Rangers Beat Astros
HOUSTON — It seemed inevitable that the investment the Rangers made at the non-waiver trading deadline would pay huge dividends at some point. That all three cashed in on Saturday night proved beneficial.
New catcher Jonathan Lucroy belted two home runs to support a relief corps that surrendered just one run over 5 1/3 innings in the Texas Rangers’ 3-2 victory over the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park.
Lucroy smacked his 15th and 16th homers in consecutive at-bats in the sixth and eighth innings. It marked his seventh career multi-homer game and first this season, a timely power surge as Texas (64-47) evened the three-game series to set up a rubber match on Sunday.
And before departing with a left quad contusion in the seventh inning, Carlos Beltran produced three hits, including an RBI single that scored Shin-Soo Choo and gave the Rangers the lead for good. Beltran and Lucroy were both acquired on Monday along with right-hander and former Brewers closer Jeremy Jeffress, who pitched a scoreless seventh inning.
“They’ve shown up huge for us, all three of them,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. “Jeffress with the two innings he’s thrown for us so far, Lucroy with what you see behind the plate — it’s All-Star caliber, frontline
caliber. And then at the plate the two home runs tonight, the home run the other night (against the Orioles) and just the quality of at-bats. And then a future Hall of Famer, in my opinion, in Beltran. Just as good a hitter as there is in the game.”
Beltran recorded his run-scoring hit off Astros right-hander Chris Devenski (0-3) in the seventh. Lucroy homered off Astros starter Doug Fister before adding an opposite-field blast off left-hander Tony Sipp.
“This is my third season … that I’ve actually played for a team that’s really competing,” Lucroy said. “It’s really cool and it’s a lot of fun out there. Makes it easier to play, makes it easier to get us more excited. Just a whole different feeling.”
Rangers right-hander Keone Kela (2-1) surrendered a pair of singles in the fifth inning but induced an inning-ending double play to preserve the 1-0 deficit. Jeffress and left-hander Jake Diekman worked perfect innings before closer Sam Dyson notched his 24th save despite surrendering an RBI single to Astros third baseman Alex Bregman.
The Astros (57-53) stranded 10 runners and were 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Bregman delivered that hit in the ninth.
“I think the last three days I have felt really good,” said Bregman, who finished 3-for-5 after recording two hits in his previous 10 games. “Unfortunately we didn’t do enough as a team to get the win today.”
The Astros had Rangers right-hander Lucas Harrell on the ropes throughout his three-plus innings but repeatedly failed to deliver.
Harrell surrendered just one run despite allowing five hits and five walks while recording 17 outs, the run coming with his bases-loaded walk to Preston Tucker with two outs in the first inning. Harrell struck out A.J. Reed to end that threat and left the bases full again in the third.
Harrell benefited from the defensive handiwork of Lucroy, who erased Jose Altuve when Altuve attempted to swipe second after he walked to lead off the third. Harrell then sidestepped hits from Evan Gattis and Tucker, with the latter single advancing Gattis to third with two outs.
Following a walk to Reed, Harrell induced a sharp grounder to third base off the bat of Jake Marisnick to end that threat. And while Harrell departed his start having thrown more balls (48) than strikes (44), he allowed just one run, setting the stage for the Rangers to rally late.
“Certainly on our end we had a chance in the first (when) we got a run in,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “Chance in the second; chance in the third; chance in the fifth; chance in the ninth. That’s a lot of innings to come away with a couple one-run innings.”
