The Rangers' offense broke out of their slump, and Nathan Eovaldi tossed a quality start to help Texas top the Rays 7-1 in Game 2 of their Wild Card Series on Wednesday afternoon, sending them on to the ALDS.
Here are some takeaways from the game:
RANGERS END DRAUGHT:
The Rangers won their first playoff series since beating the Tigers in the 2011 ALCS, and the pitching staff played a big part in it.
According to Rangers PR, the club became the sixth team in MLB history to hold an opposing club to one or zero runs in a multi-game postseason series.
Texas will now head to Baltimore to take on the AL East division-winning Orioles in a best-of-five-game series beginning Saturday.
NATHAN EOVALDI SHINES:
Nathan Eovaldi almost matched Jordan Montgomery's stellar performance in Game 1 (7 IP, 6 hits, 0 R, 0 BBs, 5 Ks). Eovaldi allowed one run on six hits and didn't walk a batter in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out eight.
EVAN CARTER DOES IT AGAIN:
Evan Carter, the 21-year-old phenom, hit his first career postseason home run and reached base three times on Wednesday. Carter has now reached base in seven of his first eight postseason plate appearances.
Carter's two-run bomb came in the fifth inning to give the Rangers a 4-0 lead.
OFFENSE STEPS UP
The Rangers scored seven runs on 12 hits, eight of which went for extra bases. The eight extra-base hits set a postseason club record for a single game, breaking the previous record of seven extra-base hits against the Yankees in the 2010 ALCS,
Rangers third baseman Josh Jung had three of those extra-base hits (2 doubles and 1 triple).
