Inside The Rangers

Lowe's Five-Hit Night Leads Rangers To 7-3 Victory Over Indians

Nathaniel Lowe had the first five-hit night for the Rangers since 2018 as Texas defeated the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night.

Chris Halicke

Despite dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak, the Texas Rangers turned in a solid performance and avoided the dreaded 82nd loss of the season.

The Rangers went wire-to-wire, defeating the Cleveland Indians by a score of 7-3. The offense compiled 15 hits while going 2-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

Nathaniel Lowe led the way for the Rangers at the plate, blasting a three-run homer over the wall in right-center field in the first inning, giving Texas a lead they would never surrender. Lowe stayed hot throughout the game, adding three singles and a double in a 5-for-5 performance.

Lowe's five-hit night was the first of his career, and the first for the Rangers since Rougned Odor did it in 2018.

"I'm proud of Nathaniel," said Rangers manager Chris Woodward. "He's worked really hard to clean up some things and make some changes ... I've encouraged him to try different things — whatever he needs to do. He's super talented."

DJ Peters was huge for the offense as well, driving in four runs on the night. Peters had an RBI groundout in the fifth inning, and added some breathing room in the ninth inning, blasting a three-run home run off Indians reliever Bryan Shaw.

Taylor Hearn had another solid outing since recently joining the starting rotation. He gave up two runs on five hits with two walks and six strikeouts in five-plus innings of work. Hearn was at 76 pitches after five innings, which is near the 80-pitch ceiling manager Chris Woodward unofficially set prior to the game. 

The Rangers skipper sent him back out there for the sixth inning, but after walking the leadoff batter on four pitches, Hearn's night ended after giving up a bloop single to José Ramírez on the ninth pitch of the at-bat and his 88th pitch of the night.

"I thought that was a great at-bat by Taylor," said Woodward. "That could have easily been a ground ball to short or a pop-up to right field. He was just a little bit unlucky there to have the result end up in 2nd and 3rd there. He finished off that outing really well, in my opinion."

The Rangers (44-81) and Indians (61-62) continue their three-game series on Wednesday night. Texas will call up left-hander Jake Latz (0-0, -.-- ERA) to take the ball against Cleveland's Zach Plesac (7-4, 4.87 ERA). 

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Chris Halicke
CHRIS HALICKE

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