In 30 matchups since 2010, the Backyard Battle between
the Redlegs and Rangers stands at an even 15-15. After
two wildly different games on Sunday, the record would
stand at 16-16 as both teams walked away with a win.
Game 1 was a fantastic pitcher’s duel between Aaron
Carmack and Luke Trubee. The Redlegs struck early when
Jacob Robinson tripled with one out in the top of the 1st
and scored on a fundamental ground ball to the right side
by Kyle Arend. In the 2nd, Brandon Howard started the
inning with his 4th bomb of the year to extend the lead
to 2-0. James Robinson followed up with a double and
would later score on a Rangers throwing error.
Three runs would prove to be enough for Carmack as he
would go the distance while allowing 1 run (0 earned) and
7 hits as he punched out 6 Rangers batters. The Redleg
defense helped a bit late in the game. In the bottom of
the 4th Jonmarc Lippincott lifted a fly ball into right
center field, but center fielder Jacob Robinson was able
to track it down on a nifty sliding catch. The back-
breaker for the Rangers though came in the bottom of the
6th. The Rangers started the inning with a lead-off
single and the runner moved up to 2nd on a passed ball.
The next batter hit a sharp grounder to 3rd that Mike
Hartman was able to snare on a beautiful diving play to
his left. Hartman collected himself and fired to first
in time to make the out, at the same time the runner at
2nd tried to take 3rd base. Manning first base, Kyle
Arend fired back to Hartman who was sprinting back to the
bag, caught the throw on the run and applied the tag to
complete the double play. After the following two
batters walked, Carmack induced a routine ground ball to
end the threat.
The win ended a 6 game win streak for the Rangers, but
they came back with a vengeance in the night cap in a
convincing victory.
Boxscore
| A Parks | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J Robinson | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| K Arend | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| M Hartman | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| J Watson | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B Howard | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| J Robinson | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| J Gross | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| M Redman | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Z Wang | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
2B: Robinson
3B: Robinson
HR: Howard