Rangers Hold Off Astros
ARLINGTON, Texas — Shawn Tolleson opened the ninth inning Tuesday by walking the first batter he faced and allowing a hit. The Houston Astros had runners at the corners with no outs, trailing by a run.
Not exactly the position the Texas Rangers closer wanted to be in.
“Not at all,” Tolleson said. “I never try to make things interesting. That’s not my job.”
What followed qualified as a save in every sense of the word, as Tolleson shut down Houston to preserve a 4-3 victory that lifted Texas back to .500 for the first time in a month.
The Rangers (53-53) won for the sixth time in seven game and their third straight, including the first two of the three-game series against their Lone Star State rivals. Texas, two games back of the Toronto Blue Jays for the second American League wild-card spot, was last at breakeven on July 4.
“Five-hundred is not where we want to be,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. “It’s just a number that we got to get to, to go where we want to go.”
Rangers designated hitter Prince Fielder homered, and starter Yovani Gallardo (8-9) picked up the win after not having one in July. Left fielder Josh Hamilton and second baseman Rougned Odor each had two hits and an RBI.
Houston (60-48) continues to lead the AL West despite dropping seven of 11 games against Texas this season. The Astros are 11-6 since the All-Star break.
The third game of the series, which also ends Texas’ 10-game homestand, will be
played Wednesday night.
Center fielder Carlos Gomez knocked in two runs for Houston, the second coming on his first homer with his new team, leading off the sixth. The blast to left cut the Rangers’ lead to 4-3, and Gallardo was pulled one batter later after walking shortstop Carlos Correa.
“The sixth and ninth we had opportunities,” Houston manager A.J. Hinch said. “We just didn’t do anything with them.”
The Texas bullpen took over from there, throwing four scoreless innings and allowing just two hits.
“The bullpen was awesome tonight,” Tolleson said. “I can’t say enough about how those guys did. For us to go out and shut them down like that was pretty awesome.”
Still, the Rangers were on the brink of blowing the game in the ninth. Houston third baseman Luis Valbuena’s single put right fielder Colby Rasmus 90 feet from tying the game with no outs.
Gomez grounded out sharply to first before Tolleson struck out catcher Jason Castro and second baseman Jose Altuve to record his 20th save of the season.
“It’s a comfort to know that you have a pitcher on the mound that doesn’t really get rattled,” Banister said. “He’s shown all year long that he’s in control of the moment, and he’s got pitches and he’s got command. I felt comfortable even in the first-and-third situation that he was going to make quality pitches.”
The Astros got on the board in the second, taking advantage of a two-out walk by Gallardo. Rasmus worked the bases on balls, stole second and scored on Valbuena’s single to right.
Houston tacked another run up in the third. Altuve singled and came home on Gomez’s drive into the left-center-field gap that Hamilton couldn’t run down.
Fielder cut Houston’s lead in half in the fourth by hammering a solo shot off Astros starter Dan Straily. Fielder’s 16th homer ricocheted off the second deck.
The Rangers took their first lead in the fifth, going up 4-2 and chasing Straily (0-1). Center fielder Delino DeShields’ triple and singles by Odor and Hamilton drove in the three runs.
