Gray lifts Rangers by reeling Marlins
MIAMI — Jon Gray pitched six innings of four-hit ball, Adolis Garcia homered and the Texas Rangers beat the reeling Miami Marlins 8-0 on Thursday.
Garcia drove in three runs, helping Texas stop a four-game slide in the opener of an 11-game trip. Marcus Semien had two hits and reached base four times.
“Our players were excited to get back off the break and ready to play ball,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “We’re going to be challenged, obviously, on this road trip travel-wise.”
The Marlins lost their fourth straight, and their scoreless streak reached 34 innings. They last scored in the second inning of their 2-1 loss against Philadelphia on July 15. Miami also tied a club record with its ninth consecutive game without a home run. Marlins teams in 1993 and 2019 had similar droughts.
“We’re in a stretch where you’re hoping the threeday break was going to be something that we’d bounce back and come out of this with some energy and it would look a little different,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “But it hasn’t so we’ve got to keep going and keep fighting.”
Gray (7-4) struck out five and walked two.
Tigers, Athletics split: Jeimer Candelario homered, Robbie Grossman doubled twice and drove in three runs against his former team, and Detroit defeated host Oakland 7-2 in the first game of a doubleheader.
The Athletics won the nightcap 5-0 as Sean Murphy hit a three-run homer and six Oakland pitchers combined on a four-hitter.
In the opener Candelario connected leading off the seventh to help back Tarik Skubal (7-8), who struck out nine and didn’t allow an earned run over six impressive innings.