Houston’s first four-game set of the season begins tonight in Arlington.
Houston and Texas have a four-game series to play starting tonight.
GameTimes and Starting Pitchers
Thursday, 7:05PM CT: Hunter Brown (6-1, 1.48) vs. Jacob deGrom (3-1, 2.72)
Friday, 7:05PM CT: Lance McCullers Jr. (0-1, 15.75) vs. Nathan Eovaldi (4-2, 1.78)
Saturday, 6:05PM CT: Ronel Blanco (3-3, 4.04) vs. Tyler Mahle (4-1, 1.47)
Sunday, 12:05PM CT: TBD vs. Mark Leiter (3-2, 4.34)
Although the Astros and the Rangers share a state, they don’t have a very long history of direct head-to-head combat. Even so, the two have 279 regular season contests betwixt them, with Houston one game below .500. In the postseason, the Rangers are 4-3 in common play.
Last year, Houston owned a 7-6 edge, winning the final series two-games-to-one, including the finale on August 7. Yusei Kikuchi (5-9, 4.62) earned the win by striking out eight against two runs over 5 1⁄3 innings. He allowed four hits, walked three, and put 60-of-100 pitches over the plate. Yainer Díaz led the Astros with three hits, while Alex Bregman, Victor Caratini, Zach Dezenzo and Mauricio Dubón had two hits each. Caratini (6) and Yordan Alvarez (22) went deep.
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. — Joe Espada
The Battle for Texas begins…now.
To this point of the campaign, the Astros reside second place in the AL West, one game behind the Seattle Mariners at 22-20. Just 5-5 in their last 10 (LLLWWLWLWW), they just took two-of-three from the Kansas City Royals. The series finale, on Wednesday, would see Bryan King (1-0, 1.47) earn the win in relief. Colton Gordon earned no decision in his big league debut, striking out three and walking two over 4 1⁄3 innings. He allowed three runs on seven hits while placing 58-of-85 offerings in the strike zone. Josh Hader (10) earned the save. Jeremy Peña collected four of Houston’s eight hits in the game, three singles and a double. Dubón went two-for-three with two doubles Isaac Paredes (6) took one out of the park in the 4-3 Houston win.