Rangers sweep Rays with 13-run, 19-hit attack

Corey Seager’s three-run homer highlighted a six-run fourth inning and Jonah Heim went 4-for-5 with a homer and three runs as the Texas Rangers completed a three-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays 13-2 on Sunday in Arlington, Texas.

Wyatt Langford had his second career four-hit game, Sebastian Jankowski went 2-for-3 with three RBIs and Leody Taveras also had three hits and an RBI for Texas, which finished with a season-high-tying 19 hits. Robbie Grossman also homered for the Rangers, who batted around in the fourth and fifth innings.

Nathan Eovaldi (6-3) picked up the win, allowing two runs on four hits over seven innings while striking out five and walking none.

Jose Caballero hit a two-run homer and Ben Rortvedt had two hits for Tampa Bay, which was outscored 20-5 in the series and lost for the fourth time in its last five games. Losing pitcher Zack Littell (3-6) allowed seven runs on nine hits in four innings. He walked one and struck out five.

Texas took a 1-0 lead in the first when Seager doubled into the gap in right-center to extend his hitting streak to 12 and scored one out later on a double by Langford.

Tampa Bay took a 2-1 lead in the third on Caballero’s sixth home run of the season, a 413-foot drive to left that drove in Rortvedt, who had singled.

Texas then went ahead 7-2 with a six-run, five-hit fourth that included an RBI single by Heim, a two-run single by Jankowski and Seager’s 16th homer, a 382-foot, three-run drive to right.

The Rangers broke the game open with three runs on five hits in the fifth to make it 10-2. Taveras, Jankowski and Derek Hill had consecutive RBI singles as Texas’ first six batters reached base.

Heim made it 11-2 with his eighth home run in the sixth, then Grossman extended the lead to 12-2 in the seventh with his second homer of 2024. Grossman added another RBI in the eighth when he walked with the bases loaded against reliever Garrett Cleavinger.

–Field Level Media