Springer’s bat has Houston humming
ARLINGTON, Texas — George Springer and the Houston Astros won their 10th straight game on Sunday, matching their state rival for the season’s longest winning streak.
Not much else is close between the runaway leaders in the AL West and the twotime defending division champion Rangers.
Springer hit two of Houston’s four home runs as the Astros completed their first sweep of Texas in almost three years with a 7-2 victory.
“This team continues to show up every single day with a great will to win and we take the aggressive approach and have done a lot of damage,” said manager AJ Hinch.
The Astros scored in all four innings pitched by Martin Perez (2-6) to tie a club record with their 10th straight road win, dropping the Rangers to 3-11 since their 10-game streak.
Perez surpassed his loss total at home from all of last season with his fourth Globe Life Park defeat, allowing three homers among seven hits and six runs — five earned — while matching his shortest outing of the year at 3 2/3 innings.
“I just got behind the count every time, sometimes I threw my pitches in and they hit good,” Perez said.
“That’s part of the game. I’ve got a strong mind. This is not the first time it’s happened to me. I got behind, and when I throw fastballs close, they get hit. They got me today.”
Texas (26-31) is in fourth place, 15 games behind the Astros, who have MLB’s best record at 41-16 — and six wins in seven games against the Rangers.
“To think about where you are in the standings would be a monumental mistake in my opinion because we can’t make it up all in one day,” said Texas manager Jeff Banister.
“You ask the question a number of times and it seems like just rhetoric. It’s a narrative of what we need to do.”
Brad Peacock (3-0) won his first big league start since September 2014, pitching past the fifth inning for the first time following 12 relief appearances. He struck out nine in six innings, allowing two runs.
Luke Gregerson finished the game in a downpour with a scoreless ninth, including a strikeout that gave Houston pitchers 13 Ks. The Rangers fanned 31 times over the final two games of the series.
“We were speeding up as fast as we could because we knew the rain was coming,” Hinch said.
Springer, the Astros’ firstround draft pick (11th overall) in 2011, had three hits. He connected on his sixth leadoff homer this season, matching Tampa Bay’s Corey Dickerson for the major league lead, and added a solo shot in the fourth. He has a team-leading 16 homers.
Carlos Correa went deep starting the third, with a fan reaching over the railing for a nifty grab of the 440-foot drive to a back wall in the visitor’s bullpen in left-center field. Yuli Gurriel had another solo homer in the fifth and a sacrifice fly in the third.
A day after striking out four times with runners on base in a one-run loss, the Rangers’ Rougned Odor hit a solo homer when the Rangers were trailing 7-0 in the fifth.
Texas first baseman Mike Napoli was out of the lineup for the third time in six games because of back spasms. Manager Jeff Banister said the spasms recurred during Saturday’s game and that Napoli would undergo an evaluation on Monday if there isn’t improvement.