Texas Rangers coming home with a win. They might have also found a cleanup hitter.
Joey Gallo was the Texas Rangers’ best hitter during their season-opening three-game series against the Kansas City Royals.
When he wasn’t collecting one of his five hits, four singles and a home run, he was drawing one of his four walks.
He will carry a .500 batting average Monday into the home-opener at Globe Life Field.
Along the way, the Rangers might have found a cleanup hitter to protect Gallo this season.
Nate Lowe had a historic opening series at Kauffman Stadium
The first baseman was the main beneficiary of Gallo’s .667 on-base percentage, driving in nine runs and mashing a three-run homer that helped the Rangers salvage a 7-3 victory Sunday after two sloppy losses to start the season.
Though Lowe didn’t wow with his numbers this spring, he did with an approach that the Rangers believed would lead to more consistent production what Ronald Guzman would provide.
“It was just the calmness, the controlling of the at-bats, just talking to him through his approach and what he’s trying to do up there, and watching him from a consistency standpoint pitch by pitch,” manager Chris Woodward said. “That’s the thing that stood out to me.”
Lowe set the franchise record for the most RBIs in the first three games of a season, passing Frank Howard’s mark of seven in 1969 when the Rangers were the Washington Senators.
Lowe has already tied the mark for the first four games of a season, held by Nomar Mazara in 2017.
Woodward put Lowe behind Gallo, both left-handed hitters, for the first time Sunday against right-hander Brady Singer after Nick Solak, a right-handed hitter, was the cleanup hitter the first two games.
Woodward liked how Lowe handled Royals left-hander Mike Minor on Saturday and didn’t mind having three lefty hitters in a row. Left fielder David Dahl batted second.
Lowe lined out sharply in the first with runners at first and second. He hit it over everybody in the third, a 465-foot blast into the fountains in right field, following a Gallo single that extended the inning.
“I haven’t seen a ball hit like that in a while,” Gallo said.
The Rangers scored three in the fourth without Lowe’s help. Isiah Kiner-Falefa bounced a two-run single into left field and David Dahl followed with a sacrifice fly in an inning aided by a throwing error and an eight-pitch walk by Leody Taveras.
That proved to be plenty of support for Jordan Lyles, who had his best game since signing with the Rangers before last season. The right-hander worked quickly and efficiently, opening with five scoreless innings before allowing a two-run homer to Salvador Perez in the sixth.
Lyles allowed two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and no walks in 5 2/3 innings. The performance by Lyles, who posted a 7.02 ERA in 2020, came after the Rangers allowed 14 and 10 runs in their first two games.
“That’s the best game I’ve seen him pitch in a Rangers uniform,” Woodward said “We needed that.”
Maybe the Rangers also found a dependable starting pitcher Sunday in Lyles in addition to a possible cleanup hitter in Lowe.
This story was originally published April 4, 2021 at 4:25 PM.
