ARLINGTON -- Since the Rangers hung football-worthy numbers on the scoreboard Saturday night, it’s fair to re-use former NFL coach Dennis Green’s famous tautology: the Rangers were who we thought they were in a 10-0 rout of the Guardians.
When this season began, manager Bruce Bochy and his staff and front office expected the Rangers to win games by outslugging opponents the way they did in their World Series championship season two years ago. SLG was supposed to be in this team’s DNA. Instead, they have found themselves in game after game in which their starting rotation pitched masterfully only to lose when their offense sputtered.
But both aspects of the game were highlights Saturday. Rookie righty Jack Leiter had the best start of his Major League career, striking out a career-high 10 in seven scoreless innings. He allowed only two hits, both singles, and walked none -- only the third time in 23 starts this season he’s gone without issuing a base on balls.
Offensively, the Rangers were just as dominant. They hit three two-run home runs: Cody Freeman in the second inning, Josh Jung in the third and Adolis García in the fifth. All were milestones of a sort -- Freeman’s was his first MLB homer; Jung’s broke a 14-game homerless streak in which he slashed just .116/.156/.163; and García’s was his first since a 10-day stint on the injured list.
Jung and García, in particular, needed something to snap out of prolonged periods of underpowered at-bats. García had just one homer in his previous 50 at-bats when he went on the IL with an ankle sprain on Aug. 13.
Bochy’s decision to use Wyatt Langford and Ezequiel Duran, who have both been on recent hot streaks, in the top two spots also paid off. Langford doubled twice and Duran drove in two runs with a fourth-inning double that gave Texas a comfortable 7-0 lead.
After that, all eyes were on Leiter. He had retired the first six batters of the game in order; and with a growing lead to begin the third inning, he continued to attack hitters the rest of his outing. Both of the hits he surrendered were ordinary singles. He retired the last 10 batters he faced, and 21 out of 23 overall.