ASTROS TOP RANGERS; WIN STREAK REACHES 10
Springer hits two of white-hot Houston’s four home runs during a 10th straight victory; Astros improve to 41-16 and are off to the best start in franchise history.
George Springer ARLINGTON — and the Houston Astros have matched their Texas rival with the longest winning streak in the major leagues this season at 10 games.
Not much else is close between the runaway leaders in the AL West and the two-time defending division champion Rangers.
Springer hit two of Houston’s four home runs, and the Astros completed their first sweep of Texas in almost three years with a 7-2 victory Sunday.
“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,” manager A.J. Hinch said.
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 3⅔ innings.
Texas (26-31) is in fourth place, 15 games behind the Astros, who have the major leagues’ 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,” Texas manager Jeff Banister said. “You ask the question a number of times and it seems like just rhetoric and it’s not. It’s a narrative of what we need to do.”
Brad Peacock (3-0) won a major league start for the first time since Sept. 2, 2014, pitching past the fifth inning for the first time in his third start following 12 relief appearances. He struck out nine in six innings, allowing two runs.
Luke Gregerson finished the game in a downpour with scoreless ninth, including a strikeout that gave Houston pitchers 13. The Rangers fanned 31 times over the final two games.
“We were speeding up as fast as we could because we knew it was coming,” Hinch said.
Springer, who had three hits, 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 with a glove 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 a 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, Texas’ Rougned Odor hit a solo homer when the Rangers were trailing 7-0 in the fifth.
Noteworthy: Texas’ Elvis Andrus extended the second-longest active hitting to 10 games with a single in the sixth. Kansas City’s Whitt Merrifield has a 10-game streak . ... Jose Altuve went 0-for-4 to drop his road batting average to .414 but walked to extend his streak of reaching base in 31 straight road games. San Francisco’s Buster Posey has the longest at 32 games . ... Astros righthander Joe Musgrove (right shoulder discomfort) won’t start Tuesday at Kansas City when he’s eligible to come off the disabled list. Manager A.J. Hinch said the team was being cautious and there wasn’t any deeper concern.