ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) Lance Lynn struck out 10 over eight innings of three-hit ball, and the Texas Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-0 Friday night for their season-best sixth-consecutive win.
Lynn (10-4) allowed just one runner to reach third base. The right-hander held Tampa Bay without a hit from two outs in the second until Willy Adames opened the eighth with a double.
Jose Leclerc completed a three-hitter for the Rangers, who moved into a tie for the first AL wild card with the Rays at 46-36.
Tampa Bay was coming off a 3-7 road trip.
Texas took a 3-0 lead in the second on an RBI double by Rougned Odor and Ronald Guzman’s two-run double off Yonny Chirinos (7-4).
Chirinos gave up four runs, five hits and four walks in six innings.
The third inning included a couple wild baserunning plays – one runner was thrown out on a walk, and another scored on an errant pickoff attempt following an infield hit.
Elvis Andrus was on first when Nomar Mazara drew a base on balls. Andrus safely reached second but took off for third when catcher Mike Zunino made an off-target throw to shortstop Adames, who started a rundown that resulted in an out.
Mazara advanced to second on Joey Gallo’s infield single. The ball was returned to Chirinos, who then made a bad throw to second as an outfielder sneaked in behind Mazara, who scored to make it 4-0.
Odor left in the ninth after it appeared he hurt a leg on a single.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rangers: AL All-Star DH Hunter Pence (strained right groin) was encouraged after running the bases and could be back next week. … LHP Jeffrey Springs (left biceps tendinitis) has been shutdown. ”It didn’t seem to get better with treatment, so that’s when the doctors said `OK, there’s something going on in there,”’ manager Chris Woodward said.
Rays: CF Kevin Kiermaier, who left Thursday’s game with right calf tightness, didn’t rule out starting Saturday.
REINSTATED
Rangers 3B Asdrubal Cabrera went 0 for 3 with a walk in his return after serving a three-game suspension for hitting an umpire with equipment. Cabrera is hitless in his last 19 at-bats.
JUST MISSED IT
Odor was thrown out at the plate trying for an inside-the-park homer after his sixth-inning hit got past a diving left fielder Tommy Pham. After Pham ran down the ball, he threw it to third baseman Joey Wendle, who made an accurate throw home.
UP NEXT
Rays two-way prospect Brendan McKay will make his major league debut Saturday against Rangers RHP Adrian Sampson (6-4). McKay was 3-0 with a 1.08 ERA in five games with Triple-A Durham, where he also got at-bats as the DH.
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