D-backs use long ball to blank Rangers
Christian Walker belted two homers and Joc Pederson hit one as the Arizona Diamondbacks notched a 6-0 victory over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night in Phoenix.
Pavin Smith and Jose Herrera added RBI doubles for Arizona (81-64), which remained a halfgame behind the San Diego Padres for the National League’s top wild-card spot and moved within five games of the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.
Walker had three RBIs for Arizona, which has won two straight games after losing eight of its previous 12.
Zac Gallen (12-6) allowed two hits in five scoreless innings for the Diamondbacks. He struck out seven and walked two.
Arizona’s Kevin Ginkel gave up a hit and issued a walk in the sixth, Ryan Thompson pitched a flawless seventh, A.J. Puk struck out the side in a perfect eighth and Justin Martinez struck out two in a 1-2-3 ninth.
Wyatt Langford had two of the Rangers’ three hits. Langford also stole two bases.
Texas (70-75) lost for just the fourth time in its past 14 contests. The Rangers are seven games behind the Twins for the American League’s third wild-card berth, and their playoff hopes are getting slimmer with four other teams residing between them and Minnesota in the standings.
Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi (11-8) allowed four runs and seven hits over five innings. He struck out six and walked one.
Pederson and Walker hit back-to-back homers off Eovaldi in the first inning for Arizona.
Pederson ripped a 2-1 cutter over the pool in right-center for his 22nd home run of the season. Walker followed by taking an 0-1 fastball the opposite way to clear the right field wall.
In the third inning, Pederson walked with one out and Walker again went the opposite way, hitting a 2-1 slider over the wall in right to make it 4-0. It was his 25th homer of the season.
Arizona added another run in the eighth when Jake McCarthy led off with a bunt single and Smith followed with an RBI double into the right field corner. The hot-hitting Smith established singlegame career bests of three homers and eight RBIs in the Diamondbacks’ previous game against the Houston Astros on Sunday.
Two outs later, Herrera drilled a ground-rule double over the wall in rightcenter to score Smith from third.