ARLINGTON, Texas — Adolis García hit two drastically different solo homers, Corey Seager also went deep and newly acquired left-hander Jordan Montgomery worked into the seventh inning to help the Texas Rangers beat the Miami Marlins 6-2 on Friday night.
García put the Rangers ahead to stay when he went the opposite way with a high-arching 334-foot homer just inside the right-field pole for a 3-2 lead in the third. In the sixth, the All-Star slugger known as “El Bombi” hit a 433-foot drive that landed in the second deck of seats above the visitors bullpen in left-center.
“I just picked two good pitches and made good swings,” said García, who increased his AL-leading RBI total to 88 with his 27th and 28 homers.
“What a game,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said. “That ball to right field, you’re hoping it stays fair, it did. The second one, he got all of that one. … He’s in a good place with his swing.”
A day after three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer won in his first game with the Rangers, their other new starter acquired before this week’s trade deadline struck out six, walked one and allowed two runs before leaving two batters into the seventh. Texas got Montgomery (7-9) and reliever Chris Stratton from the St. Louis Cardinals.
“Definitely a little extra nerves, just wanted to make a good first impression on the new team,” Montgomery said. “Kind of grinded it out those first few innings and settled in and kind of kept us in it. … And the bats and, of course, Adolis had a great game.”
Josh Sborz faced only three batters to get out of the seventh before Stratton pitched two scoreless innings.
Marlins starter Jesús Luzardo (8-6) struck out eight over 5 1/3 innings. The lefty gave up four runs and six hits.
Texas (64-46) maintained its 1 1/2-game AL West lead over reigning World Series champion Houston (63-48). The Astros won 7-3 in New York against the Yankees.
Jon Berti homered for the Marlins (58-53), who fell to five games over .500 for the first time since June 5 and missed a chance to move into the National League’s third wild-card spot. They remained a half-game behind Cincinnati (59-53), which lost 6-3 in 10 innings to Washington.
“We just couldn’t get any hits, that’s the main thing,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “We couldn’t get the ball off the ground. It started off good, a lot of weak contact throughout the game after the second inning.”
SHORT HOPS
García also had a double in his second game this season with at least three extra-base hits. The other was when he had three homers and two doubles April 22 against Oakland. … Marlins CF Avisaíl García had a two-pitch strikeout leading off the fourth inning. After fouling off the first pitch, he got a pitch clock infraction for an automatic strike and then swung on missed on the next pitch.