Rangers’ Beltre injures hamstring in loss to Athletics
The Oakland Athletics keep finding ways to win after their slow start. The Texas Rangers can’t stop losing games and key players.
Jed Lowrie hit a tiebreaking double before Texas slugger Adrian Beltre left with a hamstring injury, and the A’s beat the Rangers 3-2 on Tuesday night, tagging Cole Hamels with his fourth loss before the end of April for the first time in the left-hander’s career.
Beltre strained his left hamstring coming out of the batter’s box in the eighth inning and limped to first base on what would have been a double but was instead a single for his 3,075th career hit.
The 39-year-old third baseman in his 21st season didn’t sound optimistic after the game but wanted to wait for an MRI on Wednesday before saying much else.
If Beltre ends up on the disabled list, the Rangers won’t have any of their opening day infielders in those spots for the finale of what is already a fifth straight series loss at home, the most to start a season since the franchise moved to Texas in 1972.
“We already have our key players hurt on the middle infield,” Beltre said. “We didn’t need another one. It’s no secret we’ve been struggling offensively. We’re trying to find a way to get through it.”
Texas shortstop Elvis Andrus is out at least another month after breaking his right elbow when he was hit by a pitch April 12. Second baseman Rougned Odor has been out since April 10 with a left hamstring strain.
When Andrus got hurt, Joey Gallo was shuffled to left field from first base, where rookie Ronald Guzman is starting now. Delino DeShields has returned to center field after a broken hand sidelined him for three weeks and weakened the Texas outfield significantly.
“It’s gut-wrenching, to say the least,” said manager Jeff Banister, whose Rangers (8-17) have matched their second-worst 25-game start and are 3-12 at home. “However, I’ll continue to say this: There is no timeout. We’ll continue to play.”
Andrew Triggs (2-0) allowed one run in six innings with six strikeouts, and former closer Santiago Casilla pitched a scoreless ninth for his first save in Oakland’s eighth win in nine games since a 5-10 start.
Justin Verlander pitched seven sharp innings, AL MVP Jose Altuve hit his first home run of the season and the Houston Astros beat the Angels 5-2 Wednesday, ending Los Angeles’ road winning streak at a team record-tying 11 in a row.
Albert Pujols connected off Verlander for his 619th career homer. Pujols now has 2,994 hits.
Alex Bregman hit a threerun double and Jake Marisnick homered as Houston avoided a three-game sweep. The Angels had also won 11 straight road games in 1988.
Verlander (4-0) held the Angels hitless into the fifth inning before Zack Cozart singled with two outs. Verlander gave up two runs and four hits, striking out nine without a walk.
Verlander won his 11th regular-season decision in a row, dating to mid-August last year, before the Detroit traded him to Houston.
Ken Giles pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save.
Nick Tropeano (1-2) retired the first 11 batters he faced, striking out six.
With two outs in the fourth, Tropeano walked Carlos Correa and Josh Reddick and hit Yuli Gurriel to load the bases. Bregman cleared them for a 3-0 lead.
Altuve’s sixth-inning homer came on a 79 mph hanging slider. He hit 24 homers in each of the past two seasons.
Marisnick also put one into the Crawford Boxes in left field, making it 5-2 in the seventh.
Correa extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a double in the sixth.
Pujols hit a line drive homer to deep left-center in the seventh for his fifth home run of the season. A single by Andrelton Simmons and a double from Cozart cut Houston’s lead to 4-2 later in the inning.
Up next
Angels: Andrew Heaney (0-1, 9.64 ERA) will make his third start on Friday at home against the Yankees, seeking his first winning decision since last August. Heaney was charged with the loss in last Friday’s start against San Francisco, where he allowed seven runs on six hits with two walks in 4⅓ innings.
Astros: Dallas Keuchel (1-3, 3.10) enters his sixth start of the season hoping to build off of his first win of the season as the Astros host Oakland on Friday. In his last start, Keuchel held the White Sox to one run on four hits in six innings in a 6-1 win.