Quantrill throws 7 shutout innings, Rangers blank Rays 6-0
Cal Quantrill threw 7 shutout innings and Corey Seager homered as the Rangers beat the Rays 6-0, pulling within 0.5 games of an AL wild card spot.
Quantrill's 7 shutout innings, Seager's homer
Cal Quantrill threw 7 shutout innings, allowing 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5, as the Rangers beat the Rays 6-0 at Globe Life Field. Corey Seager went 1-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBI, taking Shane McClanahan deep to make it 4-0, per @TalkinBaseball_.
Rays6-0The scoring started small: Justin Foscue's 2-out ground ball through the left side scored Langford for a 1-0 lead, and later O'Hoppe's single, a Freeman bunt and a 2-out opposite-field single from Zeke pushed across another run, per Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News. Jake Burger closed it out with a sacrifice fly, the second productive out Grant flagged in the win.
0.5 games back, tied with the Blue Jays
At 70-71, the Rangers have won 4 of their last 5 games and sit 0.5 games back in the American League Wild Card race, tied with the Blue Jays for the final spot. The Guardians hold that third spot at 70-70, with the Yankees (80-60) and Red Sox (76-65) well clear at the top of the field.
| AL Wild Card | W | L | Pct | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Yankees | 80 | 60 | .571 | +10.0 |
 Red Sox | 76 | 65 | .539 | +5.5 |
 Guardians | 70 | 70 | .500 | — |
 Rangers | 70 | 71 | .496 | 0.5 |
 Blue Jays | 70 | 71 | .496 | 0.5 |
 Orioles | 69 | 72 | .489 | 1.5 |
 Twins | 67 | 73 | .479 | 3.0 |
 Mariners | 66 | 75 | .468 | 4.5 |
Texas's elimination number is 20, the same as Cleveland's, while Toronto's has dropped to 9 and Baltimore — 69-72 and 1.5 games back — sits at 8. Thursday's shutout of the AL-leading Rays didn't change the math at the top, but it kept the Rangers even with Toronto in a group that's bunched behind the Guardians.
Upcoming
Trevor Williams takes the ball for Texas Friday carrying a 3.93 ERA and no decisions logged yet. He'll face Nick Martinez, who is 13-4 with a 2.99 ERA and last started August 29 against the Padres, working 6 innings and allowing 3 earned runs on 7 hits over 81 pitches.
The Rangers host the Rays tonight, and Tampa Bay is favored, with the total pointing to a low-scoring game — a read that lines up with Martinez's ERA and a Texas offense that leaned on productive outs more than the long ball to get to 6 runs Thursday. If Williams can keep the Rays' lineup as quiet as Quantrill did, the number the market has set will look conservative by the final out.