Baseball: Former Mountaineer Gets Major League Win
July 23, 2009 01:35 PM | General
By Steve Stone for MSNsportsNET.com
July 23, 2009
 |
||
| Dustin Nippert |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Former West Virginia University pitcher Dustin Nippert earned his second Major League victory this season after making a spot start to defeat the Boston Red Sox, 3-1, on Wednesday evening in a nationally-televised contest.
Nippert, who lettered at WVU in 2002, threw 94 pitches in 5.2 innings and allowed just one earned run with five strikeouts to nab his second win in a one-week span. The Wheeling, W.Va., native picked up his first victory of the season on July 19 after holding the Minnesota Twins scoreless for two innings.
With scheduled starter Vicente Padilla plagued by the flu, Nippert was forced to make an emergency start on just three days’ rest. He was originally slated to throw four or five innings and around 70 pitches, but was effective enough to top that mark after shutting down the Red Sox for nearly six innings.
Nippert’s seventh career victory gives the Rangers their first season sweep over the Red Sox since 2004, and puts Texas at a season-high 11 games over .500 in 2009. The Rangers trail the Los Angeles Angels by three games in the American League West.
Nippert is 2-0 with a 4.02 ERA in five appearances this season after being activated from the disabled list on July 7 following a right shoulder injury. He has thrown 157.1 innings in 66 career appearances since making his Major League debut with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2005.
