Wyatt Langford hit a grand slam and Jon Gray allowed two hits over six innings to lead the Texas Rangers to a 6-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday afternoon in Arlington, Tex.
Josh Smith also homered and had two hits for Texas, which won its third straight game.
Gray (3-3) allowed just a pair of singles and retired the final 10 batters he faced. He struck out three and didn’t walk a batter. Jacob Latz, David Robertson and Brock Burke each pitched an inning of relief to complete the shutout.
Michael Wacha (4-6), making his first start since May 31 after suffering a left foot fracture on a Luis Arraez comebacker in a 11-8 loss to San Diego, took the loss. Wacha allowed one run on three hits over five innings. He walked one and struck out five.
Gray, coming in off his worst start of the season on Monday when he allowed a season-high nine runs on 11 hits in three-plus innings in a 14-2 loss to the New York Mets, retired the first eight batters he faced before allowing a single to Garrett Hampson. Hampson then advanced to third on a line-drive single by Adam Frazier that tipped off first baseman Nathaniel Lowe’s glove but Gray got out of the jam by getting Bobby Witt Jr. on a comebacker.
Smith gave Texas a 1-0 lead in the fourth with a 352-foot line-drive homer just over the fence in right.
The Rangers then broke the game open with a five-run eighth off reliever Angel Zerpa. Marcus Semien and Corey Seager led off with back-to-back singles and were sacrificed to third and second by Smith. Semien then scored on a slow comebacker by Adolis Garcia to Zerpa whose throw to the plate to try and get Semien was late.
Lowe then walked to load the bases and Langford the followed with his first career grand slam, a 415-foot drive deep into the bleachers in left. It was Langford’s third career homer.
–Field Level Media