The first half of Saturday's game was two inefficient pitchers being saved by good luck and defense, with the game transitioning to a bullpen battle for the final four innings.
The defense and luck abandoned the Rays, allowing the Rangers to win the bullpen battle 5-1.
Evan Longoria couldn't field an Adrian Beltre grounder in the sixth, moving Josh Hamilton in to scoring position, and Hamilton eventually came home on an Elliot Johnson error that should have ended the inning. Another Texas run scored on an error in the seventh when Jose Molina threw the ball away with Mitch Moreland on third.
In the mean time, the Ranger defense kept up, with a nifty double play from Elvis Andrus in the sixth, and two tremendous outfield snags by David Murphy in the seventh keeping Tampa off the board. Texas pulled fully away in the seventh when Beltre made Joe Maddon pay for intentionally walking Hamilton with a three-run blast to the opposite field.
The Texas bullpen was typically awesome, with three innings, three strikeouts, no walks, and only one run off a pair of hits against Mike Adams.