Texas escaped the Twin Cities with a 2-1 win on Monday night and a 3-1 series win against the Twins as Adolis Garcia punched his 20th homer of the year. The Rangers sent five pitchers to the hill to secure the victory.
“I just want to continue doing what I’ve been doing.,” Garcia told MLB.com after the win. “I’m not trying to do a lot, just trying to keep it simple mentally.”
Keeping it simple for Garcia also meant extending his hitting streak to 19-games, second in the American League only to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of Toronto, whose streak is at 20 games.
Rangers’ rookie Cole Ragans was sharp in his fourth career start, allowing a single run on five hits with two walks and two strikeouts. However, Ragans was a non-decision in the contest, as he was pulled from the game after four innings of work. Garcia’s long-fly in the fifth inning got Ragans off the hook for a potential loss.
A.J. Alexy worked 2.1 innings in Ragan’s stead and notched his first win (1-0) of the season after allowing no runs, walking one, and fanning one during his outing.
The two teams were tied at one run each heading into the sixth, when Brad Miller led off the frame with a single to right off of Twins starter Sonny Gray. Ezequiel Duran followed with a base-knock of his own before a sac-fly off the bat of Marcus Semien advanced the baserunners into scoring position at second and third bases.
Corey Seager drove Miller home as he slapped a single to center field, which was the winning run in game four.
Brett Martin earned hold number six on the season after .2 innings pitched, and José Leclerc nabbed his third hold after tossing a scoreless eighth inning. Matt Moore was called upon to close the game with a spotless ninth where he retired everyone he faced, including Jorge Polanco, who struck out swinging to end the game. Moore earned the save, his third of the year.
The Rangers moved to 56-66 on the season, four games short of last year’s win total (60-102) with 40 games remaining.
The Rangers travel to Colorado on Tuesday, where they will take on the National League Rockies for a twin-bill over two days. Probable starters for the 7:40 p.m. (CDT) game are Germán Márquez (6-10, 5.05) for Colorado and Dane Dunning (3-6, 4.06, and 2-0 in his last seven starts) for Texas.
