Rangers Win in Grand Fashion against Royals

Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images

April 10, 2023

Rangers 11, Royals 2

ARLINGTON, Tex. (Apr 10) — The Texas Rangers made a statement on Monday night at Globe Life Field, winning their series opener against the Kansas City Royals by a final score of 11–2. Numerous home runs, including a grand slam by Adolis Garcia, proved to be the key difference. A very good pitching performance by Rangers starter Andrew Heaney helped lead the Rangers to a well-deserved victory on their first night back in Arlington. The middle game of this series is set for Tuesday evening at Globe Life Field at 7:05 pm Central. Former Ranger Jordan Lyles (0–2, 4.91 ERA) will get the starting nod for the Royals, while Jacob deGrom (1–0, 5.59 ERA) will make his third start for the Rangers.

Homer Happy

The Rangers managed to score eleven runs against the Royals on Monday evening to support starting pitcher Andrew Heaney. Trailing 1–0 in the first inning, Corey Seager got things started by hitting his first homer of the season. Seager also drove in their second run on an infield single in the bottom of the third, plating center fielder Travis Jankowski.

One batter later, Nathaniel Lowe made it 3–1 Rangers with a double to center that brought in Marcus Semien. Catcher Jonah Heim followed Seager’s lead and hit his first homer in the bottom of the fourth. Their lead stretched to 5–1 in the bottom of the sixth. Outfielder Bubba Thompson doubled to drive in Robbie Grossman. Moments later, Jankowski drove in two more runs with a single to center. This scored Heim and Thompson. One of the Rangers’ biggest moments came later in the inning. With the bases loaded, Adolis Garcia stepped in and launched a grand slam to left-center, making the score 11–1. Four of their runs (three earned) were given up by righty Zack Greinke, who took the loss for the Royals. He is now 0–3, with an ERA of 3.31 on the 2023 season.

Royals’ offense

The Royals weren’t able to do very much from an offensive standpoint on Monday, even though it looked like they would. In the top of the first, Bobby Witt Jr. crossed the plate thanks to catcher Salvador Perez. He reached on a fielding error by Adolis Garcia. That was enough to Witt Jr. home. The Royals scored their second and final run in the top of the seventh, doing so on a Hunter Dozier homer to left-center.

Memorable Night for Andrew Heaney

Rangers lefty Andrew Heaney improved to 1-1 in 2023 after earning his first win as a Ranger on Monday (5 IP, 2 H, 1 R-0 ER, 2 BB, 10 SO, 93 pitches/56 strikes). It marked the 18th double-digit strikeout game of his career. Heaney struck out 10 on August 24, 2022 against the Milwaukee Brewers while with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Heaney’s performance Monday was the second double-digit strikeout game by a Rangers pitcher in 2023. Jacob deGrom struck out 11 on April 5 against the Baltimore Orioles.

The last left-handed Rangers pitcher with ten or more strikeouts in a single game was Mike Minor on August 11, 2019 against the Milwaukee Brewers (11 K). Heaney retired 12 straight batters on Monday, nine via strikeout, after Salvador Perez reached on the two-base error by Adolis García with one out in the first inning.

Passing a Legend

Andrew Heaney struck out nine consecutive batters from the second out of the first inning to the first out of the fourth inning. This marked the most successive strikeouts by a starting pitcher in Rangers history. It snapped the single-game record of seven set by Nolan Ryan on July 7, 1991 against the then-California Angels and the overall high of eight done by Joe Barlow from July 24 to August 2, 2021.

Postgame Comments

In his postgame remarks, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy spoke highly of Andrew Heaney’s performance, saying,”He had really good stuff. His fastball and secondary pitches were working for him. He threw a lot of pitches in the first inning, but was able to reset and threw a beautiful game. His last couple of outings were tough on him, but it just shows what he’s made of to pitch a game like that.” Bochy was also asked about his offense. He responded, “We did some good things and put the ball in play. (Travis) Jankowski did some good stuff. Really, it was just everyone working for us. Corey (Seager) started things off with his home run, and we just had great at-bats all night.”

Rangers starter Andrew Heaney also had some postgame remarks about his effort on Monday. He was asked if there was any indication in his bullpen session that he had the command of the strike zone that he showed. He replied, “Bullpens are almost never a good indication of how the game is going to go. I felt okay in the bullpen. The first inning, I was a little off. I gave up a run early, so I just had to work out of that. Getting out of that first inning, and the guys getting some runs early really helped, and things really just started going after that.”