Guardians 4, Rangers 2
ARLINGTON, Texas, Sep 24 — The Texas Rangers dropped the middle game in their series against the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday evening by a final score of 4–2. It was a low scoring affair all evening at Globe Life Field. The only highlight that the crowd of 28,415 would see is a solo home run by Marcus Semien in the bottom of third evening. As the 2022 season winds down, the Rangers will face the Guardians once more this year. That game will be on Sunday afternoon. The Guardians will give the starting nod to right-hander Aaron Civale (2–6, 5.29 ERA. The Rangers will counter with left-hander Cole Ragans (0–2, 5.40 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 PM Central.
Low Scoring Affair
There weren’t very many offense sparks by either team on Saturday at Globe Life Field. The game stayed in a scoreless tie until the bottom of the third inning. The home-nine broke seal with a solo home run. The blast came off the bat of Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien. It was his 24th home run of the season. Their second and final run wouldn’t come until the bottom of the ninth inning. A solo home run by Sam Huff made it 4–2 in favor of the Guardians.
The Guardians tied it in the top of the fifth inning on a solo home run of their own. It came off the bat of Guardians right-fielder Oscar Gonzalez. Cleveland scored the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh inning on yet another solo home run. This time, the batter was Guardians second baseman Andres Gimenez. The Guardians would also go on to score an insurance run in the top of the eighth inning. A ground-rule double by shortstop Amed Rosario drove in centerfielder Myles Straw to make it 3–1. They scored again later in the game. A second solo shot by Oscar Gonzalez gave the Guardians a 4–1 lead in the top of the ninth inning.
Pitching Notes
The Rangers gave the ball to Glenn Otto on Saturday. Otto did not factor into the decision after he exited with two outs in the sixth inning with the score tied, 1–1. He was lifted in favor of Brock Burke with a runner on third base, but avoided further damage when Burke retired Josh Naylor (4-3 groundout) for the final out in the frame. Otto cruised through his first four innings of work, holding the Guardians hitless (0-for-12, BB) until Oscar Gonzalez led off the 5th inning with a game-tying solo home run.
Otto allowed just three hits, all of which went for extra bases (HR-Gonzalez, 3B-Rosario, 2B-Gimenez). He threw 46 of 76 (60.5%) pitches for strikes, walking just one of 21 batters faced. Otto has issued one walk over his last 2 starts (nine IP) after posting a 4.55 walks per 9 innings rate over his first 23 starts to open the season. Guardians starter Call Quantrill made his team-leading 30th start of the season as he secured his 10th straight victory, extending his career-high. He has not lost a game since July 5 against the Detroit Tigers.
Quantrill came into the game receiving a major league-best 6.59 runs of support per nine innings in 2022, but only received two runs of support on Saturday. Quantrill is now 10–0 with a 3.12 ERA (30 ER/86 2/3 IP) over his last 15 starts after finishing the game with the final line of, 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R-ER, 3 BB, 4 SO, and 1 HR.
Additional Notes
five of the six runs scored in Saturday’s game came via solo home runs (3-CLE, 2-TEX). Josh Jung has drawn a walk in each of his last two games after going walk-less in 13 straight games to open his major league career. Jose Ramirez was intentionally walked by Brock Burke in the eighth inning. It is the second time he has received an IBB against the Rangers this season (also 6/7 at CLE-Game 1). He joins the Mariners‘ Julio Rodriguez (2x) and the Athletics’ Sean Murphy (2x) as the only players with multiple IBB vs. TEX in 2022. Texas had at least one batter reach base in all but one inning (8th), but finished 0-for-7 w/ RISP.
Main Photo:
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Players Mentioned:
Marcus Semien, Aaron Civale, Cole Ragans, Sam Huff, Oscar Gonzalez, Andres Gimenez, Amed Rosario, Myles Straw, Glenn Otto, Brock Burke, Josh Naylor, Oscar Gonzalez, Josh Jung, Jose Ramirez, Julio Rodriguez, Sean Murphy
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