Rangers dispatch Braves for sixth straight win

Wyatt Langford drove in three runs with a first-inning double and Josh Smith and Josh Jung added two RBI each to back a solid start by rookie Jack Leiter as the soaring Texas Rangers waylaid the Atlanta Braves 8-1 on Sunday afternoon in the finale of a three-game interleague series in Arlington, Texas.
The Rangers won their sixth straight game, earned their second consecutive series sweep and captured their fourth series in a row. Texas is 8-1 since the All-Star Break and pulled to within four games of Houston in the American League West standings while collecting 10 hits, three by Smith.
Atlanta, mired in fourth place in the National League East, dropped its fifth straight game and seventh of nine contests after the break. The Braves managed just four hits on Sunday against three Texas pitchers and are season-worst 16 games under .500.
Leiter was outstanding for the Rangers, allowing a run on two hits and three walks over six innings. He tied a season high with seven strikeouts and won his career-high third straight start.
Brad Elder (4-7) was ineffective from the start for the Braves, allowing eight runs on six hits, four walks and a hit batter over 2 2/3 innings while pitching about 50 miles southeast of his hometown of Decatur, Texas.
The Rangers set the pace early, taking a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on a two-out, three-run double by Langford that drove in Smith, Marcus Semien and Adolis Garcia, all of whom reached without a hit.
Atlanta cut into its deficit in the second as Sean Murphy’s bloop, ground-rule double scored Drake Baldwin, who had walked. But the Rangers swung back in the bottom of the frame, adding a pair of runs on Smith’s two-run home run over the right field fence that scored Jonah Heim and made it 5-1.
In the third, Texas loaded the bases off Elder with a single, a walk and a hit batsman before Josh Jung plated Garcia and Langford with a single. Heim then drove in Carter with a single that ended the Atlanta starter’s stint.
That was more than enough for the Rangers and way too much of a hole from which Atlanta to climb.