Garcia's Struggles Continue As Houston Astros Left Searching For Answers Against Rangers

The Houston Astros lost their first Silver Boot series matchup against the Texas Rangers as Luis Garcia continued to struggle.

The Houston Astros (6-8) fell to their American League West rivals the Texas Rangers (8-5) in a disappointing 6-2 fashion on Friday night. It was not the start to the Silver Boot series they were hoping for. 

Luis Garcia made his third start of the season and it did not go as planned. The righty gave up five earned runs in 5.0 innings pitched. It was an apparent improvement according to catcher Martin Maldonado per MLB.com.

“I think he threw the ball really, really good,” Maldonado said. “The numbers probably don’t show that, but overall it’s a good step moving forward.”

It didn't matter though, because the Rangers took full advantage from the get go when Texas first baseman Nathaniel Lowe got the scoring started in the first inning with a sac fly to score Marcus Semien. 

From there, the evening just snowballed for the Astros. Right fielder Adolis Garcia launched a two-run home run in the third inning, but was only ruled a home run in after an umpire review. 

Houston did try and get something going in the third when Yordan Alvarez launched a solo home run to account for half of Friday night's runs for the Astros. 

But Texas came right back in the fifth when Lowe, once again a catalyst for the offense, lined a single to left field to score two more runs to make it 5-1.

Maldonado then hit a solo shot to join his teammate as the lone offensive power source of the evening in the fifth. 

That would be it for Houston as the Rangers bullpen then locked down the rest of the evening. 

Rangers third baseman Josh Jung did add an insurance run in the top of the ninth when he hit an RBI-single to bring the final score to 6-2. 

This was the toughest matchup the Astros would face this series with Martin Perez on the mound against Garcia. The next two games favor Houston. 

Hopefully they can right the ship and get back on track.

They will try again on Saturday with first pitch scheduled for 6:10 p.m. CT.

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