The Texas Rangers aim to match their season-high winning streak of five games on Thursday afternoon when they bid to record a four-game sweep of the spiraling Chicago White Sox in Arlington, Texas.
The Rangers followed up a trio of one-run victories by igniting their offense in a 10-2 romp over the White Sox on Wednesday night.
Corey Seager homered among his four hits and Nathaniel Lowe drove in four runs to propel Texas to its 11th win in its last 15 games.
The ascending Rangers have moved within three games of the American League West-leading Houston Astros and 5 1/2 games of the Kansas City Royals for the final AL wild-card spot.
“We’re heating up at the right time,” Lowe told Bally Sports Southwest. “We’re playing some pretty good ball. We did a nice job of putting that team away tonight.”
Texas’ Adolis Garcia showed signs of snapping out of his pronounced slump, during which he went 2-for-26 in his previous seven games. Garcia ripped an RBI double in the fifth inning as part of his three-hit performance on Wednesday. He added a run-scoring groundout during a six-run eighth inning.
“It was good to see us break out. Some guys had a great night tonight,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said. “You look at (Adolis), and of course Corey, and really throughout the lineup. A lot of good things happened out there offensively.”
The Rangers’ only five-game winning streak this season occurred July 5-9.
The woeful White Sox, in turn, have lost 10 in a row — marking their second double-digit skid of the season. Chicago, which is 50 games below .500, is four setbacks shy of matching its 14-game losing streak from May 22-June 6.
“We’re not proud of our record, we’re not going to be proud of our record at the end of the season,” White Sox general manager Chris Getz said, per the Chicago Sun-Times. “But we knew there were going to be struggles and challenges along the way.”
The White Sox mustered just four hits and struck out 13 times on Wednesday.
They will look to ignite their sputtering offense against right-hander Max Scherzer (1-3, 3.99 ERA) on Thursday.
Scherzer, who turns 40 on Saturday, fell to 0-3 in his past five trips to the mound after allowing four runs on five hits in two innings of an 8-4 setback to the Baltimore Orioles last Saturday. The three-time Cy Young Award winner was dealing with arm fatigue while making his sixth start after missing the first 2 1/2 months of the season recovering from back surgery.
Scherzer is 14-6 with a 2.50 ERA in 25 career starts against the White Sox.
Chicago will counter with rookie right-hander Jonathan Cannon (1-4, 4.58 ERA).
Cannon, 24, fell to 0-3 in his past five outings after permitting four runs on eight hits in six innings of a 6-1 setback to the Royals on Saturday. He has yet to face the Rangers in his young career.
–Field Level Media
