Teagarden's First Hit Leads Rangers Past Twins
POSTED: 6:34 pm EDT July 20,
2008
Minneapolis, MN -- (Sports Network) - Taylor Teagarden clubbed his first career home run and Vicente Padilla tossed seven shutout innings, as the Texas Rangers edged the Minnesota Twins, 1-0, in the finale of a three-game set at the Metrodome.Padilla (11-5), who was activated from the 15-day disabled list prior to the game, scattered three hits and walked two. The 30-year-old had been sidelined with neck stiffness since July 5. Texas pitchers did not allow a hit beyond the fifth. Brandon Boggs and Milton Bradley had the other hits for Texas, which snapped a two-game losing streak. Scott Baker (6-3) was the hard-luck loser for the Twins, allowing one run on two hits with eight strikeouts over eight innings. Baker had won his last four decisions. Joe Nathan gave up a hit in his one inning of work. Joe Mauer, Delmon Young and Brian Buscher collected the hits for Minnesota, which had won seven consecutive games at home. Baker was perfect through five innings and set down the first two batters in the sixth before Teagarden, who made his MLB debut on Friday, crushed a 3-2 fastball over a leaping Carlos Gomez in center for the first hit of his career. "With a 3-2 count and nobody on, I figured he'd challenge me with his best fastball and I just tried to put a nice swing on it," said Teagarden. Eddie Guardado worked around a two-out walk to Buscher in the eighth. C.J. Wilson came on in the ninth and struck out Gomez and got Alexi Casilla to pop out to the shortstop. Mauer then walked to bring up the winning run in the form of Justin Morneau, who was riding a nine-game hitting streak. A wild pitch allowed Mauer to take third, but Wilson retired Morneau on a grounder to notch his 23rd save. Game Notes This was the fourth time the Twins have lost a game 1-0 this season...Baker lost for the first time since June 15 at Milwaukee...Both teams left four men on base...To make room on the roster for Padilla, the club optioned infielder German Duran to Triple-A Oklahoma.
Copyright 2008 Courtesy of The Sports Network.










