Gallo the difference again as Rangers top Cubs

Reuters

For the second game in a row, Joey Gallo had a hand in the game-winning run, this time coming home on a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Texas Rangers an 11-10 win over the visiting Chicago Cubs on Sunday.

Gallo blasted a three-run homer in the eighth inning of Saturday's win. Texas took the season-opening series after getting blasted 12-4 in the opener. Gallo started off Sunday's bottom of the ninth with an opposite-field double off the left-field wall. After advancing to third on a Shin-Soo Choo groundout, Gallo came home on Pedro Strop's wild pitch.

The Cubs couldn't hold leads of 4-0 and 8-5 and instead start the season 1-2.

The Rangers' Asdrubal Cabrera, who homered in consecutive games and hit .455 for the series, clubbed a two-run homer off Cubs right-hander Mike Montgomery to cap a four-run seventh inning and give Texas a 10-8 lead.

The Cubs scored four runs in the first four innings off Lance Lynn in his Rangers debut. Cubs starter Cole Hamels, however, put himself in harm's way with consecutive two-out walks in the bottom of the fourth that loaded the bases for DeLino DeShields. DeShields made Hamels pay, taking the lefty deep to left for a grand slam and a 5-4 Rangers lead.

Jason Heyward, Ben Zobrist and Anthony Rizzo, who also homered on the day, each had RBI singles in the sixth, and Javier Baez's infield single provided Chicago with a four-run inning to reclaim an 8-5 lead. That lead lasted an inning as the Rangers struck for four runs in the bottom of the seventh to take a 10-8 lead.

Rizzo's home run and Daniel Descalso's RBI single in the eighth tied the game up at 10, setting up the Rangers' walk-off heroics.

Lynn surrendered seven runs on 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings. DeShields' grand slam gave the right-hander a reprieve, but Lynn couldn't take advantage. Hamels, acquired by Chicago from the Rangers at the trade deadline last season, gave up five runs on six hits and three walks with four strikeouts in throwing 100 pitches in five innings.

--Field Level Media