ARLINGTON, Texas - Evan Carter did not need a hit to finish the inning that decided Saturday night.
The Rangers center fielder lifted a sacrifice fly to center in the sixth, scoring Wyatt Langford for a 6-1 lead in Texas' 6-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays at Globe Life Field. ESPN's box lists Carter 0-for-3 with one RBI - his 38th - and two strikeouts.
The fly ball capped a three-run sixth built on Langford's double, a hit-by-pitch and patient traffic, and it helped Texas (78-77) move into sole possession of the American League West.
Sac fly, sixth-inning sequence
Josh Jung had already homered in the first, his 11th of the year. Texas scratched across two more in the second without a base hit. In the sixth, Langford doubled home Jung when Myles Straw pulled up in left, Brandon Nimmo scored on Danny Jansen's hit-by-pitch, and Carter's fly to center brought Langford home, the Associated Press and ESPN play-by-play show.
Carter was 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position otherwise, per ESPN's box (0-for-3 with RISP as part of a 1-for-11 team night). The one contact that counted was the sacrifice. In September, that is often the difference between a one-run lead and a five-run cushion.
Pitching chaos around him
Cal Quantrill started and left after 1 1/3 innings with right lat tightness; an MRI is scheduled Sunday, and manager Skip Schumaker offered no update, the AP wrote. Jordan Montgomery (1-0) threw 3 2/3 hitless innings for the win. Nathan Eovaldi, Robert Garcia, Chase Silseth and Jacob Latz finished a five-reliever shutdown that held Toronto to six hits.
Davis Schneider's pinch homer in the seventh made the final 6-2.
