Rangers Shut Out Marlins
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ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers broke a four-game losing skid with the help of two key components.
If they hope to remain in the mix in the AL West Division, it would seem they’ll need more of what Yu Darvish and Shin-Soo Choo gave them on Wednesday.
Darvish pitched his first career shutout, and Choo went 2-for-4 with four RBIs in Texas’ 6-0 victory over the Miami Marlins.
Darvish struck out 10, including four of the last six batters he faced in the 73rd start of his three-year career. The right-hander allowed six hits and three walks while helping Texas earn an American League-best 12th shutout.
Asked whether he felt any additional burden trying to break the team’s losing streak, Darvish said, “My approach doesn’t change at all. My focus was to go as deep into the game as possible. I thought I would be out after the eighth.”
Choo, the Rangers’ designated hitter Wednesday, broke out of an 0-for-18 slump with a double that drove in three runs in Texas’ four-run third. Choo added a run-scoring single in the fifth.
Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus went 3-for-4 and scored two runs, and third baseman Adrian Beltre recorded his fifth straight multiple-hit game, going 2-for-4 with a double for Texas (32-34).
Right-hander Jacob Turner (2-4) took the loss for the Marlins (34-31), who saw their
13-game interleague winning streak end. Turner gave up five runs on six hits over four innings while falling to 1-12 in 20 career road starts.
The Marlins were shut out for the third time this season. Miami’s Nos. 3-5 hitters — right fielder Giancarlo Stanton, third baseman Casey McGehee and first baseman Garrett Jones — accounted for three of Miami’s hits.
“Not one of our better games,” Miami manager Mike Redmond said. “When you go up against a front-line pitcher, you’ve got to play better baseball than that.”
Darvish “was really good,” Redmond added. “We never got a whole lot going. It was going to be one of those nights where we had to shut them down and we weren’t able to do that.”
Darvish (6-2) lowered his ERA to 2.13. He allowed only one baserunner to reach second base: Left fielder Christian Yelich was stranded after walking to lead off the game and advancing on Darvish’s wild pitch.
Darvish allowed baserunners in each inning but worked around each of them, including starting a 1-6-3 double play that erased a one-out walk in the seventh. The Marlins hit into three for the game.
He also provided a timely night off for the Texas bullpen, which had worked under a heavy load of 40 1/3 innings in the past 11 games.
“I didn’t have command of any of the pitches,” Darvish said, “but in key situations I was able to induce ground balls and get double plays.”
Before Wednesday, Choo was mired in an 8-for-62 slump, including 1-for-27 in Texas’ nine-game homestand.
Entering the game, opponents were hitting .319 against Turner with runners in scoring position. That figure didn’t improve in the third and fourth innings Wednesday.
Choo’s first hit in 19 official at-bats — a double to right — cleared the bases, scoring catcher Chris Gimenez, second baseman Rougned Odor and shortstop Elvis Andrus to put the Rangers up 3-0.
Choo advanced to third on a groundout and scored Texas’ fourth run on a wild pitch.
“It was nice to see him swing the bat,” Texas manager Ron Washington said. “We need it.”
“The big inning has been tough on him,” Redmond said of Turner. “It’s just a matter of when it’s going to come. Today it was the third.”
In the fourth, Gimenez’s infield single scored center fielder Leonys Martin from second. The slowly hit ball scooted between third and shortstop and crawled to the back of the infield dirt.
Gimenez has reached base in each of the 11 games he has played since being called up last month.
