Jordan Montgomery tossed seven scoreless innings to lift the Texas Rangers to a 4-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday in Game 1 of their American League wild-card series in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Making his third postseason appearance, Montgomery (1-0) scattered six hits and struck out five batters without issuing a walk.
Corey Seager had an RBI single among his two hits and Evan Carter reached base four times (two hits, two walks) for the fifth-seeded Rangers, who took advantage of a franchise playoff-record four errors by Tampa Bay.
“You have to (capitalize on errors), especially going up against a guy like (Tyler) Glasnow,” Seager told ESPN. “Fortunately, we did take advantage of the mistakes they made and got the win.”
Texas will look to wrap up the best-of-three series with another win on the road in Game 2 on Wednesday afternoon.
Josh Jung plated Nathaniel Lowe on a sacrifice fly in the second inning and Seager scored on a wild pitch in the fifth to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead. Seager’s RBI single to center in the sixth inning plated Carter, and Rays center fielder Jose Siri’s throw toward third base sailed into the dugout to allow Marcus Semien to score on the play.
Tampa Bay’s Randy Arozarena had a double among his two hits while playing in front of his mother for the first time in his career. Arozarena’s mom, Sandra Gonzalez, made the trip from Mexico and arrived in Florida on Monday. She also threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the game.
Taylor Walls also had two hits for the fourth-seeded Rays.
Lowe singled off Glasnow (0-1) to open the second inning and advanced to third on Leody Taveras’ one-out base hit. Lowe scored on Jung’s sacrifice fly to right field.
Seager doubled to lead off the fifth before Texas quickly loaded the bases. Glasnow retired the next batter, but his wild pitch allowed Seager to score and give the Rangers a 2-0 lead.
Glasnow walked both Carter and Semien to begin the sixth inning before exiting the game. Chris Devenski relieved Glasnow and permitted Seager’s single to center that ultimately doubled the advantage for Texas.
Montgomery let out a primal scream after walking off the mound following a strikeout of Junior Caminero to end the seventh inning.
“It’s amazing. We talked about it all year. Gotta get here. Now we’re here. Gotta show out,” Texas catcher Jonah Heim told Bally Sports Southwest. “You can’t talk enough about how (well Montgomery) did. He’s been tremendous for us (since joining the team), and he showed up for us in a big way again.”
Texas’ Aroldis Chapman retired the side in order in the eighth inning, and Jose Leclerc worked the ninth to seal the win.
Glasnow was saddled with the loss after yielding four runs (three earned) on six hits with five walks in five-plus innings. He struck out eight.
“We didn’t play a very good, clean baseball game by any stretch. We didn’t hit, pitch or defend,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “When you’re going up against a good team, they’re going to capitalize … and eventually they did.”
–Field Level Media
