Cody Bradford Wins MLB First, Texas Rangers Down Nationals
Cody Bradford won his first MLB game and the Texas Rangers snapped a two-game losing skid with Friday night’s 7-2 victory over the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park.
The American League West-leading Rangers (52-37) had been a slump recently, losing six of their previous eight games as the division race has tightened up with the Houston Astros chasing. Texas, which got home runs from All-Star starters Corey Seager and Adolis García, improved to 2-2 on the six-game road trip that leads into the All-Star break.
Texas jumped on Nationals starter Trevor Williams for a 2-0 lead in the top of the first, as All-Star starters Marcus Semien and Seager set the table with a walk and double, respectively.
Fellow All-Star starters García and Jonah Heim each drove in a run to give rookie spot starter Bradford an early cushion. García learned earlier Friday that he would be starting the Midsummer Classic as an injury replacement, giving the Rangers five starters.
Bradford (1-1) made his fifth start by giving another regular starter a break. In this case, the turn belonged to Martín Pérez, who has struggled lately. The veteran lefty now gets extra rest with the shutdown for the festivities in Seattle coming early next week.
Bradford continued to show improvement, going five innings and allowing just a solo home run to Joey Meneses in the first and five hits.
A two-out rally by the Rangers in the fifth made it 4-1. Nathaniel Lowe, celebrating his 28th birthday, García and All-Star starter Josh Jung all got hits with two outs, with the rookie third baseman driving in both runs.
Williams, who went six innings, dropped to 5-5 for the Nationals. Washington is 34-54 overall.
Glenn Otto relieved Bradford to start the sixth and his first pitch was deposited in the left-field seats by Meneses, who doubled his homer total on the season from two to four.
Seager and García added solo blasts in the seventh off converted reliever Joan Adon for a 6-2 lead. Seager is up to 12 home runs, while García has 23 long balls and 73 RBI.
Aroldis Chapman pitched a scoreless eighth in his third appearance for Texas.
The Rangers announced before the game that Andrew Heaney (5-5, 4.12) was coming off the paternity list after the birth of his first child with wife Jordan. Heaney will pitch the second game of the series Saturday at 3:05 p.m. opposite Jake Irvin (1-5, 4.70).
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