Cal Quantrill handed the Texas Rangers a clean first six innings, and a 5-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels put them in a first-place tie.
The Associated Press reported that Quantrill worked six scoreless innings Sunday at Globe Life Field as Texas beat the Angels and moved even with the Houston Astros atop the AL West at 65-66.
ESPN's box score lists him at 6.0 innings, six hits, zero runs, zero earned runs, zero walks, six strikeouts, zero home runs allowed, 96 pitches (68 strikes), a game score of 66, and a 2.90 ERA. He threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of 24 batters. The decision made him 6-4.
The AP added that Quantrill has now made five straight starts of five or more innings while allowing a run or less, and that his scoreless innings streak reached 15. ESPN's inning chart shows Texas scoring 0-3-0-0-2-0-0-0 and the Angels 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-3-0.
A rotation that has carried the homestand
MLB.com wrote that Rangers starters have allowed three or fewer runs in a season-high 13 straight games since Aug. 10. On this homestand against the Washington Nationals and the Angels, the rotation went 3-2 with a 1.02 ERA, holding opponents to a .198/.222/.298 slash line with three walks and 34 strikeouts.
Per TruMedia, cited by MLB.com, that 1.02 ERA is the lowest for a Rangers rotation in a homestand of six or more games in club history. Texas finished the homestand 4-2 and is 36-29 at home, ESPN shows.
"It's an interesting staff where there's a lot of guys who have accomplished their career," Quantrill told MLB.com. "I don't think it's necessarily a competition. It's almost more like 'Wow, that's what he did, I'd like to try and do that as well.'
I think we've got a wealth of knowledge in our two true veteran starters [Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi], and then we've got a ton of talent in the younger guys. You just pick a little bit from each guy, and you try and build on what the last guy did to the best of our ability."
Manager Skip Schumaker, asked about the homestand, told MLB.com: "Could we have played better? Of course. I think anybody would say that in that clubhouse. However, the goal is to win each series, and we did that. Obviously today was a big game. I'm proud of the guys to come through and win both series."
