MINNEAPOLIS — Marcus Semien and Nathaniel Lowe homered, Kohei Arihara pitched a career-high six innings and combined with Taylor Hearn for the shutout, and the Texas Rangers beat the Minnesota Twins 7-0 on Sunday.
Minnesota starter Joe Ryan held Texas hitless for the first three innings before Semien led off the fourth with his 19th home run of the season. Semien drove in three runs as the Rangers won for the third time in four games.
Adolis García extended his hitting streak to 18 games, the longest current streak in the majors.
Arihara (1-1) was impressive in just his second major league start of the season. The right-hander from Japan spent most of the season at Triple-A Round Rock. He gave up four hits and pitched into the seventh inning.
Taylor Hearn came on in relief after the first two batters of the seventh singled off Arihara. Hearn retired three in a row to end the threat and finished off the final three innings for his first career save.
Ryan (9-6) allowed just two hits and two runs, but he walked three and was done after 6 1/3 innings when Texas put together a three-run inning off Ryan and reliever Trevor Megill.
The Twins were shut out for the 11th time this season and now trail Cleveland by 1.5 games in the American League Central.
After a slow start to his first season in Texas, Semien is delivering the production expected when he signed a $175 million, seven-year contract in the offseason.
Semien was hitting .193 with no homers on May 27. He hit his first home run a day later and now has 19 in 77 games since, while hitting .256 during that stretch. With a career-high 19 stolen bases, he’s closing in on his first 20-20 season.
Lowe hit his 18th homer. He's hitting .364 since the All-Star break.
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