Rangers Sweep Marlins with Four-Homer Day

August 6, 2023

Rangers 6, Marlins 0

ARLINGTON, Tex. (Aug 6) — The Texas Rangers swept the Miami Marlins out of town by beating them, 6–0, Sunday afternoon at Globe Life Field. Home runs by Nathaniel Lowe, Marcus Semien, Ezequiel Duran, and Adolis Garcia led the charge in the series finale. This is the second consecutive three-game sweep for the Rangers, as they outmatched the Chicago White Sox earlier in the week en route to a perfect homestand. It also keeps them 2.5 games ahead of the Houston Astros in the AL West. The Astros beat the New York Yankees, 9–7, moments after the conclusion of this game.

With this homestand behind them, the Rangers will now embark on a six-game road trip. Beginning on Monday, they’ll play a three-game set against the Oakland Athletics before crossing the Bay Bridge to play three against the San Francisco Giants. Lefty Ken Waldichuk (2–7, 6.52 ERA) will toe the rubber for the Athletics in the opener of that series. Right-hander Dane Dunning (9–4, 3.14 ERA) will take the mound for the Rangers.

Homer Happy

After an inning and a half of scoreless baseball, the Rangers took charge in the bottom of the second. After reaching on a fielder’s choice, Josh Jung scored on a single to left by Mitch Garver. Jung later came out of the game with a fractured left thumb on a play he made at third. Manager Bruce Bochy said they would “see a specialist soon and take it from there.”

The Rangers added two more in the bottom of the third. This came courtesy of a two-run homer to right-center by Lowe, his 13th of season. Semien was on base at the time with a single. Two innings later, Semien joined in on the fun with a solo home run to center, his 18th of the year.

The Rangers added another dinger in the bottom of the sixth. This one was launched over the wall in center by Duran, his 14th of the season.

In the bottom of the eighth, Garcia entered the chat with his 29th home run of the season to give the Rangers a 6–0 lead over the Marlins. It is worth mentioning that all of this offense came without having Corey Seager‘s bat in the lineup. Bochy gave Seager the afternoon off, which was most likely done in order to get Seager some rest, having recently returned from the injured list with a thumb ailment.

Nice Afternoon for Heaney

Rangers left-hander Andrew Heaney posted a near-quality start on Sunday. His line on the afternoon was 5 2/3 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, 81 pitches/50 strikes. Heaney earned his ninth victory of 2023, matching his single-season career high for wins. He also had nine wins in 2018 as a member of the Los Angeles Angels. His outing on Sunday extended his career-best 15 2/3-inning scoreless streak dating back to the second inning of his start on July 26 against the Astros. Heaney has gone 4–0 with an ERA of 2.33 over his last five starts. This lowered his season ERA from 4.71 to 4.14. He is now 9–6 on the year. Sunday’s start was his first career appearance against the Marlins, the same team that selected him in the first round, ninth overall, of the 2014 Draft.

Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara took his 10th loss of the season in his 23rd start on Sunday, bringing his record to 4–10 with an ERA of 4.28. He pitched six innings in which he gave up five runs, four earned, on six hits. He struck out seven and gave up three of the Rangers’ four home runs. Right-hander Geoff Hartlieb gave up the Rangers’ sixth run. It is the first time that Alcantara has lost 10 games in a season since 2021, when he went 9–15. He drops to a record of 3–3 with a 2.85 ERA in eight interleague starts this season. Alcantara has now lost four of his last seven starts since July 2, which came against the Atlanta Braves. He has a 1–4 record during that stretch.

Postgame Comments

In his postgame comments, Bochy was asked what impressed him about this homestand. He said, “You can’t help but look at all facets of the game. Our starters did a tremendous job out there. The offense came through as we got some really big hits, and our bullpen has shown up a lot lately. We also flashed the leather defensively. All nine guys on the field made at least one great catch or play over the past week. I really like what I saw over these last six games. Hopefully we can bottle up whatever it was we had here and take it with us tonight on our flight to Oakland.”

Heaney also gave his thoughts on his start by saying, “I felt good overall. It helped that we got six runs, but I felt really good physically. My command was there. I had no mechanical issues that I’m aware of, and I was able to move the ball around to the spots that I wanted. A couple of starts ago I said that pitching is contagious. Sometimes that can be said when a team pitches poorly, but in this case we’ve been throwing really well, and I’m just grateful that I got to feed off of that today.”