Guardians Shut Out Rangers To End Series

Cleveland built an early lead before a rain delay cost the Rangers an opportunity to cut into that advantage

Rain and the Cleveland Guardians kept giving the Texas Rangers trouble on Wednesday to end a three-game series at Progressive Field.

The Guardians (26-26) won the series finale 4-0 and took two of the three games in the set from the Rangers, who won the second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader.

The start of Wednesday’s game was delayed by about 20 minutes due to rain. The game was delayed again in the top of the fifth inning for about an hour.

The delay and the break didn’t help the Rangers (26-30) at all, who have now lost seven of their last nine since reaching .500.

The Guardians jumped on Rangers starter Dane Dunning (1-4) early, as he gave up two runs in the second inning and two runs in the third inning. An Andrés Giménez double scored Josh Naylor, and an Austin Hedges single scored Giménez to give Cleveland a 2-0 lead.

Then, in the third, a José Ramírez double scored Myles Straw and a Naylor single scored Ramírez.

Dunning didn’t come back after the rain delay, so he ended up giving up nine hits and four runs. He also struck out one.

Cleveland starter Shane Bieber (4-3) also didn’t return from the rain delay but proved to be more effective. He threw 4 1/3 innings, giving up three hits and striking out six.

He did leave Cleveland a jam to work out of. In the top of the fifth, he gave up a singles to Adolis García and Nathaniel Lowe before the delay. The Guardians brought in Eli Morgan and he picked off García at second and then struck out Ezequiel Duran to get out of the jam.

From there, the Guardians cruised.

The Rangers have an off-day on Thursday, followed by a three-game series at the Chicago White Sox starting on Friday. The Rangers are expected to start Glenn Otto on Friday, Martín Pérez on Saturday and Jon Gray on Sunday.

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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