WASHINGTON _ Andrew Cashner allowed one run in seven innings Friday night, and Jonathan Lucroy homered and drove in three runs as the Texas Rangers opened a three-game series against the Washington Nationals with a 5-2 victory.
Rougned Odor also went deep, to start the seventh, and Elvis Andrus singled and scored in the third to stretch his hitting streak to 13 games.
Cashner (3-5) allowed six hits and two walks while striking out four.
The Rangers collected 11 hits, two walks and a hit by pitch off Tanner Roark in six-plus innings, and 13 hits overall. Included in the barrage were a two-run homer by Lucroy and a solo shot by Odor to start the seventh and end Roark's night. The Rangers had two hits in each of the first two innings, including an infield single by Cashner, but didn't score. They started the third with three straight hits, the first of which was a single that extended Andrus' hit streak to 13. The last was an RBI single by Lucroy for a 1-0 lead.
Lucroy, who had three hits, made it 5-0 in the fifth with his fourth homer of the season, and Odor made it 5-1 with his ninth.
All that stood between Cashner and seven scoreless innings was a blown third strike by plate ump Brian O'Nora. Cashner had only one 1-2-3 inning, the third, but he worked quickly and efficiently. He finished with 94 pitches. His best pitching was in the fourth, when he stranded a runner at third with one out.
Cashner was almost out of the sixth without any damage after Ryan Zimmerman's one-out double. Anthony Rendon, though, wasn't rung up by O'Nora on a fastball in the zone, and singled on the next pitch to drive in the run. Cashner worked around a leadoff single in the seventh, and then gave way to Alex Claudio to start the eighth. Claudio struck out the first two batters, including Bryce Harper, in a 1-2-3 inning. Keone Kela retired only one of the three batters he faced in the ninth, and the Nationals scored with two outs as Nomar Mazara and Jared Hoying miscommunicated on an easy flyball. Matt Bush, though, got the next batter to end it.
