Nathan Eovaldi took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, and Elias Díaz, Josh Smith, and Evan Carter hit solo home runs to help the Texas Rangers beat the Detroit Tigers 10-4 on Thursday night.
Rangers’ Strong Performance
The Rangers matched a season high with 17 hits en route to their seventh victory in eight games. Eovaldi (9-7) allowed only one walk through four innings and matched a season high with nine strikeouts in winning his fourth consecutive start, pitching five-plus innings.
Detroit’s Colt Keith led off the fifth by homering on an 0-2 cut fastball above the strike zone. Hao-Yu Lee added a two-run homer that barely cleared the wall in left, just beyond Alejandro Osuna’s reach. Eovaldi allowed five hits in the fifth inning and was pulled leading 5-3 after Riley Greene led off the sixth with a double.
Peyton Gray, Texas’ third pitcher in the sixth, struck out Lee with the bases loaded to end the inning. Díaz’s home run came in Texas’ three-run second inning, his second in two games. Smith, recalled from Triple-A Round Rock on Wednesday, hammered a first-pitch fastball for his first homer of the season and his first career pinch-hit homer in the sixth.
Carter, activated from the injured list on Sunday, homered in the eighth. Osuna and Nicky Lopez each had three hits. Framber Valdez (4-6) allowed five runs on nine hits and two walks in five innings.
Original reporting: Dallas TX News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
