Astros 15, Rangers 1
ARLINGTON, Texas, September 13 – The Texas Rangers returned from a long nine-game road trip on Monday night. Their opponent on this night was the Houston Astros. Unfortunately, the Rangers couldn’t do anything right in the opener of this four-game set. The final score was 15-1. The crowd of 18,903 seemed smaller than usual for this particular matchup. Perhaps it was because it was a Monday game, or it could have been a sense of intuition on the Rangers fans’ part. Whatever it was, hopefully, the Rangers can fix it. Here’s a recap of Monday’s game.
Short Outings
The game lasted three hours and 56 minutes. This was partly because neither starting pitcher made it past the second inning. Rangers’ starter Spencer Howard gave up six earned runs on six hits in 1.1 innings. He walked one and struck out two. He took the loss, bringing his 2021 record to 0-4. On the other side for Houston, Jake Odorizzi also pitched 1.1 innings. He gave up just two hits and struck out one. He would leave the game soon after with soreness in his right foot. It happened when he was covering first base on a play. Right-hander Cristian Javier got the win for the Astros. His record is now 4-1.
Lots of Offense
The aforementioned run for Texas came in the bottom of the third inning on a force out to Nathaniel Lowe. It brought home Yonny Hernandez. Houston started their scoring in the top of the first. Jose Altuve scored on a ground-rule double by Yuli Gurriel. It would soon become 3-0 on another double by Carlos Correa. This would score Gurriel and Yordan Alvarez. Altuve doubled again in the second inning that brought home Jose Siri and Garrett Stubbs. The Astros made it 7-0 on a home run by Alvarez with Altuve on base. In the top of the third, Houston scored two more. Siri homered with Jake Meyers on base.
In the top of the sixth inning, the lead would stretch to 11-0 on a two-run shot by Alex Bregman. Altuve was on base once again at the time. Later in the inning, Alvarez scored again along with Kyle Tucker. This happened on a single by Siri. In the top of the seventh, Alvarez homered again to make it 14-1. This would give him 30 home runs on the year. This marked his first career 30 homer season, and his eighth career multi-homer game. The Astros got their final run in the top of the eighth on yet another home run by Siri.
Up Next
The second game of this series is on Tuesday at 7:05 PM CDT. Jordan Lyles will start for Texas, and Zack Greinke will get the ball for Houston.
Main Photo:
Embed from Getty Images
Players Mentioned:
Spencer Howard, Jake Odorizzi, Cristian Javier, Nathaniel Lowe, Yonny Hernandez, Jose Altuve, Yuli Gurriel, Carlos Correa, Yordan Alvarez, Jose Siri, Garrett Stubbs, Jake Meyers, Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker, Jordan Lyles, Zack Greinke
