Lynn dazzles as Rangers blank Astros
Lance Lynn matched his season high with 11 strikeouts in seven stellar innings for his major league-best 12th victory and the Texas Rangers beat the AL Westleading Houston Astros, 5-0, in the only game last night in Arlington, Texas, when Major League Baseball resumed after the All-Star break.
Lynn (12-4) won his fifth consecutive start, and is 8-1 over his last 10 starts. He scattered six hits (five singles and a double) and walked two while throwing 75 of 110 pitches for strikes.
Astros lefty Framber Valdez (3-5) didn’t make it out of the first inning, when Texas jumped ahead with four runs.
Lynn is 8-0 with a 3.90 ERA in 10 home starts for the Rangers.
The big right-hander has thrown at least 100 pitches in 10 consecutive starts, the second-longest streak in the majors this season — Washington’s Max Scherzer had 12 consecutive games with at least 100 pitches earlier this season.
Jose Leclerc and Chris Martin each pitched an inning to wrap up the fourth shutout for the Rangers this season. It was the sixth time Houston was held scoreless.
After Elvis Andrus got Texas on the board in the first with an RBI groundout, sluggers Nomar Mazara and All-Star outfielder Joey Gallo had less-traditional hits. Mazara had an infield single when the ball spun off his shattered bat at 44 mph and barely got past the mound, then Gallo drove in a run with a double that ricocheted hard off second baseman Jose Altuve and never got out of the infield.
Rougned Odor, still hitting .198, made it 4-0 when he drove in two runs with the first of his two doubles. Odor doubled again in the third, and then scored on a single by Jeff Mathis.
All-Star infielder Alex Bregman left the game after a groundball bounced up and hit him on the chin.
Manager A.J. Hinch said during an in-game interview on the ESPN broadcast that it looked like Bregman’s chin was split open. Hinch said Bregman wanted to stay in the game, but the team got him out to get checked by a doctor.
Bregman was playing shortstop, and shifted toward the middle of the infield in the third inning when he went to field a grounder hit by Shin-Soo Choo. The ball took a late high hop and caught Bregman squarely on the lower half of his face, and there appeared to be blood when he was tended to by a trainer.
Myles Straw replaced Bregman at shortstop.
Before the game, Astros outfielder Jake Marisnick was suspended for two games by Major League Baseball after his violent home plate collision with Los Angeles Angels catcher Jonathan Lucroy.
Marisnick, who also was fined, appealed the suspension and was available to play.
Lucroy was carted off the field last Sunday after the collision at the end of the eighth inning of a game at
Houston the Astros won 1110 in 10 innings. The Angels catcher sustained a concussion and broken nose. Marisnick was called out for colliding with Lucroy and the call was upheld after a crew chief review. Elsewhere in baseball —
The Cardinals placed catcher Yadier Molina on the injured list with a strained right thumb and activated infielder Matt Carpenter.
Molina’s move to the IL was retroactive to Monday. The nine-time All-Star, who missed 12 games in May and June with a similar injury, pinch hit on Saturday but hasn’t started a game since June 3.
Carpenter has been sidelined since June 29 with a lower back strain. . . .
Tuesday’s All-Star Game had a record low television rating of 5.0 on Fox, according to Nielsen Media Research. The game was seen by an average of 5.93 million households and 8.14 million viewers.
That is down from the previous record low rating of 5.2 and 8.69 million viewers last year.