Three of a kind
Consecutive solo home runs give Verlander, bullpen room to spare
Sleep-deprived and perhaps a wee bit irritable after an early-morning return to Houston, the Astros burned through much of what remaining energy they had Friday night in the first three innings before holding on for a 4-3 win over the Rangers.
The Astros built the lead with four solo home runs, including three consecutive in the third inning, but the bats went silent the rest of the way and the Rangers crept closer before a crowd of 42,287 at Minute Maid Park that went from jubilant to nail-biting.
The game came down to the ninth, when closer Roberto Osuna set down the Rangers in order to secure the win for starter Justin Verlander (12-4), who had 12 strikeouts while allowing two homers that began the Rangers’ comeback.
Early on, though, the Astros came out swinging against Rangers lefthander Mike Minor as if they had a full night’s rest rather than having returned at 4:30 a.m. Friday following a game in Anaheim. Yuli Gurriel set the tone in the second inning with his 12th homer in 20 games, and Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and Yordan Alvarez fol
lowed in succession in the third.
The topper was Alvarez’s 474foot bomb, which was traveling 112.2 mph as it left his bat en route to the upper deck in right field. It’s the longest measured home run by an Astros player since Major League Baseball installed the Statcast tracking system in 2015.
“The game today for the longest time felt exactly what 2019 feels like, which is a lot of homers and a lot of punchouts,” Hinch said. “Fortunately for us, we got on Minor pretty heavily early. Then they made their way back, and it was quite a win for us. I’m proud of our guys after a long travel day. It’s a good win.”
The victory was Hinch’s 436th as Astros manager, moving him past Larry Dierker and into second place behind Bill Virdon’s 544 wins from 1975-82.
The Astros’ power surge was in support of the only man in uniform who got a good night’s sleep in Verlander, who flew home Thursday in advance of Friday’s start. He labored through 116 pitches in six innings and allowed eight hits, including back-to-back homers by Rougned Odor and Asdrubal Cabrera in the sixth, while striking out 12 with one walk.
“For the guys to go out there and give the effort they did today speaks volumes for these boys,” Verlander said. “I’m sure they’re looking forward to getting home and getting some sleep.”
Given permission to arrive later than usual at the ballpark after landing at 4:30 a.m. Friday from Los Angeles, the Astros needed but two innings to get on the board against Minor (8-5).
Gurriel led off the second with his 17th home run of the season, one short of his season high set in 2017. Then came the third-inning eruption, the Astros’ first such delivery since last June against the Rays’ Nathan Eovaldi.
Altuve opened, launching a 3-1 fastball 408 feet to left-center. Bregman drove Minor’s 0-1 slider 356 feet to left and Alvarez obliterated Minor’s first offering, converting a 91 mph fastball into a 112 mph blast for the 10th homer of his young career.
But Minor rallied after the three home runs, retiring 15 of 16 hitters through the seventh inning as the Rangers crept within a run but got no further.
The early Astros offense came in handy on a night the Rangers made Verlander labor and dented the bullpen. Texas had baserunners in each of the first five innings, with two hits each from Danny Santana and Hunter Pence, but Verlander bore down in each occasion.
“That was a grind,” Verlander said. “Those guys battled me all night. The box score probably doesn’t show how tough they battled me with 12 strikeouts, but every single one was difficult. They put men on base eery inning, and it wasn’t easy.”
Santana’s one-out double off the left-field scoreboard in the first was muted when Verlander struck out Elvis Andrus and Joey Gallo. Texas had two baserunners in the second with Pence’s leadoff single and a two-out double by Cabrera, but the righthander struck out catcher Jeff Mathis looking.
Santana’s one-out base hit and, one out later, his steal of second came a cropper in the third when Gallo struck out swinging. Pence’s leadoff base hit and a two-out walk to Cabrera went for naught in the fourth when Gallo was caught looking on a 96 mph fastball.
Verlander weathered a leadoff base hit by Shin-Soo Choo and a throwing error by Altuve, striking out Gallo with a 97 mph fastball to end the inning, before giving up the two homers in the sixth.
The Rangers got to Will Harris for a third run in the seventh. Choo reached on Altuve’s second error of the game, Santana followed with an opposite-field base hit, and both moved up on a wild pitch before Choo scored on an Andrus groundout to first.
Harris escaped with no additional damage, though, striking out Gallo, the fourth of the game for the Rangers outfielder, walking Pence and getting Nomar Mazara on a grounder back to the mound.
Josh James allowed a base hit, a stolen base and a walk in the eighth before Bregman tracked down Santana’s grounder off the mound and got the force at second to end the inning and set the stage for Osuna’s appearance in the ninth.