Rangers Increase Lead
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers won close games in the first two games of their pivotal series against Houston without the Astros having ace Dallas Keuchel on the mound.
Houston had Keuchel going Wednesday night, but instead of pitching like a Cy Young candidate he had the worst outing of his big-league career as the Rangers rolled to a 14-3 victory.
The win, the sixth straight for Texas over Houston, moved the Rangers 1 1/2 games ahead of Houston in the American League West.
While Texas handed Keuchel the kind of career-high numbers he’d rather avoid (nine earned runs allowed, three home runs allowed), it might not have made that much a difference who was pitching. The Rangers finished the game with a season high five home runs on 16 hits.
When you’re on the kind of roll Texas is, nights like Wednesday can happen as designated hitter Prince Fielder homered twice and left fielder Mike Napoli got the scoring started with a three-run homer in the first.
“You saw some big hitters on a mission,” Texas manager Jeff Banister said. “I think it goes back to having Napoli in the lineup against a left-hander and how it stretches our lineup out. We talked about the big man in the middle (Fielder) and how he was close. He wasn’t close tonight, he was a man on a mission, getting out front and showing what he can be in that batter’s box for us.”
Texas never allowed Keuchel (17-8) to get in a rhythm Wednesday. The bottom of the
first started with center fielder Delino DeShields reaching on an infield single. That was a sign of things to come as the Rangers scored six times off Keuchel in the first, with Napoli’s homer followed three batters later by a two-run homer from second baseman Rougned Odor.
Fielder hit a solo homer off Keuchel in the third, and then the Rangers chased him with two more in the fifth inning. Keuchel gave up 11 hits in his 4 2/3 innings.
“I know the guys were leaning on me to out there and perform,” Keuchel said. “It’s a good lineup right now. When I looked at their lineup and saw four lefties in there, I kind of get excited, because I don’t normally face a lot of lefties. Knock on wood, I’ve been pretty good against them. And then they are hitting everything out of the ballpark. It’s frustrating but they’re a hot team.”
While Keuchel struggled, Texas left-hander Martin Perez (3-5) scattered nine hits over his seven innings of work and gave up just one run.
Perez had allowed at least three runs in each of his last six starts but took advantage of the offense behind him Wednesday and focused on shutting down Houston.
“I threw strikes and got ahead of hitters,” Perez said. “I just felt comfortable out there. We’re just living in the moment and doing what we need do right. We’re in first place, but we’ve got to keep fighting and don’t give a chance to any of the teams behind us. We’ve got to win every day.”
Texas finished with 16 hits, with eight of the nine starters collecting at least one. Fielder finished with three hits and five RBIs after his second two-homer game of the season. Right fielder Shin-Soo Choo also had three hits.
Houston got three hits from designated hitter Evan Gattis, who hit a two-run homer in the eighth.
The Astros, who have lost seven of nine on their road trip, have to try and turn things around Thursday in the finale of the four-game series.
“It was a rough night to say the least,” Houston manager A.J. Hinch said. “We’ve got to wash this one away and try to salvage a game out of this series and get home to Houston. It was a difficult night for Dallas, a difficult night for our team. Everything that seemed to go right was on their side of the ball.”
