Astros Ride Homers to Top Rangers

The Texas Rangers had a chance to get even with the Houston Astros on Saturday night at Daikin Park in Houston, but that didn’t happen.

The Astros used four solo home runs, all hit off of Rangers starter Jacob deGrom, to pick up a 4-1 win and take the first two games in this Lone Star Series matchup for the Silver Boot.

For deGrom, he worked six innings, giving up four earned runs, didn’t walk a batter, and struck out four. His record this season now evens out at 3-3 with a 3.02 ERA.

It was a tough pill to swallow for Rangers fans looking to see their team pick it up on offense. Astros starting pitcher Kai Wei Teng picked up the victory with five innings of work, going to 2-3 this season with a 2.61 ERA. Teng allowed two hits, no runs, walked four, and struck out seven.

Bryan Abreu, the sixth pitcher used by Astros manager Joe Espada, picked up his second save by recording the final four outs.

Astros leadoff hitter Jose Altuve connected for his fourth home run this season in the bottom half of the first inning, giving Houston a 1-0 lead. Later in the game, though, Altuve took a wicked swing in the batter’s box and immediately left the game in the home half of the eighth inning.

There’s no update on his condition, but he didn’t run out a groundball and immediately walked toward the Astros’ dugout. Cameras caught Altuve wincing and grabbing at his left side, eventually being followed down to the team’s clubhouse by an Astros trainer. Espada said after the game that Altuve will undergo imaging on Sunday.

With one out in the first, Yordan Alvarez slammed his 15th homer this season, another solo blast, to give the Astros a 2-0 advantage.

In the fourth inning, Christian Walker grooved a deGrom fastball over the left-center field fence. That was his 11th home run this season, putting the Astros up 3-0 at that point. Zach Cole came up in the same inning and hammered a deGrom pitch over the right-field wall to extend the Astros’ lead to 4-0. That was his third homer this season.

After Teng left, Astros reliever Steven Okert worked an inning in relief, getting two strikeouts along the way.

The Rangers’ offense picked up against Houston reliever Enyel De Los Santos in their half of the seventh inning. Joc Pederson‘s single to center field brought Jake Burger home and Texas was now down 4-1.

Yet that was all they scored. What probably will infuriate Rangers fans and manager Skip Schumaker is that Texas had 13 runners left on base on Saturday night. There were opportunities to put some runs on the board, especially with that many baserunners aboard.

It just didn’t happen and the Rangers are going to look to avoid a series sweep against one of MLB’s worst teams this season on Sunday.

Nathan Eovaldi is scheduled to start for the Rangers.

The Rangers’ six hits were spread around between Pederson, Burger, Justin Foscue, Andrew McCutchen, Ezequiel Duran, and Alejandro Osuna. The Astros only had five hits against Texas pitching, with Zach Dezenzo getting the other one.

So, the difference in Saturday night’s loss was that the Astros played longball off deGrom.

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