Lynn's solid start for naught as offense scuffles

CLEVELAND -- Lance Lynn, Ariel Jurado and Mike Minor strung together back-to-back-to-back strong starts for the Rangers in their three-game series against the Indians.

Thanks to a woeful showing by its offense, however, Texas turned only one of them into a victory at Progressive Field.

Willie Calhoun homered Wednesday to end a 21-inning scoreless drought, but it was too little, too late as the Rangers were swept in a traditional doubleheader, losing Game 2 to the Indians 5-1 on Wednesday afternoon. The Rangers lost 2-0 in the opener.

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Texas allowed seven runs during the three-game series, but scored only twice. Calhoun’s home run leading off the eighth inning of Wednesday's nightcap occurred two days after Nomar Mazara’s sacrifice fly in the fourth inning of Monday's 1-0 victory.

“I don’t like losing and I don’t like scoring two runs in three games,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “Clearly the Indians are doing something right on that side, but our guys need to ask themselves, ‘How do I do better next time?’ We’ve got to go back and look at video and see what’s been going wrong. I hope our guys make some adjustments, because we’ve got to have our eyes and our ears wide open after this.”

Texas went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, left 13 men on base and had 15 total hits in a critical series for keeping its slight playoff hopes alive.

Lynn, Jurado and Minor worked seven innings apiece against the American League Wild Card-leading Indians, combining for 20 strikeouts and a 1.29 ERA. Minor earned the lone win in the series opener.

Jurado dropped a 2-0 decision in Game 1 of the twin bill on a two-run homer by Jose Ramirez, while Lynn gave up one earned run -- on a Ramirez solo shot -- and one unearned run while striking out eight in Game 2.

“There are going to be games where the offense bails me out and gets me a win when I’m not at my best, so I’m not concerned,” said Lynn, who equaled his season high of 120 pitches. “Even when you don’t score for almost two games, you can’t get down. You can’t go look to jump in a hole because things are going to get better.”

Lynn (14-7, 3.60 ERA) made his 19th consecutive start of six-plus innings and leads the Majors with 22 games of at least 100 pitches. In five career outings against the Indians, he is 3-1 with a sparkling 1.04 ERA and 31 strikeouts over 26 innings. The right-hander also tied the Astros' Justin Verlander for the most starts of at least seven innings this season with 13. Lynn left the game with Texas trailing, 2-1, and Cleveland added three runs off reliever Jesse Chavez in the eighth.

“Typical Lance Lynn -- he’s a warrior out there,” Woodward said. “He said the mound was a little off today, but he still gives us seven innings with two runs.”

Calhoun had two of the four hits by Texas, which did not draw a walk. It was swept in a doubleheader for the first time since May 27, 2013 at Arizona.

The Rangers make the second stop on their three-city, nine-game road trip Friday in Milwaukee.

“Sometimes when you don’t hit as a team, it’s an anomaly,” Woodward said. “Cleveland does have one of the best staffs in baseball, but we’ve got to learn from these moments if we’re going to become the championship-caliber team that we think we can build here.”