Nathaniel Lowe delivered a walk-off single in the ninth inning to lift the Texas Rangers to a 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday in Arlington, Texas.
With the game tied 3-3, the Rangers mounted the game-winning rally off Cardinals left-hander Genesis Cabrera. Marcus Semien drew a one-out walk, which was followed by Corey Seager’s bloop single to shallow left field that Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado couldn’t make a play on.
Lowe then sent a 3-1 slider from Cabrera (1-1) through the left side of the infield to score Semien from second. It marked the second walk-off victory for the Rangers this season.
St. Louis rallied from a 3-1 deficit in the eighth inning off Texas reliever Grant Anderson. The Cardinals loaded the bases with no outs before scoring their first run of the inning on Paul Goldschmidt’s sacrifice fly.
St. Louis then tied the game at 3-3 on a double by Arenado. Rangers left fielder Ezequiel Duran just missed catching the ball as it bounced off the wall. That allowed Nolan Gorman to score with Tommy Edman right behind him. However, Edman stopped at third and Arenado sprinted to third on the play, which led to an easy out for the Rangers.
Texas escaped the frame as Anderson induced an inning-ending groundout by Willson Contreras.
Rangers reliever Will Smith (1-2) threw a scoreless inning to earn the victory. The Rangers ended the top of the ninth when catcher Jonah Heim gunned down Paul DeJong, who was trying to steal second.
The late-game action overshadowed a terrific start by Texas’ Martin Perez. The left-hander didn’t earn the victory, but he extended his unbeaten streak to 10 starts and allowed one unearned run on three hits with one walk and five strikeouts over seven innings.
Semien extended his major-league-leading hitting streak to 24 games, going 2-for-4.
St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright allowed three runs on eight hits with two walks and three strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings.
Texas has won 10 of its last 12 games, while St. Louis is riding a four-game losing streak.
–Field Level Media
