Marcus Semien opened the game with a homer and finished 4-for-5 with five RBIs and the Texas Rangers scored 10 runs in the second inning to beat the host Oakland Athletics 15-8 on Tuesday afternoon.
Jonah Heim also had four hits and Leody Taveras added three more as the Rangers equaled their season high for runs while collecting a season-best 19 hits.
One day after a comeback win in the series opener, Texas did a majority of its damage in the second inning.
Semien, who hit his sixth homer of the year in the first inning, singled in a run to give the Rangers a 3-0 lead. He greeted reliever Hogan Harris with a two-run double later in the inning to make it an 11-0 cushion.
Texas scored its 10 runs on nine hits and one error in the frame. Ross Stripling (1-6) lasted only 1 2/3 innings, giving up 11 runs (five earned) on 10 hits and two walks. He struck out two.
Semien was a triple shy of his first career cycle after the second inning. He added an RBI single in the fourth to make it 12-2. But he flied out to right in his last at-bat in the fifth. He was replaced by Jonathan Ornelas in the seventh.
The last Ranger to hit for the cycle was Carlos Gomez in 2017.
Jose Urena (1-2) was the beneficiary of all the run support and picked up his first win as a Ranger in his first start of the season. He worked five innings, allowing two runs (one earned) and four hits, walking two and striking out two.
Semien, Heim and Taveras scored three runs apiece, and Heim, Taveras, Nathaniel Lowe and Adolis Garcia each had two RBIs in the win. Lowe, Corey Seager and Josh Smith chipped in with two hits apiece for the Rangers, who won their fourth in a row.
Kyle McCann and Seth Brown each hit their third homer of the year for the A’s, who outscored the Rangers 6-0 over the final four innings but dropped their third straight game.
McCann finished with two hits and scored three times for Oakland. Max Schuemann walked three times and scored twice, and Abraham Toro added a pair of singles in the loss.
–Field Level Media
