Astros outlast Rangers on homers by Tucker and Maldonado

*Photo from AP News*

   The race for the AL West and Texas is getting interesting. Chas McCormick drove in a run, Martin Maldonado homered, and the Houston Astros defeated the Texas Rangers with a 4-3 victory on Tuesday night in Houston.

   With the Astros now having won 3 straight and 7 of 10 to improve to 58-44, they now sit just one game back of the Rangers in the AL West standings. This is also with two of their best hitters out of action due to injury.

   Tucker said of the team closing the gap that "We’ve been doing a pretty good job making our way up the standings, and now we're just a game behind them and we’re going to try to close it a little closer tomorrow."

   It was McCormick who got the scoring started, giving the Astros a 1-0 lead in the second inning on an RBI double that scored Alex Bregman. Later in the inning, Corey Julks padded the lead to 2-0 when he got Jose Abreu home on a sac fly. In the 6th, Marcus Semien scored on an error to get the Rangers on the board and cut the deficit to 2-1.

   After the Rangers got on the board, Tucker made it 3-1 in the bottom of the 6th with a solo home run. One inning later, Maldonado added the eventual game winning run with a solo shot of his own to make it 4-1. In the 9th, Mitch Garver cut the Rangers deficit to 4-3 with a two run home run, but the Astros held on from there.

   Maldonado said after the game that "I feel like we've been showing what kind of team we are. A lot of people didn’t believe that we could keep playing good, but you’ve to give a lot of credit to the Minor League players. Whoever came up here just adopted the same mentality we had. It's about winning, and we can’t be more proud of every guy that stepped up."

   JP France got the start for the Astros and worked 7 innings, allowing one run on 5 hits and two walks to go with 3 strikeouts. Hector Neris pitched a scoreless 8th while Ryan Pressly got his 24th save of the season in the 9th.

   Yerry Rodriguez allowed two runs in two innings to start for the Rangers, getting tagged with the loss. Cody Bradford then delivered 5 innings out of the bullpen, giving up two runs on 6 hits with 3 strikeouts. Spencer Howard also pitched an inning.

   Up next, the series wraps up on Wednesday night. The Astros go for the sweep with Framber Valdez starting, while Andrew Heaney goes for the Rangers.