High-fives all around
Bats come alive as all runs score during seventh inning in series-opening comeback
ARLINGTON — Martín Maldonado watched from second base as Aledmys Díaz sent a deep fly ball to center field. The ball pounded leather. Maldonado put his head down and ran, starting his slide head-first as the ball bounced in the dirt in front of him. As he skidded wildly, helmet toppling to the ground, he managed to reach out with his left hand and gain traction on the corner of third base with his fingertips. He was safe, the Astros’ go-ahead run still alive and well.
Moments later, Maldonado crossed home plate on a fielder’s choice to give Houston its first lead of the ballgame and erase what had been a four-run deficit. The Rangers’ cavernous stadium erupted in mixed fury and joy.
The Astros scored five runs in a marathon seventh inning to complete a roaring comeback for a 5-4 win over the Rangers on Friday at Globe Life Field, the kind of barn-burner fans on both sides of the Lone Star Series had come to expect this season in Arlington.
The Rangers’ two walk-off wins in a three-game sweep of the Astros here in May set the table for Friday night’s shenanigans, though it did not appear that way initially as the Rangers cruised to a 4-0 lead through six innings.
Rangers starter Glenn Otto, who attended Concordia Lutheran and was drafted by the Yankees in 2017 out of Rice, made his MLB debut against the Astros and dazzled with seven strikeouts and two hits in five
scoreless innings. Meanwhile, the Rangers tagged Houston starter Jake Odorizzi for two runs and added two more against reliever Phil Maton in the sixth inning before the Astros began their seventh-inning rally.
Otto grew up idolizing the Astros. In his debut, he knocked them off their pedestal. The Astros whiffed eight times on his slider, which had an average velocity of 81.3 mph. Through three innings, Otto used his slider as his third-strike pitch to notch four strikeouts: Díaz twice; Carlos Correa and Alex Bregman once. Each time, the batter went down swinging.
Opposite him, Odorizzi continued his run of short outings by lasting five innings and allowing six hits, two earned runs and one home run with five strikeouts on 88 pitches. Odorizzi’s second time through the batting order was his downfall.
Odorizzi did not allow a hit his first time through the order with one hit batter and two strikeouts before Rangers leadoff man Isiah Kiner-Falefa spoiled the nohitter with a two-out single in the bottom of the third. Andy Ibanez added another single to put two men on, but Odorizzi got out of it with a strikeout.
He was not so lucky the following inning.
A leadoff double and consecutive one-out singles allowed Texas to drive in the game’s first run in the fourth inning. There were two outs when Jose Trevino hit a ground ball toward second base, but it almost seemed as if the Astros didn’t know that as they went through the motions of a triple play. Díaz fielded the ball and flipped it to Correa at second base, though not in time. The shortstop lasered a throw to Yuli Gurriel at first base for the out. The ball already was dead when Gurriel fired an unnecessary throw home.
The Rangers doubled their lead in the fifth inning when Ibanez walloped a first-pitch solo home run 101 mph off the bat. Odorizzi finished the inning without incident, though it would be his last.
With Otto off the mound, Houston had a chance to get on the board in the top of the sixth against reliever Jharel Cotton. After Michael Brantley’s one-out single, Gurriel doubled down the left-field line to put runners on second and third with two outs. Alvarez struck out swinging to strand both runners, and the Astros’ tworun deficit remained.
In the bottom of the sixth, Maton struck out two batters and allowed a single before Yohel Pozo doubled on a line drive off the left field wall. Brantley got the ball to cutoff man Correa, who fired a relay throw home at nearly 90 mph. It was not enough as Nick Solak was called safe after Maldonado’s tag play and the Astros’ challenge was unsuccessful. Trevino’s RBI double extended the Rangers’ lead to 4-0.
Before Friday, the Astros were 5-36 in games where they trailed after six innings. With how badly the team had struggled against sub.500 teams recently and how the game was going, there was little expectation they would improve that record.
Rangers reliever Brett Martin took over for the seventh inning and allowed the first three batters he saw to reach. Correa and Kyle Tucker sandwiched singles around Bregman’s walk to load the bases for Jake Meyers. The rookie lined a double to right field to drive in two runs and cut Houston’s deficit in half. Maldonado drew a five-pitch walk to load the bases once more and bring up the top of the order.
Brantley, batting leadoff for the first time since 2013 in Jose Altuve’s absence, tied the game with a groundball single up the middle, scoring Tucker and Meyers. Then came Maldonado’s game-preserving sprint and game-winning run.
The teams’ bullpens combined to keep the rest of the game scoreless, though the ending was not without more drama. Ryan Pressly had secured one out for the Astros in the bottom of the ninth when Nathaniel Lowe grounded into a game-ending double play turned by Correa and Gurriel.
No sooner had Pressly and Correa rushed to celebrate together did the umpire signal for a review. One minute later, the call was confirmed and the game was over for real. The Astros resumed celebrating.
They had won, so what was a little more drama?