Texas Rangers get a leg up for Silver Boot in finale win over Houston

The Texas Rangers scored five runs while the Houston Astros scored one run.

There’s no question that the first half of this season was incredibly frustrating but if we want to look for a silver lining, there’s also no doubt that the Rangers have been playing a better brand of baseball here in the last stretch before the All-Star break even if they haven’t always gotten the results they’ve wanted (I’m side-eyeing you, last night’s game).

The improved play has been evident in this first half-finale series which includes today, where they beat Hunter Brown and the Astros handily to take a set that they very well should have swept. And that’s against a team trying to run away with the division.

To complete the series win, the Rangers scored four runs (including the obligatory El Bombi blast at formerly Minute Maid) off of Brown in his five innings of work. Brown has lost four times this season and two of those have come against Texas in games he was matched up against a better starter. Tough break, I guess.

The Rangers, appropriately, go into the break at exactly one game below .500. It’s a place that has defined their season. They will get their eighth chance in recent memory to get over the hump when the second half begins on Friday but for now, at least they’re playing better.

Player of the Game: Nathan Eovaldi should have been named to the All-Star team. I guess he doesn’t get enough buzz on Twitter.

Anyway, arguably the AL’s best non-Tarik Skubal starter this season when healthy toed the same rubber as alleged AL’s best non-Tarik Skubal starter Brown and beat him at his own game with 7 2⁄3 innings of one-run ball on five hits and a walk with eight strikeouts in a girthy 102 pitches.

Eovaldi lowered his ERA to 1.58 on the year which, had he not missed a few weeks of action, would lead the American League by over half a run over Brown.

Up Next: The Rangers get a break for the All-Star festivities until Friday when they will start the second half of the season with a homestand beginning with a matchup against the AL Central-leading Tigers.