Rangers ride 4 HRs to big win over Marlins

ARLINGTON -- After being shut out in back-to-back games at home, the Rangers' offense erupted on Tuesday. They launched four home runs, including two from Joey Gallo, and Cole Hamels held Miami at bay to give Texas a 10-4 win on Tuesday at Globe Life Park. The Rangers have won four of their last five games and are 3 1/2 games out of the American League Wild Card, as both New York and Kansas City picked up wins on Tuesday as well.
Miami struck first on an RBI double by Christian Yelich in the opening inning, but Gallo launched the first of his two homers in the third to give the Rangers a lead they didn't relinquish. Hamels threw six innings and allowed four runs on six hits to earn the win, while Matt Bush, Keone Kela and Jason Grilli each worked a scoreless inning to preserve the win. Texas has won 23 of Hamels' 28 starts at home since he was acquired in 2015.
"The hitters, they came through and really put up some good runs," Hamels said. "That's always kind of nice. It really alleviates a lot of the pressure, and you can kind of step back and go back and try to get to your game plan and try to execute."
• Gallo leads Rangers' breakout

Dan Straily gave up 10 hits and six runs, both season highs, snapping a streak of three consecutive road starts where he earned a win. In those starts, Straily had an ERA of 1.74 with 15 strikeouts and just one walk, but on Tuesday he managed just two strikeouts and a walk.
"Whatever game plan we had I just wasn't able to execute it tonight," Straily said. "It's really on me. I didn't have enough command of anything. My stuff was just flat tonight. You can throw the game plan out the window when I just can't execute."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Gallo kickstarts loud third inning: After each team had put a run on the board, Gallo led off the bottom of the third with a solo homer to right field on the first pitch, putting the Rangers ahead by a run. Shin-Soo Choo, Nomar Mazara, Mike Napoli and Jonathan Lucroy all had hits during the inning in addition to Gallo's homer, and Adrián Beltré's sacrifice fly padded the lead as well.

"It's a little bit of a tough matchup, I think," Mattingly said of Straily. "He throws the ball up in the zone. These guys are pretty good high fastball hitters. Dan works kind of more fly balls than ground balls. Tonight, you've got to have a little extra at times, and have your other stuff going down to keep them off of it. It didn't seem like he had that tonight."

Yelich closes the gap: Just when it seemed the Rangers were going to cruise to an easy win, the Marlins made a game of it. After Dee Gordon and Giancarlo Stanton reached base, Yelich launched his 10th homer of the year, a three-run shot off Hamels that sliced the deficit to two runs.
• Yelich (4 RBIs) lone bright spot for Miami
"He got me pretty good early in my career," Yelich said of Hamels, recalling when he pitched for the Phillies. "I think I had about 15 ground balls to second off of him, from that sinker and a cutter. But it's baseball, man."

Rangers blow it back open: Yelich's homer kept it close. But the Rangers ripped the game back open in the bottom of the fifth, scoring four runs to widen the gap and knocking Marlins reliever Brian Ellington out of the game after just one-third of an inning. Rougned Odor homered, and Choo drove in a pair to help the Rangers reach double-digit runs.

QUOTABLE
"I like it out there. It's fun. I get to run around a little bit, I'm big and long so gives me a little more room ... I don't have a problem with that -- Gallo, on playing left field
"Way too many pitches over the plate. I just didn't have it tonight. It's a game I'm going to forget about as quick as possible and get ready for Sunday." -- Straily
SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
A pair of Rangers entered Tuesday's game with extended droughts at the plate, but each snapped their streak in the third inning. Mazara was 0-for-his-last-25, and Lucroy was 0-for-his-last-21. Mazara recorded a single after grounding out in the first, and Lucroy got an infield single after he had extended his hitless streak in the second.
"Obviously after last time we wanted to come back out and get the win tonight, but yeah, it felt pretty good breaking out of [the hitless streak]," Lucroy said. "It always feels good when you get a hit when you haven't been going that good. We'll go into tomorrow and try to keep rolling."

WHAT'S NEXT
Marlins: The Marlins close out their three-game series on Wednesday at 8:05 p.m. ET at Globe Life Park. José Ureña (8-4, 3.78) gets the start for Miami. Ichiro Suzuki is expected to start in right field, setting up a matchup against Darvish.
Rangers: Right-hander Yu Darvish will be on the mound for the Rangers at 7:05 p.m. CT, facing the Marlins for the second time in his career. He threw his only career shutout against the Marlins on June 11, 2014, in a 6-0 victory.
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