Rangers dominate Rays for wild-card sweep
Nathan Eovaldi tossed 6 2⁄3 strong innings to fuel the Texas Rangers to a sweep of their American League wild-card series on Wednesday afternoon, courtesy of a 7-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg.
Tuesday night, Jordan Montgomery tossed seven scoreless innings to lift Texas past Tampa 4-0 in the series opener.
Evan Carter belted a two-run homer and Adolis Garcia also went deep for the fifth-seeded Rangers, who advanced to face the Baltimore Orioles in the AL Division Series. Game 1 of the best-of-5 series is Saturday in Baltimore.
Texas’ Josh Jung ripped an RBI triple among his three hits and Marcus
Semien and Corey Seager had back-to-back RBI doubles. Seager recorded his second straight two-hit performance of the series.
The offense was more than enough for Eovaldi (1-0), who allowed one run on six hits and struck out eight without walking a batter.
He exited after surrendering Curtis Mead’s RBI single to left field with two outs in the seventh inning. Josh Sborz induced rookie Junior Caminero to fly out to end the threat.
Sborz pitched 1 ⁄ scoreless
1
3 innings before Jose Leclerc retired the side in the ninth to hand the fourth-seeded Rays their second straight sweep in the AL wild-card series in as many years. Tampa Bay, which dropped a 4-0 decision in the series opener on Tuesday, mustered just one run in 24 innings in last year’s loss to Cleveland.
LATE TUESDAY
Twins 3, Blue Jays 1: Royce Lewis homered in each of his first two career postseason at-bats and host Minnesota ended an 18game playoff losing streak by beating Toronto in Game 1 of their American League wild-card series. The streak was the longest postseason skid ever for a team in the four major North American sports leagues. Minnesota logged its first win in the postseason since Oct. 5, 2004, against the New York Yankees.
Diamondbacks 6, Brewers 3: Arizona tagged Milwaukee ace Corbin Burnes for three home runs in the first four innings and held off the host Brewers to win the opener of an NL wild-card series.
ELSEWHERE
Padres: Bob Melvin will return as manager of San Diego in 2024 despite the team failing to meet high expectations during the just concluded regular season. General manager A.J. Preller will also return in the same role after San Diego went 82-80 and finished third in the National League West. The Padres only got above .500 by winning 14 of their final 16 games.
For more playoff results go to the eEdition at MiamiHerald.com.
WILD CARD SERIES Best-of-3; x-if necessary
NATIONAL LEAGUE
PHILADELPHIA 1, MIAMI 0
Tuesday: Philadelphia 4, Miami 1 Wednesday: Miami at Philadelphia x-Thursday: Miami at Philadelphia, 8:08 (ESPN)
ARIZONA 1, MILWAUKEE 0 Tuesday: Arizona 6, Milwaukee 3 Wednesday: Arizona at Milwaukee x-Thursday: Arizona (Kelly 12-8) at Milwaukee, 7:08 (ESPN2)
AMERICAN LEAGUE
MINNESOTA 1, TORONTO 0
Tuesday: Minnesota 3, Toronto 1 Wednesday: Toronto at Minnesota x-Thursday: Toronto at Minnesota, 4:38 (ESPN)
TEXAS 2, TAMPA BAY 0
Rangers win series
Tuesday: Texas 4, Tampa Bay 0 Wednesday: Texas 7, Tampa Bay 1
Miami AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Arraez 2b 4 0 1 0 0 0 .250 Soler dh 4 0 0 0 0 3 .000 Bell 1b 4 1 3 0 0 0 .750 Chisholm Jr. cf 4 0 0 0 0 2 .000 Burger 3b 4 0 1 0 0 0 .250 B.De La Cruz rf 4 0 1 1 0 0 .250 J.Sanchez rf 2 0 1 0 0 0 .500 Gurriel ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 .000 Wendle ss 000000 --Berti lf 3 0 0 0 0 3 .000 Fortes c 2 0 0 0 0 1 .000 Hampson ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Stallings c 0 0 0 0 0 0 --
Totals 33 1 7 1 0 10 Philadelphia AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Schwarber dh 4 0 1 0 0 2 .250 T.Turner ss 3 0 2 0 1 0 .667 Bohm 3b 4 0 1 1 0 1 .250 Harper 1b 4 1 1 0 0 2 .250 Realmuto c 4 1 1 0 0 0 .250 Castellanos rf 4 0 2 1 0 1 .500 Stott 2b 4 1 1 1 0 2 .250 Pache lf 2 0 1 1 0 1 .500 B.Marsh lf 2 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Jh.Rojas cf 3 1 1 0 0 1 .333
Totals 34 411 4 110
Miami 000 000 100 — 1 7 0 Philadelphia 001 200 01x — 4 11 0
LOB—Miami 5, Philadelphia 7. 2B—Bell 2 (2), Bohm (1), Castellanos 2 (2), T.Turner (1). RBIs—Bohm (1), Castellanos (1), B.De La Cruz (1), Pache (1), Stott (1). SB— T.Turner 2 (2).
GIDP—Fortes. DP—Philadelphia
Harper).
Runners left in scoring position—Miami
3 (B.De La Cruz, Gurriel 2); Philadelphia 6 (Bohm, Harper, B.Marsh, Realmuto 3).
Miami IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Luzardo L,0-1 4 8 3 3 0 5 90 6.75 Puk 1 1 0 0 0 1 16 0.00 G.Soriano 1 0 0 0 0 1 16 0.00 Brazoban 1 0 0 0 1 2 20 0.00 Okert 1 2 1 1 0 1 16 9.00
Philadelphia IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Wheeler 62⁄3 5 1 1 0 8100 1.35 W,1-0
Alvarado H, 1 1 1 0 0 0 2 17 0.00 Hoffman H, 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 0.00 Kimbrel S,1-1 1 1 0 0 0 0 15 0.00
Inherited runners-scored—Alvarado 2-0, Hoffman 1-0. WP—Luzardo 2, Alvarado.
Umpires—Home, Stu Scheurwater; First, Doug Eddings; Second, James Hoye; Third, Marvin Hudson; LF, Jordan Baker; RF,
Edwin Moscoso.
T—2:46. A—45,662 (46,528). 1 (Stott,