Houston Astros at Texas Rangers

· Major League Baseball

Houston Astros

59-55, 27-29 Away

Final
6 - 4

Texas Rangers

54-61, 31-27 Home

Alvarez hits 117 mph homer, Astros beat Rangers 6-4 to take season series again

The victory clinched the season series for the Astros for the eighth consecutive year in a decisive final regular-season meeting between last season's AL Championship Series opponents and the past two World Series champions. The Texas rivals split the first 12 meetings, including the first two in this series.

The Silver Boot trophy actually meant something last year when Houston had the tiebreaker and avoided the wild card after tying Texas atop the AL West. The Rangers took the longer postseason route to the franchise's first championship.

Victor Caratini also went deep while Jeremy Peña, Mauricio Dubón, Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman drove in a run apiece for Houston, which started the day a half-game behind Seattle in the division with Texas five back.

“It’s important,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen in the next 50 games. We just want to put our club in a good position to win the West. It matters.”

Kikuchi (5-9) held Texas scoreless through five innings before Marcus Semien's 17th home run, a solo shot, leading off the sixth.

The Japanese left-hander gave up four hits and two runs in 5 1/3 innings a day after Framber Valdez lost a no-hitter with two outs in the ninth inning on Corey Seager’s two-run homer in the Astros’ 4-2 victory.

It was the first start for Kikuchi since tying a franchise record with eight consecutive strikeouts in his Houston debut following the trade that brought the 33-year-old from Toronto. His previous victory was June 11 with the Blue Jays, but the Astros are 2-0 in his starts.

“I feel like I’ve been settling in and getting used to my surroundings,” Kikuchi said through an interpreter. “But getting those two wins definitely eases the pressure.”

Houston closer Josh Hader, pitching on a third consecutive day for the first time this season, struck out Seager to start a perfect ninth for his 24th consecutive save, tying Brad Lidge's single-season franchise record from 2005.

Alvarez's solo shot for his 22nd homer and second in as many games was a low liner 415 feet into the Texas bullpen in deep right-center field for a 2-0 lead in the third.

“I really didn’t think that was going to be a homer,” Alvarez said through an interpreter. “I was running hard and then I looked up and the ball was gone, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow.’”

Peña's fielder's choice scored Bregman in the first against José Ureña (3-7), who gave up two runs on six hits and three walks in four innings.

“We move on,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said. “I keep saying that. It’s all you can do. It was a tight series. That’s always tough when you lose a series to the team you’re chasing.”

Houston's Zach Dezenzo doubled leading off the second for his first major league hit while playing first base a day after going 0 for 4 in his big league debut as the designated hitter.

The 24-year-old singled and scored from first on Dubón's double after Caratini's solo shot, his sixth homer, in a three-run sixth inning against José Leclerc. Dubón scored on Altuve's single.

Dezenzo reached base a third time on an eighth-inning walk and scored on Bregman's single.

“Yesterday was yesterday. A lot of emotions. Pretty overwhelming,” Dezenzo said. “Today I felt a lot more like myself, just playing the game again, enjoying it, having fun with the guys.”

Nathaniel Lowe had an RBI triple for Texas, and Jonah Heim drove in a run with a single.

Both teams open three-game series on the East Coast on Friday. The Astros haven't announced any starters for their Boston series. Rangers LHP Cody Bradford (3-0, 3.96 ERA) is set to face the Yankees in his second start and third appearance since missing 3 1/2 months with a rib stress fracture that was originally listed as a low back strain.

How can I watch Houston Astros vs. Texas Rangers?

TV Channel: Astros at Rangers 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLBN.
Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Matchup Prediction

Rangers: 45.5%

Astros: 54.5%

*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Jung popped out to second.
	9th Inning	Semien flied out to right.
	9th Inning	Seager struck out swinging.
	9th Inning	Hader relieved Pressly
	9th Inning	Meyers flied out to right.
	9th Inning	Caratini grounded into double play, shortstop to second to first, Peña out at second, Y. Diaz to third.

Statistics

HOU		$https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/mlb/500/tex.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=origin$ TEX
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
1	Hit By Pitch	0
15	Ground Balls	8
4	Strikeouts	11
6	Runs Batted In	4
0	Sacrifice Hit	0
13	Hits	9
0	Stolen Bases	1
5	Walks	4
0	Catcher Interference	0
6	Runs	4
3	Ground Into Double Play	0
0	Sacrifice Flies	1
37	At Bats	35
2	Home Runs	1
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
22	Runners Left On Base	17
0	Triples	1
1	Game Winning RBIs	0
0	Intentional Walks	0
2	Doubles	1
18	Fly Balls	17
0	Caught Stealing	0
158	Pitches	159
0	Games Started	0
0	Pinch At Bats	0
0	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
0	Is Qualified In Steals	1
21	Total Bases	15
43	Plate Appearances	40
324.0	Projected Home Runs	162.0
4	Extra Base Hits	3
7.9	Runs Created	5.4
.351	Batting Average	.257
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.568	Slugging Percentage	.429
.351	Secondary Average	.314
.442	On Base Percentage	.325
1.009	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	.754
0.8	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	0.5
7.9	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	5.4
47.0	Batter Rating	33.5
18.5	At Bats Per Home Run	35.0
0.00	Stolen Base Percentage	1.00
3.67	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	3.98
.216	Isolated Power	.171
1.25	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	0.36
.116	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.100
.000	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	.057
12.0	Runs Produced	8.0
1.0	Runs Ratio	1.0
0.7	Patience Ratio	0.5
0.4	Balls In Play Average	0.3
99.5	MLB Rating	83.3
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0