ARLINGTON, Texas — The most-lopsided loss the Texas Rangers suffered in their solid April had a month's worth of what-if moments.
Unfortunately for the Rangers, all those what-ifs went unanswered Friday night as the Tampa Bay Rays doubled up Texas 8-4 in front of a sellout crowd of 47,496 at Rangers Ballpark.
"For us to win it, we had to score nine," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "We couldn't get there. They jumped out 7-1 by the fourth inning. We tried to come back. It just didn't happen."
It wasn't for a lack of opportunity.
Despite starter Matt Harrison allowing seven runs in five innings and matching a franchise record by allowing 14 hits, Texas had all kinds of chances to make the game interesting. Most of those chances didn't pan out.
The Rangers trailed 7-4 after five innings and had runners on the corners with two outs before Elvis Andrus grounded back to the pitcher.
That wouldn't be the most frustrating at-bat for Andrus, though. That came in the eighth inning with the Rangers down 8-4 and the bases loaded.
Andrus and Wade Davis went head-to-head in an 11-pitch at-bat in which pitch No. 10 was the key, as Andrus lifted a ball down the right-field line that had home-run distance but sliced just foul. He hit a sharp liner on pitch No. 11, but B.J. Upton ran it down in center.
"As soon as I hit it because of the wind, I knew the ball would have a chance," said Andrus, who had three of the 13 Texas hits. "At the last second, it went around the pole. It's not what you want as a hitter, but that's the way baseball is. We've got to compete. We've got to continue to compete and I know good things will happen."
The Andrus at-bats weren't the only chances the Rangers missed out on during a game in which they left 10 runners on base and were 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position.
Andrus got picked off first base in the first inning after Tampa Bay scored four runs off Harrison. Before the Andrus at-bat in the eighth inning, the Rangers had the bases loaded with one out but Nelson Cruz got thrown out at home on a wild pitch after he briefly hesitated before deciding to break for the plate.
Second baseman Ian Kinsler also made a first-inning error on a Carlos Pena grounder after Desmond Jennings led off the game with a single. That potential double play wasn't turned, and Evan Longoria followed with a three-run homer to center.
Despite all of the misses, the Rangers scored four runs off Tampa Bay ace James Shields in six innings and tagged him for 11 hits.
"We just couldn't sustain anything against James Shields," Washington said. "They came out swinging the bats. They threw some runs on us early. We got one back in the first. We just couldn't sustain anything against James."
Harrison (3-1) did nothing to help the cause either. The left-hander came into the start with the best ERA in the American League at 1.66. That mark was gone after the Rays scored five off him in the first. They were far from done as they tacked on another in the third and two more in the fourth.
By the time he exited after throwing 100 pitches in five innings, he had matched Oil Can Boyd (Aug. 15, 1991) and Bobby Witt (July 5, 1996) for most hits allowed by a Texas pitcher in a game.
"It seemed like the first guy each inning was geared up to swing the bat," said Harrison, whose ERA is now 3.38. "When they did, they found holes early in the inning. It was a lot of batters from the stretch. It was one of those nights. The only thing good I can take from it is I was able to go five. Other than that, it was a pretty bad night."
The Rangers chipped away against Shields in the fifth and sixth innings courtesy of the long ball. Josh Hamilton slammed a two-run homer in the fifth, his ninth in 20 games. That tied the club record for homers in April and he also joined Pete Incaviglia (1987) as the only Texas players with nine homers in the first 20 games.
David Murphy added a solo homer in the sixth inning.
