RANGERS 1, ASTROS 0 Some one-upmanship
Single run spells the difference between outstanding games by Hamels, Verlander
There was hope as three Rangers converged on a feeble fly ball. The tying run motored from second base. The cleanup hitter went down the first-base line in the eighth inning, his team trailing by a run. Ronald Guzman stuck his glove out in front of him and awaited the baseball, which fell into his glove for a basket-style catch.
Carlos Correa was undemonstrative. He did not slam his helmet and did not shout in frustration, though the Astros’ early-season performance inside this ballpark sometimes warrants exacerbation.
The Astros entered Friday with the second-worst home OPS in baseball. A .356 slugging percentage in Minute Maid Park was particularly unsightly. Manager A.J. Hinch dismissed the data before the game, citing the small collection of plate appearances it showcases.
“Everyone wants solutions or answers or takeaways from a small sample size,” Hinch said before the game. “I’m not the least bit concerned about it. It is what it is. Maybe it’s the teams we’ve played. Maybe it’s when we’ve played at home, we haven’t swung the bat the best.”
And so it continued in Friday night’s 1-0 loss, the Astros’ third shutout in their last four games inside Minute Maid Park.
Though runners reached in eight of the nine innings it played, Hinch’s club mustered one hit against Texas starter Cole Hamels and a cavalcade of relievers from the Rangers’ woebegone bullpen — one of a 4.21 ERA in 141 road innings.
The Astros placed the tying run aboard with less than two outs in the eighth and ninth innings, only to strand them, continuing the infuriating inability to produce while their ace pitched.
In the eight starts preceding this one, Justin Verlander averaged 4.02 runs of support from his offense, the least among Astros starters.
His last outing against the Rangers was stunning, eight innings of onehit baseball with 11 strikeouts, all wasted by an offense that allowed Bartolo Colon, 44, to carry a perfect game into the eighth inning in its home ballpark.
One bad inning
Verlander did not approach such magnificence Friday, but he merited support. None was afforded. Even without a feel for his slider, he scattered three hits in six innings. He exited after the first three men reached against him in the seventh, an inning he began ahead of Nomar Mazara 0-2.
“When you’re out there, and it’s a 0-0 game,” Verlander said, “you pitch differently. That’s just baseball.”
The three pitches were low and away from the lefthanded-hitting Rangers right fielder. A fourth tailed inside and was elevated, a four-seam fastball Mazara laced to right field for a double.
A four-pitch walk to Adrian Beltre followed. The count then ran full to Joey Gallo. Verlander yanked a slider to allow him aboard, too.
“When I faced Adrian with nobody out and a man on second, I pitched him a little bit differently trying to set up a double play with a guy behind him in Gallo who swings and misses a lot,” Verlander said. “Did it work out? No.”
Hinch sauntered from the dugout, the bases full with nobody out. He retrieved the baseball from Verlander, summoning Chris Devenski for Jurickson Profar, who had doubled off Verlander.
Devenski allowed only a sacrifice fly to Profar. Rougned Odor and Robinson Chirinos struck out.
Verlander exited to a roaring ovation from the 34,297 who bought a ticket inside Minute Maid Park, a small number yet again on the scoreboard behind him.
“The most you can do when you go out there is keep your team in ballgames,” Verlander said. “I think you’ve got to take a lot of pride in doing that. Runs come and go. I’ve been around long enough where your team goes through ebbs and flows, and sometimes you’re the guy that doesn’t get a lot of runs and sometimes you’re the guy that gets a lot of runs.
“Unfortunately right now, I’ve been the guy that doesn’t get a lot.”
In the eighth, the top of the order loomed in a 1-0 game with a man aboard. Perhaps now the listlessness could be reversed — the bitterness of ghastly offensive numbers they’ve produced when hitting at home momentarily with one swing against crossstate rivals.
Derek Fisher, inserted as a pinch hitter for Jake Marisnick, struck out on four pitches. Jose Altuve lifted a fly deep to center field. Correa’s bloop followed.
“We just couldn’t get anything going,” Hinch said.
Hamels stifled Astros
For six innings, Hamels sprayed his repertoire around the strike zone, letting a man aboard in each of the frames he worked.
Two Astros drew firstinning walks. Hamels hit a man in both the second and third inning. Marwin Gonzalez reached scoring position in the fourth after Beltre booted a ground ball. None scored.
In four hitless innings against him, the Astros put one ball in play with an exit velocity harder than 91 mph.
Their first — and only — hit, a seeing-eye single Evan Gattis willed through the six hole to lead off the fifth inning, only left the bat at 95 mph.
Hamels ran a cutter in on most of the Astros’ righthanded hitters — a different attack than the first two times he faced them — and Hinch noticed a velocity spike.
Hamels’ four-seam fastball hovered around 92 mph and topped at 94. His curveball was pristine, eliciting five swings and misses with four more called strikes.
Hamels struck George Springer with a 92 mph fastball on his unprotected left elbow in the third inning.
The team diagnosed his injury as a left elbow contusion and said the center fielder is day-to-day.
His exit dealt another predicament to the offense, one that cannot rise on the days Verlander works.
“Definitely pitched well enough to keep us in the game,” Hinch said of his starter. “And to win.”