Texas MLB Capsules: Guerrero, Hamilton power Wilson, Texas past Twins

ARLINGTON (AP) — Vladimir Guerrero hit a tiebreaking homer and a patchwork bullpen made that hold up over the last three innings, giving the Texas Rangers a 4-3 victory over Minnesota as C.J. Wilson won his sixth consecutive decision.

"Just the wolfpack, they came in there and just everybody took a bite, it was pretty cool," Wilson said of the five relievers that finished the game. "Every single guy stepped up. It was awesome.'

Wilson (13-5) had already thrown his last pitch Wednesday night when Guerrero led off the sixth with a homer on a night when the AL West-leading Rangers were without closer Neftali Feliz, who had worked three straight games, and primary setup man Frank Francisco (cortisone shot).

Michael Kirkman pitched a scoreless seventh in his second major league appearance before Darren O'Day and Darren Oliver both struck out the only batters they faced. Alexi Ogando allowed a hit and struck out two before Matt Harrison got the final two outs for his first pressure save.

"It's nice to see how they handled it. They had to handle it, that's what we had," manager Ron Washington said.

"Ronnie's got to be tired over there," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "But you've got to do what you've got to do, mix and match as best you can. He's got a lot of good arms that he can trust."

Guerrero had three hits, including the tiebreaking homer leading off the sixth against Brian Duensing (7-2). Josh Hamilton also homered for the Rangers.

Wilson gave up three runs with six strikeouts and two walks while throwing 103 pitches over six innings. The left-hander is 6-0 with a 2.29 ERA in eight starts since the All-Star break.

"He throws hard and has a good cutter," said Jason Kubel, who had a double and scored an unearned run against Wilson. "He has several pitches so you can't just sit on one."

While Wilson has been starting for the Rangers all season, Duensing is also a left-handed reliever turned starter. Duensing had been 4-0 in his first six starts since moving into Minnesota's rotation July 23.

"I had a couple pitches that Hamilton and Vladdy made me pay for," Duensing said. "If I make a different pitch, maybe it's a different ball game."

Duensing struck out five and walked one in six innings, the first time he lost when pitching that long. He was 7-0 his previous nine games in his career when he pitched at least six innings.

Texas has won four in a row, including the first three in the four-game set against Minnesota, and maintained an 8½-game lead over Oakland in the AL West. The Twins stayed 3½ games up in the AL Central after the Chicago White Sox lost to Baltimore.

Guerrero also had an RBI single, marking only the second time in 21 games that he had multiple RBIs. The other multi-RBI game in that span was Sunday when he had a three-run shot, his only other homer in August. Guerrero has 23 homers, but only three the last 38 games.

"I'm going to keep writing his name in the lineup until I decide to give him a day off because I know at any minute he can make a difference," Washington said. "Tonight he made a difference."

Hamilton's 30th homer, and fourth in five games, was a two-run shot in the first.

It is the second 30-homer season for Hamilton, who leads the majors with a .356 batting average. He is 10 for 25 the past six games after a 1-for-16 slide the five games before that.

"Josh is doing all right," Michael Young said with a smile. "It's a lot of fun to be his teammate right now and get to enjoy the show up-close."

While it was the second save for Harrison, his other was when he pitched the final three innings in a 13-3 victory over Pittsburgh on June 23.

"It was definitely test for me to go out there and be put in that situation, and know they had the confidence in me to get the job done," said Harrison, the last available pitcher. "I was the closer, slash long reliever."

The Twins got even at 3-all in the fifth on Denard Span's run-scoring double and an RBI groundout by Joe Mauer, who tied the game even though he went 0 for 3 against Wilson and is 1 for 17 in his career against the Rangers left-hander.

Valencia had three hits for the Twins and drove home Kubel with a groundout in the second.

Jim Thome was scratched from the starting lineup because of soreness in his right thigh from getting hit by a fastball in the upper 90s as a pinch-hitter Tuesday night. He came on as a pinch-hitter in the eighth and struck out swinging at a 98-mph fastball by Ogando to end the inning.

NOTES: Rangers SS Elvis Andrus was 0 for 4, ending his 14-game hitting streak that was the longest active in the majors. ... The gametime temperature was a pleasant 78 degrees. It was 100 degrees for the first pitch two nights earlier.

Rangers' Nippert, Cruz ready for rehab assignments

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Texas Rangers right-hander Dustin Nippert is expected to pitch Friday for the first time since taking a liner to his head more than a month ago.

Nippert is scheduled to pitch Friday for Triple-A Oklahoma City, his first time in a game since getting struck by a liner July 19 at Detroit. The reliever walked off the field that night and said he felt fine the next day, but then started experiencing recurring headaches and dizzy spells.

Nelson Cruz is also going to begin a rehab assignment Thursday at Double-A Frisco.

Cruz (strained left hamstring) is eligible to come off the disabled list Monday. As expected, the right fielder will go to Frisco to play a few games before rejoining the Rangers lineup next week.

Happ outduels Halladay, beats former team

Happ pitched effectively into the seventh inning against his former team and the Astros beat Roy Halladay and the Philadelphia Phillies 3-2 on Wednesday night.

Happ (4-2) allowed two runs and five hits in 6 1-3 innings, becoming the second former Phillies pitcher to beat them in this series. Myers did it Monday. Figueroa, who was 2-1 with Philadelphia this season, starts on Friday at the New York Mets. Wandy Rodriguez takes the mound when the Astros try to complete the four-game sweep Thursday afternoon.

"I'm a little relieved now that's over," said Happ, who was traded to Houston last month for ace Roy Oswalt after winning 12 games for Philadelphia as a rookie last year. "There was definitely some nerves out there."

The Phillies, who are 2½ games behind NL East-leading Atlanta, have lost three straight to the going-nowhere Astros. They've missed an opportunity to gain ground on the Braves, who've lost three in a row to Colorado.

"You hate to focus on what other teams are doing, but we'd like to be playing better," said Halladay, whose six-game winning streak ended. "Given what they've done, we could've made up some ground."

Halladay (16-9) gave up three runs and six hits in seven innings. He threw just 73 pitches.

Michael Bourn and Hunter Pence hit solo homers for the Astros, who are the only NL team with a winning record (29-16) against the Phillies since 2004.

Happ got a nice ovation when he left and four relievers finished it off. Brandon Lyon tossed two scoreless innings for his eighth save in nine chances. He struck out pinch-hitter Domonic Brown to end it after allowing a two-out single to pinch-hitter Ryan Howard.

"That was awesome," Happ said of the cheers from the sellout crowd. "They were a class act when I was here. They still are."

Jayson Werth hit a solo shot for Philadelphia, which has scored two runs or less in six of the last seven games.

"Same story, we came up short," manager Charlie Manuel said. "If we're going to score one or two runs, we're going to get beat."

For the third straight night, a disputed call by the umpires was a factor in the outcome. With Jimmy Rollins batting, runners at first and third and the Phillies down a run in the seventh, catcher Humberto Quintero picked Ben Francisco off third base to end the inning.

Francisco appeared to get his foot tangled up with third baseman Chris Johnson's foot and was called out by third base umpire Greg Gibson. Third base coach Sam Perlozzo and Manuel argued, but neither was ejected.

"That was a bad play. It's been addressed," Manuel said. "I think the umpire got it right."

On Monday night, Manuel got tossed by Gibson for arguing Bourn should've been called out of the baseline running to first on a bunt single. Bourn went on to score the deciding run.

In the 14th inning of Tuesday night's 4-2 loss in 16 innings, Howard was ejected after third base umpire Scott Barry called him out on a checked swing. The Phillies wound up putting Oswalt in left field and Raul Ibanez at first base.

Barry was booed loudly during pregame introductions, and Gibson got an earful after his call in the seventh.

Quintero hit a two-out single in the seventh to give the Astros a 3-2 lead. Chris Johnson doubled and scored on Quintero's liner to left.

Halladay singled and scored the tying run in the sixth on Placido Polanco's double over left fielder Carlos Lee's head.

But Happ escaped further trouble with runners on second and third by retiring Chase Utley on a popup and Werth on a grounder. Werth's batting average of .157 with runners in scoring position is the worst in the majors.

Bourn put the Astros up 2-1 in the sixth when he hit one out to right for just his second homer this season.

Halladay, who threw the 20th perfect game in history on May 29 at Florida, retired the first 11 batters before Pence connected in the fourth for a 1-0 lead. It was the first run Halladay allowed in 18 innings.

Happ hadn't allowed a hit until Werth lined one just over the left-field wall in the fifth.

Notes: Oswalt said he never played left field in his life before entering in the 15th inning on Tuesday and catching a fly ball. He played shortstop and pitched in youth ball. ... The Astros claimed infielder Matt Downs off waivers from San Francisco and assigned him to Triple-A Round Rock. ... Pence has 10 homers in 22 career games against Philadelphia. ... A crowd of 44,657 was the 106th straight sellout at Citizens Bank Park. ... Quintero leads the majors with six pickoffs.

-- Rob Maaddi