ARLINGTON, Texas — Three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer retired 15 of the 16 batters he faced over five scoreless innings in his season debut, rookie Wyatt Langford extended his streak to five games with an RBI and The Texas Rangers beat the Kansas City Royals 4-0 on Sunday to complete a three-game series sweep.
Dominican José Ureña took charge of the final four innings for his first save and extended the Rangers’ streak to 22 scoreless innings, the team’s best record this season, and the longest since the 23 they reached in September of 2016.
Josh Smith homered for the Rangers, who matched their season-high four wins. It was the first three-game sweep this year for the reigning World Series champions.
Scherzer (1-0) struck out four, while allowing one hit without giving up a walk. The right-hander threw 39 strikes of his 57 pitches in his first start since he left Game 3 of the World Series on Oct. 30 after three innings due to back stiffness. His fastball was consistently between 92 and 94 mph.
With Langford’s RBI double, Texas took the lead definitively against Alec Marsh (5-5) in the fourth inning. Langford hit a grand slam in Saturday’s 6-0 victory, and has 10 RBIs in the last 5 games.
For the Rangers, Dominican Leody Taveras went 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Cuban Adolis García 3-1 with one scored.
For the Royals, Puerto Rican MJ Meléndez and Venezuelan Maikel García went 1 for 3.
