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Murphy, Hamilton power Texas past Tribe
AP
Photo
Texas Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler is unable to reach a single by Cleveland Indians' Grady Sizemore in the fourth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Associated Press
ARLINGTON, Texas
David Murphy had a pair of solo home runs among his four hits and Josh Hamilton put the AL West-leading Texas Rangers ahead to stay with his 20th homer in a 10-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night.
Murphy already had both of his homers, his 10th and 11th of the season, before Hamilton hit a scorching liner off Justin Masterson (11-10) into the right-center field seats by the Texas bullpen for a 4-2 lead in the fifth.
Adrian Beltre extended his hitting streak to 17 games, matching a career high, when he led off the seventh with a 411-foot blast.
Matt Harrison (12-9) gave up three runs on seven hits while pitching into the sixth inning in his first start in nine days. The left-hander struck out four and walked one.
His 24th homer of the season came as the first major league batter faced by right-hander Zach Putnam, who then gave up a double to Murphy and a run-scoring single to Mike Napoli before finally recording an out.
Switch-hitting catcher Carlos Santana homered twice, becoming the first Indians batter since Victor Martinez on June 1, 2007, to go deep from both sides of the plate.
He added a double between his homers, completing that at-bat after fouling a pitch hard off his left shin and needing a couple of minutes to gather himself.
Masterson gave up six runs and eight hits with two strikeouts and three walks.