66-46 - Rangers remain undefeated in August after sweep of Marlins

The Texas Rangers scored six runs while the Miami Marlins scored zero runs.

Right before the trade deadline, in the final days of July, the Rangers were kind of limping home from San Diego with their lead in the AL West down to a half game after they got swept by the Padres.

After a few big moves to bolster the club, Texas were lucky to draw a crumbling Chicago team after they had sold anything not bolted down at the deadline, but the Rangers took care of business and started out their homestand with a sweep. The Marlins felt like a different story, however, as a team that also added at the deadline and entered the series in the hunt for a playoff spot in the National League.

Well, the Rangers took care of business in this series as well as today’s shutout win completed the sweep of Miami and an undefeated stint in Arlington to start August.

Today’s finale even seemed like a potential mismatch for Texas with Andrew Heaney needing to outduel 2022 Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara. Heaney proved up to the task as he followed up winning the battle royale to remain in the rotation with his second excellent outing of the homestand.

At the plate, the Rangers hit three home runs off Alcantara (Nathaniel Lowe, Marcus Semien, Ezequiel Duran), something he hadn’t experienced since Sept. of last season. Adolis Garcia, meanwhile, added another one later in the game to add the exclamation mark to the sweep.

With the win, the Rangers have tied their season-high six game winning streak and have re-reached their season-best mark of 20 games above .500.

Player of the Game: Heaney didn’t quite equal his 11 K performance from the homestand opener against Chicago but he gave the Rangers 5 ²⁄₃ shutout innings on just four hits, two walks, and four strikeouts in a win today.

Heaney hasn’t be consistent all season, and he’s still only good for about 80 pitches, but his outings in August have been crucial to Texas’ recent success.

Up Next: The Rangers will try to set a new season-best winning streak as they open a series against the A’s with RHP Dane Dunning set to pitch for Texas against LHP Ken Waldichuk for Oakland.

The Monday evening first pitch from Oakland Coliseum is scheduled for 8:40 pm CT and will be aired on BS Southwest.