Mitch Garver leads Texas Rangers 16-3 pounding of Philadelphia Phillies

The Texas Rangers received a pair of three-run home runs from Mitch Garver en route to a 16-3 triumph over the visiting Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday.

Garver’s first home run extended the Texas lead to 7-3 in the fifth. His second homer came in the seventh and made it a 10-3 game.

Second baseman Marcus Semien also homered for the Rangers, who had 17 hits in the game.

Neither starting pitcher made it past the fifth inning.

Nate Eovaldi (1-0) allowed three runs on six hits in five innings to earn the win in his Rangers debut. He struck out six and walked two.

Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler (0-1) gave up five runs (four earned) on seven hits before he was pulled with one out in the fifth. He struck out seven and walked one.

The Rangers pushed two runs across in the first inning against Wheeler, who allowed four earned runs in the first inning during the entire 2022 season. After Semien led off the game with a home run, Robbie Grossman made it 2-0 with a two-out single that scored Nathan Lowe (3-for-6).

A Grossman sacrifice fly scored Lowe to make it 3-0 in the bottom of the third. Adolis Garcia (3-for-4) increased the lead to 4-0 when he scored on an error by shortstop Trea Turner later in the inning.

The Phillies cut their four-run deficit in half on a double by Nick Castellanos that scored Darick Hall and J.T. Realmuto in the fourth. Philadelphia got another run in the inning when Turner hit his second triple of the season and then scored on a Kyle Schwarber groundout to second.

After Garver’s second home run, the Rangers pushed three more runs across in the seventh. Brad Miller scored on a Corey Seager sacrifice fly, Josh Smith scored on a Lowe groundout, and an RBI single by Garcia scored Semien to make it 13-3.

Texas added three runs in the eighth. Bubba Thompson scored on a Semien sacrifice fly, Garcia scored on a Lowe single and Smith scored on a Travis Jankowski single.