ARLINGTON, TEXAS — Matt Moore (0-1, 9.00 ERA) made his first start for the Rangers (1-2) and it didn’t go as planned, only making it through four innings and allowing four runs on seven hits. He did manage to not allow any walks and struck out 6 batters.
Evan Gattis started the offense off for the Astros in the second inning when he doubled to center, and moved to third on a wild pitch by Moore. After Moore was able to strike out JD Davis, Brian McCann would single to right scoring Gattis. Up next would be Ranger Killer Jake Marisnick who hit a two-run home run to put the Astros up 3-0, Moore would go on to strike out the next two batters.
In the third inning Moore couldn’t catch a break after grounding out Jose Altuve. Alex Correa would double to left, with the very next batter Marwin Gonzales doing the exact same thing, scoring Correa, making it 4-0 Astros.
Moore would finally pitch a clean inning in the fourth getting Marisnick to fly out and striking out McCann and George Springer, but Rangers manager Jeff Banister would end his outing there saying “His tempo was slow, the whole pace of the game, we had him speed up the tempo and his last inning was his best inning, he had a high pitch count after that and that’s why we pulled him.”
The Astros Lineup faced the weak part of the Rangers’ bullpen, and it certainly showed. The bullpen gave up five runs putting the Rangers at a deficit they couldn’t make up. Correa and Altuve were the dominating force for the Astros going a combined 8-for-10 with four runs and three RBI’s.
The Rangers hitters had a pretty hard time hitting Astros pitcher Lance McCullers (1-0, 3.38 ERA) he only allowed four hits two runs and struck out 10.
The Rangers batter of the day was Elvis Andrus who scored all three measly runs. In the third inning Andrus blasted a solo shot to the deep part of the park, where the big boys hit it, finally putting the Rangers on the board. Andrus would score again after hitting an infield single, scoring on Adrian Beltre’s double to left. He would score for the last time in the bottom of the 8th after a rocky outing by Astros reliever Tony Sipp who allowed Andrus to walk followed by a hit by Nomar Mazara to score him.
The ninth inning was reasonably quiet for both teams, neither team scored, and the game would end with the Astros topping the Rangers 9-3.
NEXT
These two teams face off for the final game of the 4-game series Sunday afternoon. The Astros will send Gerrit Cole to the mound, while the Rangers send Mike Minor in hopes that he will have a repeat of what he did all spring. First pitch is scheduled for 2:05pm.
