Rangers Beat Astros
HOUSTON — It appeared that the only way to pause Colby Lewis’ dominance at Minute Maid Park was to shoot a scorching line drive in his direction, but, truthfully, even such a frightful moment didn’t slow Lewis.
Lewis fired seven shutout innings while leading the Texas Rangers to a 2-1 victory over the Houston Astros on Friday night.
Lewis allowed four hits and had six strikeouts while improving to 7-0 with a 1.15 ERA in nine career appearances at Minute Maid Park. In 55 career innings in Houston, he has 51 strikeouts and four walks.
Lewis (3-0) retired the side in order in the second, fifth and sixth innings and faced the minimum in the third despite a leadoff single by Astros catcher Jason Castro.
Shortstop Carlos Correa opened the seventh by lining a pitch up the middle, with the ball clipping Lewis’ glove and back before ricocheting off the back of his skull and into the glove of second baseman Rougned Odor. Lewis recovered and finished the inning.
“I felt it a little bit,” Lewis said. “I turned around and saw it in the air and all
I wanted to do — I was kind of yelling at myself and yelling at Rougy like catch the ball and get the out. When he got the out, I was more pumped up at that situation. You shake that stuff off and go back to work.”
The Astros (17-26) advanced one runner into scoring position against Lewis. Correa stole second after his one-out single to right in the fourth. Lewis responded by striking out Colby Rasmus for the second of three times to initiate a run where he retired 10 consecutive batters.
“The command that he has had all year long has been special,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. “His ability to work the vertical game also — raise the eye level, lower the eye level. Execution of pitch is probably his greatest asset right now, but the combination of all his pitches together makes the combo plus.”
Texas (23-19) improved to 4-0 against Houston this season.
The Astros averted a shutout when Rasmus delivered an RBI single against new Rangers closer Sam Dyson with two outs in the ninth to drive in Jose Altuve, whose leadoff double extended his hitting streak to 12 games.
While Lewis continued his mastery in Houston, Astros right-hander Lance McCullers (0-1) sought to make strides in his second start of the season and first at home after a 36-game stint on the disabled list.
Beyond an occasional issue with control, McCullers delivered. He walked Shin-Soo Choo twice, including with one out in the third. Two batters later, Prince Fielder roped a two-run double to left field that also brought home Ian Desmond, who followed Choo with a single.
“Fielder’s been a great hitter for numerous years,” McCullers said. “He’s put up the numbers and I respect him as a competitor, but I have to make a better pitch there. Center-cut, outer-half fastball right at the thighs is not where I need to put that pitch.”
McCullers allowed the leadoff batter to reach in each of his first three innings, but only Choo scored. McCullers recovered to get three successive outs in the first and second and got help in the fourth when left fielder Tony Kemp dug out Elvis Andrus’ double and fired a strike to Correa, whose relay throw home nailed Nomar Mazara for the final out.
McCullers completed six innings, allowing two runs, five hits and three walks with seven strikeouts. It marked a clear improvement over his ragged debut in Boston seven days ago when the Astros lost 7-6.
“He controlled himself,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said of McCullers. “A couple of leadoff walks but other than that was really in control (of) himself. I thought his breaking ball was really good tonight. He eased off the gas pedal a little bit to make some pitches and then grew stronger as the night went along.”
