PHOENIX — Jordan Lyles pitched seven smooth innings in relief, Jason Martin hit a two-run single and the Texas Rangers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-1 on Tuesday night.
It’s a rare three-game winning streak for the last-place Rangers. They’ll try to tie their season high of four straight wins on Wednesday.
Arizona has lost nine of 10.
The Diamondbacks jumped out to a short-lived 1-0 lead in the third when Josh Rojas hit a sacrifice fly that brought home Daulton Varsho.
Texas responded with three runs in the fourth, the big blow coming on Martin’s two-run single.
Texas used an opener on the mound to start the game and right-hander Spencer Howard was effective, retiring all six hitters he faced before handing off to Lyles.
It was the second straight strong outing for Lyles (8-11), a veteran right-hander who has had a rough season and entered with a 5.63 ERA. He’d given up the most hits (171) and homers (36) in the AL this year.
But Lyles cruised through the Diamondbacks’ lineup, yielding just three hits and one run. Texas shortstop Yonny Hernandez helped the pitcher by making a diving catch of Varsho’s line drive to end the fourth that would have scored Pavin Smith from third.
Lyles retired 15 of the last 16 batters he faced.
Arizona wasted a solid start from Zac Gallen (2-9), who gave up three runs over 6 2/3 innings. The right-hander allowed six hits and struck out eight.
It was an interleague matchup between two last-place teams that have long been out of contention. The Rangers (50-88) and Diamondbacks (45-94) came in a combined 74 games out of first place and 87 games below .500.
MAKING MOVES
Rangers: Howard was activated from the COVID-19 injured list before the game. RHP Nick Snyder was placed on the 10-day IL with right shoulder fatigue. The move is retroactive to Sept. 4.
Diamondbacks: Added RHP Brandyn Sittinger and LHP Miguel Aguilar to the big league roster. The team placed RHP Tyler Clippard on the COVID-19 injured list and optioned RHP Taylor Clarke to Triple-A Reno.
UP NEXT
Arizona sends RHP Luke Weaver (3-3, 4.11 ERA) to the mound against RHP Kohei Arihara (2-3, 6.19) in the two-game series finale Wednesday afternoon.
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
