Wyatt Langford hit an inside-the-park home run to highlight a four-run first inning and Adolis Garcia also homered to lead the Texas Rangers to a 4-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in the rubber game of their three-game series on Sunday afternoon in Arlington, Texas.
It marked the first time since a season-opening series against the Chicago Cubs on March 28-31 that the defending World Series champions won a home series.
Langford became the fourth player in Rangers history to hit an inside-the-park home run for his first career major league home run, joining Josh Smith (2022), Craig Gentry (2011) and Marc Sagmoen (1997). Nathaniel Lowe also had two hits for the Rangers.
Dane Dunning (3-2), who retired the first 13 batters he faced, allowed two runs (one earned) on three hits over 5 1/3 innings. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out 10. Kirby Yates pitched a scoreless ninth to notch his fifth save.
Andrew Abbott (1-3) took the loss, allowing four runs on six hits over 5 1/3 innings. He struck out seven without a walk.
Abbott retired the first two batters he faced in the first before giving up four consecutive hits. Lowe singled and then scored when Garcia lined his eighth homer to left to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead, the first time in seven games that the Rangers scored first.
Jonah Heim followed with a single and then scored on Langford’s homer, a line drive that caromed middle of the fence in right-center and rolled along the track past right fielder Jake Fraley. Langford, timed at 15.2 seconds by Statcast, easily circled the bases to make it 4-0.
Cincinnati cut it to 4-3 in the sixth. Luke Maile led off with a double off the bottom of the fence in left and scored one out later on a single by Will Benson. Elly De La Cruz singled and advanced to second on his 18th stolen base. Spencer Steer then drove in both runners on a grounder when shortstop Corey Seager bounced his throw to first for an error.
Yates allowed a single and a walk with one out in the ninth before striking out Jeimer Candelario and getting Maile to line out to third.
–Field Level Media