Reds blank Rangers 2-0 as Lowder pitches scoreless innings in first win since 2024

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Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Rhett Lowder throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Cincinnati Reds' Elly de la Cruz breaks his bat while hitting a single, scoring teammate Matt McLain, during the first inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero) — Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Rhett Lowder throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

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9:40 PM on Saturday, April 4

By STEPHEN HAWKINS

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Rhett Lowder allowed three hits over six innings as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Texas Rangers 2-0 on Saturday night, giving the right-hander his first win since 2024 after missing all of last season because of injuries.

Graham Ashcraft, Tony Santillan and Emilio Pagán each worked a scoreless inning to wrap up the Reds’ second shutout this season. Pagán matched the early MLB lead with his third save, his second in as many days, benefitting from a double play while walking two and giving up a two-out single.

Cincinnati got their runs on back-to-back RBI singles by Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart in the first off Kumar Rocker (0-1) before Lowder (1-0) had even thrown the first of his 82 pitches in his second start this season.

Lowder struck out four and gave up two leadoff walks. After allowing back-to-back singles with two outs in the first, the Rangers didn't get another runner to second base against him. He retired 12 of his last 13 batters he faced while lowering his career ERA to 1.30, the lowest for any Reds pitcher in his first eight career starts.

Texas, which has lost its first two home games and three games in a row overall, was held scoreless for the first time.

The seventh overall pick out of Wake Forest in the 2023 draft, Lowder made his big league debut in the final month of the 2024 season when he was 2-2 with a 1.17 ERA in six starts. He missed all of last season with because of a right forearm strain and then a left oblique strain.

Rocker struck out three in his five innings.

Matt McLain had a one-out single in the Reds first before a wild pitch. De La Cruz drove him home with a broken-bat single, then scored from first when Stewart lined a single into right-center on a hit-ad-run play.

Up next

Chase Burns (1-0, 0.00 ERA), who got his first big league win Monday, pitches for the Reds in the series finale Sunday. Jack Leiter (1-0, 3.00) goes for Texas.

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