A three-game sweep of the Royals didn’t alter the grand-scheme reality for the Rangers, a last-place team staring down an arduous rebuild. It did, however, provide players, front office decision-makers and fans a glimpse of how a contending club might look one day.
Sunday, the Rangers received early offensive oomph from the middle of the lineup, watched right-hander Jordan Lyles piece together an imperfect but effective outing and led wire-to-wire in a 4-1 win over the Royals.
The victory capped their second series sweep of the season and first since beating the Astros three times from May 21 to 23.
Adolis Garcia ripped an RBI triple the opposite way in the first inning Sunday and cleanup hitter Joey Gallo launched a home run over the left-field fence in the next at-bat, his third long ball in two games. That put the Rangers up, 3-0. From there, Lyles routinely evaded trouble to protect the lead through seven innings, in which he allowed one earned run on seven hits.
“Right from the beginning, we’re playing with the lead, and it’s so much better. You can see Jordan settle in,” manager Chris Woodward said. “Overall, yeah, a good clean game.”
In total, the Rangers outscored the Royals 21-5 in the series, thanks in part to 10 combined RBIs from Gallo and Garcia.
Kyle Gibson tossed 10 strikeouts Saturday in the type of performances expected from an ace. And Sunday, a struggling pitcher clinging onto a spot in the rotation paved a different path to a quality start. Lyles allowed multiple hits in the first, third and fifth innings but delivered timely pitches to pull himself out of peril time and time again.
By the end of the day, Lyles struck out four, allowed no walks or extra base hits and yanked his season earned run average down from 5.47 to 5.12.
“This year, I’ve been spinning the ball a lot more than normal — curveball and slider,” Lyles said. “I know this is an aggressive team. I know the middle of their lineup likes to get after the fastball, so that plays pretty well into my hand.”
The No. 2 through 7 hitters in the Royals’ lineup combined to bat 1 for 18 against Lyles.
Kansas City also committed three errors Sunday, while Texas’ defense played gaffe-free. Sturdy gloves, well-timed production at the plate and strong showings from pitchers on either end of the rotation led the Rangers to three convincing wins at Globe Life Field.
The next challenge is to avoid a crash to earth during an upcoming road trip. Immediately following their only other sweep this year, the Rangers stumbled into a nine-game losing streak.
“We’re obviously young and there’s a lot of growth and development going on, but at the same time, we’re competitive, we want to win,” Woodward said. “What we went through before was important for us to get through and come out the other side. … And hopefully we can find a way to win the games like today, where we didn’t bust it out offensively, but, you know, we scored early and found a way.”
Outfield shuffling: The Rangers recalled outfielder Jason Martin from Triple-A Round Rock to replace Willie Calhoun, who landed on the 10-day injured list after breaking a bone in his left forearm Saturday. Martin went 0-for-2 with a walk against the Royals while playing left field and batting ninth.
Though he holds a 1.218 OPS at Round Rock this year, Martin has just six hits in 37 Major League at-bats. His OPS with the Rangers sits under .500.
And the impending return of outfielder David Dahl might leave Martin with limited time to impress. Dahl spent the past week on a minor-league rehab stint and is expected to rejoin the Rangers sometime next week during their West Coast trip, Woodward said.
Dahl hasn’t played with Texas since a rib cage contusion sent him to the injured list May 26.
Briefly: Garcia finished Phase 1 of fan voting for the All-Star Game in fifth place among American League outfielders. He and eight fellow outfielders will move on to Phase 2 of voting, which opens Monday at 11 a.m. and runs through July 1. Garcia ended Sunday’s game tied for third in the AL with 20 home runs and in fourth with 55 runs batted in. … With Sunday’s win, the Rangers improved to 5-3 in their powder blue uniforms. It’s the only uniform this season in which they have a winning record. … The Rangers were scheduled to fly to the Oakland area after Sunday’s game and will have Monday off before beginning a six-game road trip Tuesday against the Athletics.
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June 28, 2021 at 06:57AM
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