Alejandro Osuna belted a three-run homer in a four-run first inning and Jack Leiter matched his career high with 10 strikeouts, sending the visiting Texas Rangers to a 7-3 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Friday night.

The Guardians (86-74) remained tied with the Tigers (86-74) atop the American League Central. Cleveland’s magic number for clinching the division is down to two after Detroit lost 4-3 to the Boston Red Sox on Friday.

Cleveland owns the tiebreaker over Detroit, and both teams are one game ahead of Houston (85-75) for the final wild-card spot. The Astros, who fell 4-3 to the Los Angeles Angels on Friday, would lose a tiebreaker to both the Guardians and the Tigers.

Cody Freeman added a two-run single and Jake Burger singled in a run in the seventh off Jakob Junis to extend Texas’ advantage to 7-2. The Rangers (81-79) won for just the second time in 11 games and snapped a four-game skid on the road.

Leiter (10-10) worked a career-high tying seven innings, limiting the Guardians to two runs on four hits and a walk. The right-hander also struck out 10 over seven scoreless frames in beating Cleveland at home on Aug. 23.

Osuna’s second homer of the season traveled 406 feet to right-center field and put the Guardians in a 4-0 hole. It plated Freeman and Rowdy Tellez, who doubled in Joc Pederson two batters earlier against Slade Cecconi (7-7).

Kyle Manzardo had a two-run homer in the first, and Gabriel Arias singled in Jose Ramirez in the ninth for Cleveland, which suffered back-to-back losses for the first time since Sept. 1-2. The Guardians are 18-7 in September.

Cecconi lost for the first time in eight starts since an Aug. 16 defeat to the Atlanta Braves, giving up four runs on five hits with three strikeouts and a walk. The right-hander is 2-8 at home in his career.

Freeman went 3-for-5 and Pederson was 2-for-4. Both reached base three times in five plate appearances.

The Rangers have lost seven straight series in Cleveland, going 7-17 there since 2017.

–Field Level Media