Rangers blank Guardians to halt five-game skid

Jon Gray scattered four singles over 6 1/3 innings and Adolis Garcia homered and had two hits and two RBIs as the Texas Rangers snapped a season-high five-game losing streak with a 4-0 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday night in Arlington, Tex.

Marcus Semien also homered and Leody Taveras tripled and scored a run for Texas, which evened its home record for the season at 11-11.

Gray (2-1) picked up the win, walking two and striking out three. Kirby Yates struck out the side after giving up a bloop single to Will Brennan to start the ninth and Jose Leclerc and David Robertson combined to allow just one hit over 1 2/3 innings of relief for the Rangers, who remained 1 1/2 games behind the first-place Seattle Mariners in the American League West.

Andres Gimenez had two hits for Cleveland, which had a three-game winning streak snapped. Carlos Carrasco (2-4) took the loss, allowing two runs on five hits over five innings. He walked one and struck out three.

Texas loaded the bases with one out in the fourth but failed to score thanks to a dazzling defensive play by first baseman Josh Naylor, who fielded a Jonah Heim grounder, tagged the first base bag and then threw out Corey Seager at the plate for an inning-ending double-play.

The Rangers then took a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning. Taveras tripled into the right-field corner with two outs and scored on Semien's eighth home run of the season, a 378-foot drive to left that grazed off the tip of the glove of leaping Estevan Florial at the fence.

Texas extended the lead to 4-0 in the sixth against reliever Nick Sandlin. Nathaniel Lowe led off with a walk and Garcia followed with his 10th homer and second in two games, a 394-foot drive to left.

--Field Level Media