Red-hot Heliot Ramos leads Giants past Rangers

Heliot Ramos homered and doubled and drove in three runs to lead the San Francisco Giants to their third straight victory, 3-1, over the Texas Rangers on Saturday afternoon in Arlington, Tex.

Austin Slater scored two runs and Matt Chapman singled in four at-bats to extend his on-base streak to 25 games for San Francisco. Erik Miller (1-2), one of five Giants pitchers, picked up the win with a scoreless inning of relief while Camilo Doval pitched around a walk and an infield single in the ninth to earn his 11th save.

It marked the second straight game that Texas was held to five hits as the Rangers fell to 4-27 this season when scoring three runs or less in a game. Andrew Heaney (2-7) suffered the loss, allowing three runs on five hits over 5 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out five.

Heaney entered the contest having not allowed a run in 8 1/3 innings in his two previous appearances but that streak was snapped quickly. Slater led off the game with a walk and then scored when Ramos lined a double to the wall in left center to give San Francisco a 1-0 lead.

Texas tied it in the bottom of the first as Giants starter Spencer Howard walked both Marcus Semien and Josh Smith to start the inning. Semien then tagged and advanced to third when Adolis Garcia flew out to the wall in right and scored on a sacrifice fly by Nathaniel Lowe.

The Giants took a 3-1 lead in the third when Slater singled with one out and Ramos followed with his sixth home run of the season, a 399-foot drive to left field. It marked the fourth homer in six games for Ramos and also the 16th time he reached base in plate appearances.

Texas had a chance to tie it in the ninth when Lowe led off with a walk and Jonah Heim followed one out later with a chopper off the plate for a single. The runners advanced to second and third on a ground out to first by Sebastian Jankowski and Leody Taveras just missed tying it when his liner curled about two feet foul down the right field line. Doval then got Taveras to fly out to right to end the game.

–Field Level Media