Rangers beat up Rays’ Chris Archer in winning a lopsided victory

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This was the ace?

This was the all-star?

Chris Archer gave up eight runs and 11 hits in 16 outs Saturday night as his Tampa Bay Rays were drubbed 12-4 by the Texas Rangers. Archer, who is considered one of the top right-handers in the American League, is now 1-5 in his last nine starts.

Archer faced six hitters in the sixth and gave up hits to five of them.

The Rays fell back to .500 at 58-58 and now stand fifth in the wild-card standings.

The Rangers broke open a 3-1 game in the sixth with seven runs.

The teams play again today as Drew Smyly returns to the mound for Tampa Bay to face Yovani Gallardo.

Gary Shelton is one of the most recognized and honored sportswriters in the history of the state. He has won the APSE's national columnist of the year twice and finished in the top 10 eight times. He was named the Florida Sportswriter of the Year six times. Gary joined SaintPetersBlog in the spring, helping to bring a sports presence to the website. Over his time in sports writing, Gary has covered 29 Super Bowls, 10 Olympics, Final Fours, Masters, Wimbledons and college national championships. He was there when the Bucs won a Super Bowl, when the Lightning won a Stanley Cup and when the Rays went to a World Series. He has seen Florida, FSU and Miami all win national championships, and he covered Bear Bryant, Bobby Bowden and Don Shula along the way. He and his wife Janet have four children: Eric, Kevin, K.C. and Tori. To contact, visit [email protected].