*Photo from the St. Joseph News-Press*
Texas leads series 2-0
The long downtrodden Texas team is making itself known. Jonah Heim homered, Mitch Garver drove in a run, and the Texas Rangers defeated the Houston Astros with a 5-4 victory on Monday afternoon in Houston.
The Rangers have now taken a 2-0 series lead over the Astros, improving to 7-0 in the postseason as a result. That puts them one win away from tying the 2014 Kansas City Royals for the longest win streak in playoff history. They can put the series away at home as a result.
Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi said of the win streak that "I feel like we're just trying to ride that wave right now. We’ve got a really good momentum going for us. Whether we're on the road or we're at home, we're in the postseason, and that's all that matters for us. We've been playing really good baseball. We're just trying to keep it going."
Marcus Semien scored in the first inning on a throwing error by Framber Valdez, making it 1-0 Rangers. Adolis Garcia then hit an RBI single, doubling the lead to 2-0 as Corey Seager came in to score. Garver drove in Robbie Grossman with an RBI single to make it 3-0 before an RBI single from Nathaniel Lowe made it 4-0 after one inning.
Yordan Alvarez got the Astros on the board in the second inning, making it 4-1 with a solo home run. Heim got that run back in the 3rd with a solo home run. Alex Bregman added a solo shot in the 4th inning to make the score 5-2. In the 6th, Michael Brantley hit an RBI double to make it 5-3 before Alvarez homered again in the 8th, making it a 5-4 game.
Eovaldi got the start for the Rangers, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits and a walk, striking out 9 hitters in 6 innings. Josh Sborz worked the 7th, Aroldis Chapman allowed a run in 2/3 of an inning, and Jose Leclerc pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings in the 9th to get the save.
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said of Eovaldi's start that "You’re talking about one of the elite pitchers in the game. They have that ability to turn up a notch when they had to. We made an error, bases loaded, and it’s about picking each other up, and he picked us up there and made great pitches."
Valdez started for the Astros and didn't last long, allowing 5 runs in 2 2/3 innings. Rafael Montero pitched 1 1/3 innings, JP France handled the next 2 1/3 innings, Phil Maton pitched 2/3 of an inning, and Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly each threw an inning.
Astros outfielder Chas McCormick said of being down two games that "The good thing is we play a little better on the road and we played well at that stadium. We’ve got to win two out of three going over there. It’s do or die at this point, and we’ve got to play with some urgency. We have been playing with urgency, but we need to capitalize a little more. I don’t think we’ve been capitalizing on our chances to take the lead."
The series resumes on Wednesday as it shifts to Arlington for at least games 3 and 4, with game 3 on Wednesday. Max Scherzer will get the start for the Rangers, slotted against Cristian Javier for the Astros.
Comments
Post a Comment