*Photo from Spectrum News*
Yusei Kikuchi had a solid start, Yordan Alvarez and Victor Caratini homered, and the Houston Astros defeated the Texas Rangers with a 6-4 victory Wednesday night in Arlington.
In the final game of the season series between the in-state rivals, the Astros won the deciding game to win the silver boot for the 8th straight year. 6 different hitters drove in a run for the Astros as they clinched the tiebreaker over the Rangers, which factored in last year and gave the Astros the AL West title.
Houston manager Joe Espada said "We don’t know what’s going to happen in the next 48 games. We just want to put our club in a good position to win the West. Winning the Boot, it matters. Hopefully, it stays in Houston."
Jeremy Pena drove in a run in the first inning as Alex Bregman scored on a fielder's choice to give the Astros a 1-0 lead. Alvarez hit a solo home run in the 3rd, doubling the lead to 2-0. In the top of the 6th, the Astros opened up a 5-0 lead on a solo homer by Caratini, an RBI double by Mauricio Dubon, and an RBI single by Jose Altuve.
Marcus Semien got the Rangers on the board in the bottom of the 6th with a solo home run. Later in the inning, Nathaniel Lowe hit an RBI triple and then scored on a sac fly to make it a 5-3 game. In the top of the 8th, an Alex Bregman RBI single made it 6-3. Jonah Heim added an RBI single of his own in the bottom of the inning to make it a 6-4 game.
Kikuchi made his second start with the Astros and second start against the Rangers in his last 3, allowing two runs in 5 1/3 innings. Tayler Scott got one out in the 6th before Bryan Abreu added 1 1/3 scoreless innings. Ryan Pressly and Josh Hader sealed the win as Hader got his 24th save.
After the game, Kikuchi said "I was more focused on where the pitches were going today. I was focusing on throwing up in the zone with the heater. I had faced them and the balls were right around the middle with all my pitches, and I wanted to be cautious of the fact I wanted to locate my pitches."
Jose Urena allowed two runs in 4 innings in his start for the Rangers. Jose Leclerc allowed 3 runs in 1 2/3 innings before Andrew Chafin and Josh Sborz pitched 2/3 of an inning each. Brock Burke allowed a run in the 8th before David Robertson pitched a clean 9th inning.
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said of the team's recent skid "I don't think, it's definitely not lack of effort. You see these guys working every day and putting their time in to get ready for the game and their preparation. They’re just trying to get that mojo back. This team has it in them. I've seen it, and so I'm gonna keep believing that we're going to come out of this."
Both teams have Thursday off before starting new series on Friday. Ronel Blanco will start for the Astros as they welcome the Boston Red Sox to town, while Cody Bradford will start the series opener for the Rangers against the New York Yankees.
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