Taylor Hearn, Adolis Garcia continue to build resumes in Texas Rangers rout of Astros
The Texas Rangers’ 2021 season has been all about identifying players who could potentially be part of a return to winning.
Even before the club started losing at a record pace — they’re on track to lose a franchise record 107 games — that was the unstated goal.
Two of those players continued to solidify their roles on Sunday, as the Rangers salvaged the series finale against the Houston Astros with a 13-2 win at Globe Life Field.
Taylor Hearn (4-4) turned in his best outing of the season, holding the Astros to two runs on six hits over 6 2/3 innings. He struck out six, walked none and received an appreciative ovation from Rangers fans when he gave way to the bullpen in the seventh.
“He’s probably one of our biggest bright spots this year,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “You feel like he belongs. He’s got confidence. He’s throwing the ball with a lot of conviction.”
He held the Astros’ dangerous lineup hitless through four innings before Yordan Alvarez’s solo homer started the fifth. He threw a career-high 89 pitches in the longest outing of his career.
Hearn, who turns 27 tomorrow, seems to have earned a spot in the Rangers’ rotation in 2022 after transitioning from the bullpen earlier this summer.
“I think it was huge, just continuing to try to grow. Try to impose my will on [teams],” said Hearn, who altered the way he throws his slider. “Trusting my stuff, everything we’ve worked on. I didn’t really know what to expect from it today. I felt really good, like I could have gone out for another inning or two.”
Meanwhile, fellow rookie Adolis Garcia keeps producing like few Rangers rookies ever have.
Garcia was 3 for 4 with five RBIs, including a grand slam in the fifth inning Sunday. It was the Rangers first grand slam this season, the last MLB club to hit one in 2021, and the team’s first since Rougned Odor in the Globe Life Park finale on Sept. 28, 2019.
Garcia’s 29 home runs as a rookie are one behind Pete Incaviglia’s team rookie record in 1986. His 77 RBIs are the third most by a Rangers rookie, trailing only Incaviglia’s 88 in 1986 and Mark Teixeira’s 84 in 2003.
“We know how dangerous their lineup is,” Woodward said of the eight-run fifth. “So for us to get one, get a couple … then Adolis kind of capped it off right there with the grand slam.”
Garcia, whose career was hanging by a thread when the Rangers acquired him from the St. Louis Cardinals in a cash trade in December, has been able to extend his magical, All-Star rookie season to a less mysterious place. Of course, one good season doesn’t make a career, but how long does he have to produce before the Rangers are satisfied he is the player that he has resembled?
“I’ve been working on hitting the ball in my zone and focusing on not missing my pitch,” Garcia said. “As I adjust, the league adjusts to me. That’s part of being in the big leagues and being successful.”
This story was originally published August 29, 2021 at 5:46 PM.
