Josh Hamilton must have felt like riding a horse Tuesday night, being the lone Ranger to score in the 10-1 victory by the Tampa Bay Rays, as they took two from Texas in as many games. Incendiary pitching and a fired up Rays offense led to what looked like some flaring tempers as the game progressed. Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria and Jason Bartlett each had three-hit nights.

Matt Garza looked mean in his role as starting pitcher. He started by striking out the side in the first inning; the fiery righty allowed five hits and two walks while pitching seven scoreless innings. Garza struck out 10 batters Monday night, the fourth time this season he’s reached nine Ks or more in an outing. Randy Choate picked up a strikeout of his own in the eighth and Mike Eckstrom got two as well for a team total of 13, lighting up the Kane's Furniture K tracker and then some.

Rays hitters teed off on Texas pitchers early and often. With one out in the bottom of the first and Ben Zobrist on second base after a walk and a passed ball, Tampa Bay rattled three straight RBI, extra-base hits off starter Tommy Hunter, including consecutive triples from Crawford and Longoria and a double by Carlos Pena. These bad boys with bats got at least a base hit in each of the eight innings of offense.

This article appears in Aug 12-18, 2010.