Loss to Rangers pushes Astros’ skid to four
Losing streak reaches four for the first time as month produces sixth loss in eight games
Fresh off being swept by the White Sox, the Astros losing streak hits a season-worst four games in a 6-4 loss to the intrastate rival Rangers, though their lead for the best record in the American League remains at six despite dropping 11 of their past 15.
ARLINGTON — The Astros’ second-half plunge continues.
A poor outing by Charlie Morton and too-little-too-late offensive output conspired against the reeling American League leaders in a 6-4 loss to their intrastate rival Texas Rangers on Friday night at Globe Life Park.
Their fourth consecutive defeat marked a season-worst losing streak. They have dropped 11 of their last 15 games and six of eight in August. Their recently dwindling lead on Boston for the best record in the AL remained at six games because the Red Sox lost to the New York Yankees on Friday.
Cole Hamels dominated the Astros (71-44) in one of the best individual pitching performances against baseball’s best offense this season. In seven scoreless innings, Hamels allowed only three singles and two walks. He became the third starter in as many nights to complete at least seven innings against the Astros.
Before Friday, the Astros were one of only two teams in the majors yet to have endured a fourgame skid. The seemingly unstoppable Los Angeles Dodgers
now stand alone with that distinction.
Morton surrendered five runs, two of which were technically unearned because of an error by the pitcher, and completed only 52⁄3 innings. A four-run third inning by the Rangers (55-59) in which they batted around and Morton exhausted 37 pitches set the tone for the evening.
“That was a rough one,” Morton said.
It wasn’t until the eighth inning against the Rangers’ bullpen when the Astros got on the scoreboard.
George Springer took Jose Leclerc deep for a tworun homer for the Astros’ first scores, and with two outs, Marwin Gonzalez and Carlos Beltran collected back-to-back, run-scoring doubles off lefthander Alex Claudio to trim the margin to two.
Brian McCann nearly extended the four-run rally on a line drive to right field, but Nomar Mazara made a shoestring catch for the third out.
Third-inning disaster
Springer’s home run, his team-leading 28th of the season, was his first since July 7. The hit was only his second since he returned from the disabled list Wednesday after missing 13 games because of a left quad injury. He took a 96 mph fastball the opposite way to right-center field, bouncing it into the Rangers’ bullpen.
The Astros found themselves in a hole early.
The pivotal bottom of the third opened with Morton issuing a four-pitch walk to eight-hole hitter Mike Napoli. After allowing a single to Robinson Chirinos, Morton misplayed a hard sacrifice bunt Shin-Soo Choo directed right back to the pitcher. The inning-compounding error loaded the bases with no outs.
“(I’m) trying to get the force out and hopefully turn two, and we don’t get an out,” Morton said. “Not good.”
Elvis Andrus made Morton pay and broke the scoreless tie with a single up the middle. Mazara doubled the score with one of his own. After a visit from pitching coach Brent Strom, Morton struck out Adrian Beltre and Joey Gallo. But on a 1-2 count, Morton had his 97 mph sinker laced into center field for a two-run single by ex-Astro Carlos Gomez.
Morton was victimized by Andrus again in the fifth inning.
The Rangers shortstop drilled a pitch to the leftcenter field gap, where Derek Fisher ran it down but whiffed on the catch by the wall. Two batters later, Andrus scored on a double to the left-field corner by Beltre, who with his 3,010th career hit tied Hall of Famer Wade Boggs for 28th on baseball’s all-time leader board.
Altuve to apologize
Reliever Reymin Guduan permitted the Rangers an insurance run in the seventh on another Mazara single after another Andrus double. James Hoyt came on to record three outs, and Joe Musgrove logged a scoreless eighth in which the converted starter ran his fastball up to 97 mph.
In the ninth, the Astros brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the form of Jose Altuve after consecutive two-out singles off Claudio by Springer and Alex Bregman. After falling behind, no balls to two strikes, Altuve battled back to a full count before Claudio froze the AL MVP candidate with a 71 mph changeup down and inside for strike three.
Altuve exchanged a few words about the gameending call with homeplate umpire Bill Welke as he walked back toward the dugout. But after examining the video postgame, Altuve amended his initial opinion.
“I thought it was a ball, but it was a strike,” he said. “Now tomorrow I have to apologize to the umpire.”