After making two nice defensive plays in the top of the ninth inning, Adolis Garcia delivered a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth that lifted the Texas Rangers to a 3-2 win over the Washington Nationals on Saturday in Arlington, Texas.
The game-winning home run came on a 2-2 slider by reliever Kyle Finnegan. Garcia led off the inning with his 15th home run of the season.
Joe Barlow (3-1) picked up the win, tossing a scoreless ninth. Finnegan (2-2) suffered the loss.
In the top of the ninth, Garcia made two terrific catches in right field. He first ran down Keibert Ruiz’s long fly ball to the warning track and followed that up by snaring Cesar Hernandez’s line drive.
Washington’s loss negated a stellar pitching performance by Josiah Gray.
Making his 27th MLB start, Gray logged a career-high seven innings, giving up two runs, while striking out nine.
Nathaniel Lowe crushed a two-run home run in the second inning off Gray to give the Rangers the early lead. The blast to center field was the 15th homer allowed by the Nationals right-hander.
It was Lowe’s 10th of the season, and it snapped Gray’s scoreless-innings streak at 17.
On the mound, the Rangers went with a bullpen game. But before the first pitch, they had a change of plans with their opener.
Reliever Matt Bush was initially set to start, but Texas made a change. Brett Martin got the nod, and he tossed a scoreless first inning.
After Martin exited, Taylor Hearn took over, and threw four hitless, scoreless innings.
In the sixth inning, the Nationals pulled even on Nelson Cruz’s two-run home run off left-hander Brock Burke. Juan Soto doubled to deep center to open the inning, and Cruz’s eighth home run was driven to left.
Washington had a chance to claim the lead in the seventh inning. But with a runner at third and two outs, left-hander Matt Moore struck Soto out, keeping the score knotted at two.
–Field Level Media
