Lyles' pitching, Heim's homer lead Rangers past Indians 7-2

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Jordan Lyles closed his season by allowing only two hits in seven innings and rookie Jonah Heim broke a fourth-inning tie with a three-run home run to help the Texas Rangers beat the Cleveland Indians 7-2 on Saturday night.

Lyles (10-13) matched his longest start of the year and his most strikeouts with eight. He has 146 strikeouts this season to match his career best, set in 2019 splitting time between Pittsburgh and Milwaukee. He pitched a career-high 180 innings.

Lyles’ gem came against the team that handed him his worst beating of the season, tagging him for eight runs in 3 2/3 innings on Aug. 26 in a 10-6 loss.

“I enjoyed getting back at these guys,” said Lyles, who leads the major leagues in home runs allowed (38) and went into Saturday with the third highest opponents’ batting average among big league qualifiers (.281). “Fortunate that I was able to bounce back.”

Heim pulled the first pitch from Triston McKenzie (5-9) into the first row of right-field seats as the Rangers (60-101) won for the fifth time in their last eight games.

Texas added three insurance runs in the eighth inning on a two-run double by Charlie Culberson and an RBI single by rookie Andy Ibanez.

Fourteen Indians were retired in a row going to the ninth before Cleveland put together two singles and a fielder’s choice grounder to add another run.

The Indians (79-82) clinched a losing record for the first time since 2012. They’ll play Sunday for the last time with the nickname they’ve used since 1915. The team will be called the Guardians starting next season.

“It would have been nice to go into (Sunday) saying, ‘Let’s get .500,’ but that’s not going to happen,” Cleveland acting manager DeMarlo Hale said. “We just go into...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Lyles-pitching-Heim-s-homer-lead-Rangers-past-16505189.php