 1994 and hosted the 1995 All-Star Game and ALDS games in 1996, '98 and '99. ? SS Elvis Andrus gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead with his RBI groundout in the third inning. At 22 years, 44 days old, he became the youngest major-leaguer with a postseason RBI since Cleveland's Asdrubal Cabrera (21 years, 337 days) had one in Game 4 of the 2007 ALDS. ? 2B Ian Kinsler has homered in past two games after hitting only one in his final 21 regular-season games. ? LHP Darren Oliver took his second postseason loss, with the other coming for Texas in the 1996 ALDS against the Yankees. ? Former president George W. Bush, the Rangers' managing general partner from 1994-98, watched from the front row of the owners seats, a couple of spots from club president Nolan Ryan. ? Johnny Oates, the only other manager to take the Rangers to the postseason, threw out the first pitch.

Tony Fabrizio