Marcus Semien and Nathaniel Lowe homered, Kohei Arihara pitched a career-high six innings and combined with Taylor Hearn for the shutout, and the Texas Rangers beat the Minnesota Twins 7-0 on Sunday.
Minnesota starter Joe Ryan held Texas hitless for the first three innings before Semien led off the fourth with his 19th home run of the season. Semien drove in three runs.
Adolis García extended his hitting streak to 18 games, the longest current streak in the majors.
The Rangers won for the third time in four games following a week of dramatic changes. The team fired fourth-year manager Chris Woodward on Monday. President of baseball operations Jon Daniels was fired on Wednesday.
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“It’s almost like a clean slate with (interim manager Tony) Beasley,” Semien said of last week’s organizational changes. “When that stuff happened, it just kind of wakes the room up. It’s unfortunate what happened last week, but it wakes the room up and puts everyone on notice that we need to get our stuff together and start playing better.”
Arihara (1-1) was impressive in just his second major league start of the season. The right-hander from Japan spent most of the season at Triple-A Round Rock. He gave up four hits and pitched into the seventh inning.
“I was definitely more settled in this time, more relaxed and got into a rhythm quickly,” Arihara said through a translator.
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Taylor Hearn came on in relief after the first two batters of the seventh singled off Arihara. Hearn retired three in a row to end the threat and finished off the final three innings for his first career save.
“We pitched outstanding,” Beasley said. “Kohei, he set the tone for us. I always say that pitching is the face of the game. So, he set the tone. He kept us at bay. If he comes out and doesn’t pitch well, none of this offense matters. So, he kept the game in a spot where we had a chance to get going offensively.”
Ryan (9-6) allowed just two hits and two runs, but he walked three and was done after 6 1/3 innings when Texas put together a three-run inning off Ryan and reliever Trevor Megill.
The Twins were shut out for the 11th time this season and now trail Cleveland by 1.5 games in the American League Central.
“We expected more from our offense,” Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli said. “And will expect more going forward, a lot more. It was a day where there wasn’t much to even talk about. I think we rolled over on a lot of pitches. And it’s something I think we could have and should have been ready for. And I think we prepared for the type of pitcher we were facing today. The execution in the batter’s box has to be better.”
