Rangers 4, Blue Jays 1
ARLINGTON, Texas, Sep 11 — The Texas Rangers avoided a three-game sweep against the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday, as they won by a final score of 4–1. A big part of their offense came from the bat of Adolis Garcia. Garcia blasted a two-run home run in the third inning to send a crowd of 20,984, that included President George W. Bush, into quite the frenzy. This game marks only the second win in September for the Rangers, as they have really struggled down the stretch. Obviously, they would like to finish 2022 on a high note. This win was a good start. From here, the Rangers head to Miami, Florida for a quick doubleheader against the Miami Marlins on Monday. Then they come back for a quick two-game set at Globe Life Field against the Oakland Athletics.
Adolis Goes Deep for Rangers
The fans at Globe Life Field welcomed the change of pace on Sunday when the Rangers got on the board first. In the bottom of the first inning, first baseman Nathaniel Lowe drove in shortstop Corey Seager with a double. Outfielder Adolis Garcia followed that up in a big way. He hit a two-run home run to left field in the bottom of the third inning.
It was the 24th home run of the season for Garcia. The Rangers scored their fourth, and final run in the bottom of the eighth inning on a solo shot by Leody Taveras. The Blue Jays scored their only run of the afternoon in the top of the sixth inning. Toronto shortstop Bo Bichette was able to cross home on an RBI double by left-fielder Teoscar Hernandez.
Pitching Notes
Rangers lefty Martin Perez earned his team-high 11th win on Sunday. He is now just two wins shy of his career high of 13 set with Texas in 2017. This also marks the most wins by a Ranger since 2019 (16-Lance Lynn, 14-Mike Minor). Perez has quality starts in two straight outings, and five in his last six outings. He lowered his season ERA to 2.77, which would be the sixth-lowest qualifying ERA in Rangers history.
It’s also the lowest ERA since Rick Honeycutt in 1983 (2.42). Sunday was his 26th straight start with at least five innings pitched (beg. 4/23/22). It is the longest such streak of his career, and the longest by a Ranger since Lance Lynn in 2019-20 (41, 4/28/19-9/24/20), and second-longest such streak ever by a Rangers left-handed starter (28-Kenny Rogers in 1995-2000).
Additional Notes
Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe had three hits on Sunday, including a double and RBI. Lowe raised his season batting average to .308, as he seeks to become the first Texas qualifier to bat over .300 in a single season since Elvis Andrus and Adrian Beltre both did it in 2016. He has multiple hits in four of his last five games.
Bubba Thompson had hits in all three games of this series at 5-for-10 (.500) with 3 doubles. He is batting .375 (12-for-32) over ten games in September. Thompson also stole two bases for the second time in 2022 (also 8/5 against the Chicago White Sox), and has now gone 13-for-14 in SB attempts to begin his major league career.
Main Photo:
Embed from Getty Images
Players Mentioned:
Adolis Garcia, Nathaniel Lowe, Corey Seager, Leody Taveras, Bo Bichette, Teoscar Hernandez, Martin Perez, Lance Lynn, Mike Minor, Rick Honeycutt, Kenny Rogers, Elvis Andrus, Adrian Beltre, Bubba Thompson
