Astros Finish Sweep of Rangers With 7-3 Win, Lead AL West by 2.5 Games

Nobody gets off the mat like the Houston Astros.

On July 19, the Astros looked to be dead in the water. Swept at home by the Baltimore Orioles, losers of 7 of 9 and 7 games under .500, it looked the magic had finally run out on Houston.

Wrong.

Picking themselves up by the bootstraps yet again, the now first-place Houston Astros (58-55) continue to score runs late and took down the Texas Rangers (55-57) 7-3 at Daikin Park, completing the 3-game sweep and winning the season series 9-4 and winning the Silver Boot for the 10th consecutive season.

Houston has now won 6 straight and 11 of their last 12 games.

The Astros got on the board first this afternoon in the bottom of the third when Jose Altuve hit a comebacker off the foot of Rangers starter Kumar Rocker. Rocker looked like he hackey-sacked the ball off his foot. Yordan Alvarez would score on the play and give Houston a 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the 4th, Jeremy Pena drilled his 13th HR of the season, a 2-run shot to left that drove in Cam Smith to give the Astros a 3-0 lead.

In the top of the 5th, the Rangers would get within a run. Evan Carter would single to right to drive in Brandon Nimmo, although Carter would be cut down by Christian Vazquez trying to advance to 2nd after the throw home. That would prove to be a big out as the next batter, Ezequiel Duran, singled to left to score Jake Burger. Carter could have potentially scored the tying run on that play if he had safely reached 2nd the play before. The score would be 3-2 Astros as the top of the 5th ended.

Peter Lambert again gave the Astros a solid performance. He went 5.2 IP allowing just 2 runs on 3 hits, 2 walks and 8 strikeouts. Lambert threw 46 of his 83 pitches for strikes, including 16 swings and misses.

In the top of the 7th, the Rangers would tie the game at 3 when Brandon Nimmo led off the inning by hitting his 11th HR of the season off Astros reliever Steven Okert.

After the HR, Okert allowed a single by Jake Burger, who was advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Evan Carter. Joe Espada made the call to go to Bryan Abreu (W, 3-3) to slam the door with a runner on 2nd and 1 out.

Abreu would strike out 2 of the next 3 batters to end the inning with no further damage. The final out was a called third strike on pinch hitter Nicky Lopez on a pitch that appeared to be slightly low, but the Rangers were out of ABS challenges. Furious over the strikeout call, both Rangers manager Skip Schumaker and hitting coach Justin Viele got ejected for arguing the called third strike.

In the bottom of the 7th, the Astros would respond, and take control of the game.

Christian Walker led off the bottom of the 7th with his 22nd double of the season off Rangers reliever Tyler Alexander, who had just entered the game. Taylor Trammell (1×2, 2BB, HBP, phenomenal catch in deep CF) followed with a walk. After Jose Altuve bounced into a fielder’s choice that forced Walker at 3rd, Cole Winn would replace Alexander on the mound for Texas.

Cam Smith greeted Winn with an RBI single to score Trammell to give the Astros a 4-3 lead. After a walk to Nick Allen, LaMonte Wade Jr. would pinch-hit for Christian Vazquez and deliver an RBI single to drive in Altuve and increase the lead to 5-3. Following a Jeremy Pena strikeout, it was Yordan time.

The front-running MVP candidate laced a 2-run double to right, scoring Smith and Allen. Alvarez’ 24th double of the season gave the Astros a 7-3 lead. Alvarez finished the game 4×5 with a run and 2 RBI. He is now batting .330 and has a 1.092 OPS. He leads the majors with 35 HR and leads the AL with 84 RBI.

Bryan King (0.2 IP, H, K) would start the top of the 8th before eventually giving way to AJ Blubaugh (S,1). Blubaugh pitched the final 1.1 innings without allowing a baserunner and struck out 1 for his first career save.

The Astros are 3 games over .500 for the first time since April 4, when they were 6-3. It matches their high water mark for the season.

The Astros lead the AL West by 2.5 games.

Tomorrow, Houston begins a 3-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Probable Starters:

Monday: Cristian Javier (1-1, 7.17) vs. Shane Bieber (2-2, 5.74)
Tuesday: Hayden Wesneski (1-0, 4.76) vs. Trey Yesavage (5-5, 3.73)
Wednesday: Hunter Brown (3-1, 3.42) vs. Dylan Cease (7-5, 2.41)