Rangers Rocked By Astros
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ARLINGTON, Texas — Most call Houston young and improving — some even say emerging — but if the Texas Rangers aren’t careful, they soon might not be calling the Astros bottom-dwellers.
After a victory Monday in the opener of a three-game set, the Astros are tailgating their state rival.
Shortstop Marwin Gonzalez’s three-run triple keyed Houston’s decisive six-run second inning, and the Astros snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 12-7 victory over the Rangers on Monday night. Houston pulled within two games of the Rangers for fourth place in the AL West.
First baseman Jon Singleton went 3-for-4 with a three-run home run and four RBIs. Center fielder Alex Presley was 2-for-4 with a solo home run and two RBIs in support of right-handed pitcher Jarred Cosart, who won while struggling for a second consecutive game.
Cosart (9-6) gave up six runs (five earned) on nine hits over five innings, striking out two and walking two.
“Our goal is to play better baseball than the year before,” said Houston manager Bo Porter, whose team improved to 37-54. “We are getting better. We still have a ways to.
“Regardless of what team it is, our job is to beat that team.”
The Rangers (38-51) lost for the sixth time in seven games and for the
16th time in 20.
Texas third baseman Adrian Beltre extended his hitting streak to 11 games after going 2-for-5 with a double, a home run and two RBIs. Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus was 2-for-5 with a three-run double in the fourth.
Beltre, selected to the AL All-Star team as a reserve, has hits in 16 of his past 17 games, and he hit home runs in three of his past four games.
Texas right-hander Miles Mikolas (0-1) took his first major league loss as a starter, surrendering nine runs on 12 hits over 3 1/3 innings. He finished with five strikeouts and no walks.
The Astros sent 10 hitters to the plate in the top of the second. Run-scoring singles by catcher Carlos Corporan and left fielder Enrique Hernandez were part of a stretch of five consecutive hits to start the inning.
Gonzalez followed with a bases-clearing, three-run triple. Presley accounted for the Astros’ sixth run with an RBI single.
“It wasn’t quality (pitches). He left too many out over the plate,” Texas manager Ron Washington said. “You have to throw quality strikes, and that one inning they just found a way to put the ball in play and hit the grass out there, and then Gonzalez’s (hit) was the big blow.”
Houston’s L.J. Hoes, a pinch hitter for Presley, who left with a right oblique strain, added an insurance run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth.
Singleton’s eighth-inning double, one of 17 Astros hits, scored second baseman Jose Altuve for Houston’s last run.
Though his eight victories since May 11 are tied for the most in the majors with Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw, Cosart has a 9.71 ERA in his past two starts, having allowed 12 runs on 18 hits.
Given a big lead in the second, Cosart was unable to follow with a shutdown inning. He faced six hitters in both the second and fourth, allowing the Rangers to close the gap with Andrus’ run-scoring double.
Cosart permitted Beltre’s run-scoring double in the third.
“I think he was up in the zone with his breaking ball,” Porter said of Cosart. “It just looked like he didn’t have a lot of finish with his breaking ball.”
Astros left-hander Darin Downs, right-hander Josh Fields and left-hander Tony Sipp (1 2/3 innings) combined for three innings of hitless ball. Right-hander Jose Veras closed it out, giving up one run on two hits in the ninth.
Fields and Sipp struck out seven consecutive Rangers hitters between the sixth and eight innings, tying a Texas record.
The Rangers scored single runs in the second and third, but Singleton put some distance between the teams with a three-run home run in the fourth on an 0-2 count.
“Way too good a pitch on 0-2,” Mikolas said.
Andrus’ three-run double with two outs in the fourth cut the Rangers’ deficit to four. Beltre’s solo home run in the fifth cut it to 9-6.
“We just haven’t been able to stop the other team,” Washington said. “We just have to get back to pitching better because I do think if our pitching can give our offense a chance, we’ll start putting enough runs on the board to win some games.”
