Gallardo, Odor spark Rangers in win over Dodgers

Published Jun. 16, 2015 12:07 a.m. ET

foxsports

ARLINGTON, Texas – The Texas Rangers mixed the old and new for a 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers Monday night.

The old was the pitching of Yovani Gallardo, who continued his recent string of dominance by pitching seven scoreless innings and lowering his ERA to 3.16. The new came in the form of Rougned Odor, whose approach at the plate was much better Monday that it was in his stint earlier this year with the Rangers that got him sent to Triple A Round Rock.

Odor had his first three-hit game of the year and helped break the game open by capping a four-run sixth inning with a two-run opposite field single.

That hit pushed the Texas lead to 4-0 and Gallardo and the bullpen did the rest as Gallardo's outing pushed the string of consecutive quality starts to 11 for Texas pitchers. That's the longest string in club history and the longest in the majors this year.

It also made the night easier for the Texas offense, something Gallardo is getting accustomed to doing as he now has a 2.23 ERA at Globe Life Park this season.

"I'm throwing the ball well right now," said Gallardo, who evened his record at 6-6. "I had a good slider and cutter. It's not an easy team to face with the guys that have in that lineup, but I made pitches whenever I needed to. We executed the game plan really well."

The only jam Gallardo faced was after he walked the first two batters to open the sixth. But he got a fly ball from Yasiel Puig and a double-play grounder to end that threat and turned things over to the offense.

The Rangers responded by getting RBI singles from Prince Fielder and Mitch Moreland before Odor slapped a two-run single to the left side.

"I've been working in Triple A a lot on that, hitting the ball to the other side," said Odor, who was called up earlier Monday after the Rangers put outfielder Delino DeShields on the disabled list. "I felt pretty good to be able to help out there. I feel good with everything right now."

Texas manager Jeff Banister liked the approach Odor took at the plate Monday as well. He had a single in the first and another in the fifth and ended up raising his average from .144 to .172.

"How about the young man coming back?" Banister said. "First night with the hits, but more importantly the big one really, something that we didn't see him do the first go-around, and drive the ball through that right side, stayed on the ball a while, played good defense too, turned some double plays. Very nice to see."

The Dodgers did threaten by getting a run in the eighth and bringing the tying run to the plate with one out. But Tanner Scheppers struck out Yasiel Puig and then got a pop up from Adrian Gonzalez to end the final Dodgers' threat.

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