Benches Clear As Rangers Lose To Astros

By MoiseKapenda Bower, The Sports Xchange

HOUSTON — Given how thoroughly the Texas Rangers dominated their Lone Star State rivals recently, it seemed inevitable that emotions would boil over and spill out of the dugouts on Monday night. All it took to light the fuse was one tweet and one errant pitch.
After bulletin-board material and a bench-clearing dustup set the stage, Carlos Correa smoked a two-run double during a five-run seventh inning in the Houston Astros’ 6-2 win over the Texas Rangers at Minute Maid Park.
Correa followed an infield RBI single from George Springer and a run-scoring double by Jose Altuve with a scorching line drive past the Rangers’ drawn-in infield, pushing the Astros (17-9) to a 5-2 lead.
Yuli Gurriel added a double to left-center field that plated Correa and capped the breakthrough inning for the Astros.
“It was a good win,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “I thought we threw the ball well. We broke out finally in the seventh inning with a couple of bullets by Altuve and Correa — middle of the order, what they’re supposed to do in the big spots. A really nice, all-around win. Slow to warm up but then a little adrenaline at some point.”
The adrenaline was supplied in the sixth inning when Astros starter Lance McCullers threw behind Rangers first baseman Mike Napoli. Rangers right-hander Andrew Cashner had hit two batters previously, and Napoli crushed a 427-foot home run to straightaway center off McCullers for a 2-1 Texas lead in the fourth.
Both benches and bullpens cleared after the McCullers pitch behind Napoli. Order was restored after some screaming and shoving, and McCullers rebounded to strike out Napoli to close the inning.
McCullers allowed two runs, six hits and two walks with 10 strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings without factoring in the decision.
“Obviously, I didn’t like it,” Napoli said. “I’ve been in the game a long time. I understand how things work. Two of their guys get hit, but all he has to do is put it in my hip and I run down to first base. No one likes 95 behind their back. It is what it is.”
McCullers said, “Because on the first at-bat he got a hit to left field again on a ball kind of on the outer half. So I was just trying to go in, it got away. He took some exception to it and it is what it is. We moved on and great team win.”
The Astros had squandered scoring opportunities in the second and fifth innings against Cashner (0-3), who departed after Alex Bregman and Nori Aoki reached to open the seventh.
The five-run rally made a winner of right-hander Chris Devenski (2-1), who entered with one out and a runner on in the seventh in relief of McCullers. Devenski retired all five batters he faced while striking out two.
McCullers surrendered an RBI double to Elvis Andrus in the second and the Napoli homer but delivered a quality start. Texas (11-15) has lost five of seven.
Cashner, coming off six walks against the Minnesota Twins on April 25, plunked Altuve in the first inning and Gurriel in the second, with Altuve adding a steal of second base before coming around to score when right fielder Nomar Mazara dropped a Correa fly ball with two outs.
“The timing of some of the misplayed balls are really what causes the challenges,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. “Mixed in with the walks.”
Before the game, the Rangers had a tweet from Bregman posted in their clubhouse. Late Sunday afternoon, Bregman tweeted a hashtag signaling it was time to “beat the (crap) out of the Rangers.” He was apologetic afterward.
“I made a rookie mistake,” Bregman said. “I shouldn’t have tweeted that out. It was more of just trying to fire up our team and I shouldn’t have put it on social media at all. Yeah, they have a great team over there. I didn’t mean to offend anyone over there.”