ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Adolis García hit three home runs and then two late doubles, driving in eight runs as the Texas Rangers routed the Oakland Athletics 18-3 on Saturday night.
All three of García’s homers were two-run shots, and his first double also scored two to give him a career high for RBIs to go with the 30-year-old Cuban slugger’s first three-homer game.
García’s final at-bat came against infielder Jace Peterson in the eighth. Because of position switches, Texas reliever Josh Sborz batted ahead of García and took three of four pitches for a strikeout.
The line-drive double down the line in left field from García could have scored Travis Jankowski, but he jogged to third, preserving Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez’s club record of nine RBIs in a game set in 1999.
García had the second three-homer game in the major leagues this season. Trayce Thompson did it for the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 10-1 win over Arizona on April 1.
Some in the crowd of 32,388 stood in anticipation in the seventh, when García had his first of two chances to tie the big league record of four homers in a game. He lined a two-run double to right-center for the first eight-RBI game by a Rangers player in 11 years.
Each of his homers went at least 400 feet, starting with a 432-foot drive into the second deck in left field off Japanese right-hander Shintaro Fujinami in the first inning.
García cleared the center-field wall on a 419-foot drive off reliever Adrián Martinez in the third. Texas’ cleanup hitter went deep off Martinez again in the fifth, 401 feet into the Oakland bullpen in left-center.
García has seven home runs and 28 RBIs this season.
After the first homer, García was hit on the left arm by the first pitch from Fujinami in the second inning, a 97 mph fastball. Plate umpire Jordan Baker quickly stepped in front of García, who appeared upset but walked to first base without any words exchanged with the pitcher.
With the bases loaded, Josh Jung grounded a two-run single to left and Jonah Heim followed immediately with a two-run double to right-center.
Andrew Heaney’s streak of 10 scoreless innings over two starts ended with Oakland’s two-run first, but the Texas left-hander limited the damage with Aledmys Díaz’s inning-ending double play.
Heaney (2-1) answered with five scoreless innings, allowing five hits, two walks and a hit batter with four strikeouts in six innings.
Fujinami (0-4) had improved in his two previous starts but matched the ugly numbers from his major league debut: eight runs in 2 1/3 innings.
The 29-year-old rookie gave up seven hits, walked three, hit a batter and threw two wild pitches as his ERA rose to 14.40. Fujinami has lost all four starts.
The A’s, who lost for the eighth time in nine games, extended a franchise record with a 21st consecutive game to start the season without a victory for a starter. Oakland starters are 0-10 while allowing 95 runs — all earned — in 95 1/3 innings.
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Texas ace Jacob deGrom (1-0, 3.48 ERA) is “full go,” according to manager Bruce Bochy, in the series finale. The right-hander was pulled as a precaution because of right wrist soreness after four hitless innings in the Rangers’ 4-0 win at Kansas City on Monday. A’s LHP Kyle Muller (0-1, 7.23) allowed 13 hits and six runs over four innings in his previous start, a 10-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs.
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