The lead changed hands four times before Texas finally pulled away. The Rangers defeated the Cleveland Guardians 6-3 on Monday at Progressive Field, capping a back-and-forth contest with two insurance runs in the ninth to extend their winning streak to four games.
Parker Messick absorbed the loss, falling to 7-5 after allowing 4 runs on 8 hits over 6.2 innings with 5 strikeouts and no walks on 83 pitches. He carried a 2.85 ERA into the game and kept Texas in check through much of the night, but the seventh inning proved costly. Robert Ahlstrom worked a scoreless inning to earn his third win of the season, and Jacob Metz closed it out with 2.0 hitless innings and a strikeout, recording his 17th save with a 1.76 ERA.
Texas broke a scoreless tie in the fourth when Jung scored on a Burger groundout. Cleveland answered in the fifth — Gabriel Arias homered to center field at 429 feet to tie the game, then Austin Hedges scored on a DeLauter double to give the Guardians a 2-1 lead. The Rangers tied it again in the sixth when Carter scored on a Burger single. From that 2-2 deadlock, Nicky Lopez singled to center in the seventh to score Cauley and give Texas the lead for good — the go-ahead run that proved to be the game's turning point. Justin Foscue then doubled to left, scoring Lopez and pushing the advantage to 4-2. Brayan Rocchio scored on a Junis wild pitch to pull Cleveland within one, but that was as close as the Guardians would get. Foscue's second double of the night in the ninth scored Carter and Cauley — aided by a fielding error by left fielder Kwan — to seal the 6-3 final.
Foscue finished 2-for-5 with 2 doubles and 2 RBI to lead the Texas offense. Burger drove in 2 runs, and Evan Carter scored twice. For Cleveland, Arias went 1-for-3 with a home run and an RBI, his third of the season.
Texas improved to 42-42, sitting atop the division. Cleveland fell to 44-40, second in the division, having their two-game winning streak snapped.