Jon Gray allowed one run over eight innings to pick up his first win of the season, leading the Texas Rangers to a 7-1 victory over the Washington Nationals in the opener of a three-game series on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas.
Josh Smith and Leody Taveras each homered for the Rangers, who earned their third win in four games.
Gray (1-1) gave up just three singles, only one of which left the infield. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out three while throwing 98 pitches, 72 for strikes.
Texas’ Marcus Semien tripled, doubled and scored two runs and Nathaniel Lowe went 2-for-3 with a RBI, a walk and run. Smith finished with two hits and two runs.
Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore (2-3) gave up two runs on five hits over five innings. He walked one and struck out seven.
Washington, which had a four-game winning streak snapped, took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. CJ Abrams led off with an infield single, stole second and scored on a two-out single by Luis Garcia Jr.
Texas tied it 1-1 in the fourth when Lowe led off with an infield single, advanced to second on a single by Adolis Garcia and scored on a single by Jonah Heim.
The Rangers took a 2-1 lead in the fifth when Semien tripled off the wall in right-center with one out and scored on a groundout by Corey Seager.
Smith extended the Texas lead to 3-1 in the sixth when he lined his second homer of the season to right. Lowe made it 4-1 an inning later with an RBI single, driving in Semien, who had doubled.
The Rangers broke the game open with a three-run eighth against reliever Tanner Rainey. Smith walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on a single by Evan Carter to make it 5-1. Taveras followed with first homer of the season that just cleared the fence in center field.
–Field Level Media
