Hamilton homers as Texas beats Cleveland

Associated Press

ARLINGTON, Texas

Michael Young hit a three-run double to go over 100 RBIs for the second time in his career and the AL West-leading Texas Rangers completed a three-game series sweep of Cleveland with a 7-4 victory Thursday night.

Cleveland’s loss cut Detroit’s magic number for clinching the AL Central to one. The Tigers played later at Oakland.

Josh Hamilton homered for the third straight game and Adrian Beltre also homered in extending his career-best hitting streak to 19 games.

Texas stretched its division lead over the idle Los Angeles Angels to 31/2 games. The Rangers (86-64) moved to 22 games over .500 for the first time since 1999, and now play nine of their final 12 games on the road, starting tonight at Seattle.

Young’s bases-clearing double in the fifth off Fausto Carmona (6-15) gave him 101 RBIs, and came after Hamilton was intentionally walked. Beltre followed with his 25th home run for a 6-0 lead.

Hamilton hit his 22nd homer in the seventh.

Alexi Ogando (13-8) allowed only two singles while throwing six scoreless innings. The All-Star right-hander struck out four and walked two while winning for the first time in a month. He had been 0-3 in five starts since his last win Aug. 15 at the Angels.

The Rangers went 9-1 against Cleveland this season, outscoring the Indians 68-32. Texas has won 21 of 25 in the series over the past three seasons.

Ogando was nearly flawless, except for a 39-pitch second inning when he got out of bases-loaded jam with consecutive strikeouts after both of his walks. He faced the minimum three batters the other five innings he pitched, getting Ezequiel Carrera to ground into an inning-ending double play after Jason Kipnis singled in the sixth.

The 40th double of the season for Young pushed him within two RBIs of his career high set five years ago.