Straw scores on wild pitch in 11th, Astros beat Rangers 4-3

HOUSTON (AP) — Myles Straw scored on a wild pitch in the 11th inning to give the Houston Astros a 4-3 win over the Texas Rangers on Thursday night.

After the Rangers loaded the bases with an intentional walk to Alex Bregman that brought up Chas McCormick, reliever Brett Martin (0-1) uncorked a 1-2 pitch that bounced away, and Straw raced home from third.

“I was ready, especially with two strikes there,” Straw said.

“I had a feeling they would bounce a breaking ball, so I stayed ready and sure enough, I saw it kind of get away a little bit. I was going to be overaggressive there with two strikes. Even if it was a little bit closer than that, I was probably going to go.”

Straw said he played against Martin in the minor leagues and had seen him throw his breaking ball in the dirt.

“He’s bounced it to me before,” Straw said. “It’s one of his really good pitches, so I was ready for that pitch. Sure enough, he threw a good one, and it just got away.”

Texas manager Chris Woodward said he knew with Straw’s speed, any ball in the dirt or any ball that got away would allow him to score.

Brooks Raley (1-2) stranded runners at the corners in the top of the inning to earn the win.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know how we came out with that one,” Houston manager Dusty Baker said.

“The gods were with us even at the end with the wild pitch. We left a lot of men on base. We had a lot of opportunities. We had a whole lot more opportunities than they did. It would have been a downer to lose that game.”José Altuve gave the Astros a 3-2 lead in the second with a three-run double down the left-field line.

Willie Calhoun went deep on the first pitch from Houston starter Cristian Javier for his first career leadoff homer.