ARLINGTON, Texas — Cade Cavalli struck out 11 over six innings for his second double-digit strikeout game in a row and retired the final 11 batters he faced as Washington beat Texas 6-0 on Wednesday night.

Cavalli (11-5) limited the Rangers to three singles and walked one while throwing 58 of 84 pitches for strikes. He was pitching six days after striking out 10 while throwing one-hit ball over eight scoreless innings against the Chicago Cubs. The right-hander is 7-1 his last 10 starts.

José Tena put the Nationals (61-67) ahead to stay with a solo homer in the third, and Andrés Chaparro’s third hit in the game was a towering 415-foot drive for a three-run homer in the seventh that made it 6-0. Washington has an MLB-high 182 homers.

The Nationals had lost four in a row and six of seven, a stretch in which the only other win was Cavalli’s against the Cubs when he didn’t allow a hit until the seventh.

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Will Dion, Max Kranick and Jake Bird each pitched an inning to wrap up Washington’s fifth shutout victory. Texas (62-65) dropped out of the American League’s third wild-card spot.

The first eight outs for the Rangers came on strikeouts before Brandon Nimmo’s groundout ended the third. Cavalli got his 10th K in the fourth.

Kumar Rocker (4-10) struck out three while allowing two runs and six hits over five innings. The right-hander is 0-2 with a 6.87 ERA in four games since ending July by winning consecutive starts.

Up next

Rangers RHP Jacob deGrom (8-8, 3.95 ERA), with an extra day of rest after leaving his previous start a week ago because of triceps fatigue, goes into Thursday’s series finale with 1,998 career strikeouts. Lefty Andrew Alvarez (2-4, 3.72) is set to start for Washington.