Astros Blast Past Rangers in Series Finale

Texas rookie Cole Ragans was unable to get out of the fifth, while the Astros scored their first five runs off long balls.

The Texas Rangers found themselves generating little offense to support rookie pitcher Cole Ragans, losing to the Houston Astros 7-3 on Thursday at Minute Maid Park.

The Rangers (49-62) ended up losing two out of three to the American League West-leading Astros (72-41). The Astros won the series opener 7-5, while the Rangers took Wednesday’s game 8-4 in 10 innings, with Leody Taveras driving in five runs.

Astros left-hander Framber Valdez (11-4) handled the Rangers with relative ease, pitching seven innings of shutout baseball before handing the game to the bullpen. Valdez gave up four hits and one walk, while striking out eight.

Once Valdez left the game, the Rangers were finally able to get some runs across. Against reliever Seth Martinez, Nathaniel Lowe’s RBI single and Taveras’ single to right cut the Astros lead to five runs. Lowe reached base for the 17th straight game, while Taveras was the only Ranger with two hits.

Marcus Semien added a solo home run off reliever Rafael Montero in the ninth inning. Semien has 17 homers on the season.

Ragans (0-1) took his first Major League loss, a week after taking a no-decision in his debut. At least last week the Rangers went on to win that game. The Rangers were never really in this one.

He threw 4 1/3 innings, giving up six hits, five runs and three walks while striking out just one. That pushed his MLB ERA to 4.82 after two games.

The Astros used two home runs to take a 5-0 lead after five innings and send Ragans back to the dugout. In the second inning, Martin Maldonado hit a three-run shot to drive in Jeremy Peña and Jake Meyers. In the fifth inning, Alex Bregman hit a two-run blast, which brought home Yuri Gurriel.

After the second home run, Rangers manager Chris Woodward removed Ragans for reliever John King.

The Astros added two more runs in the seventh, as Bregman drove in another run with a single, scoring Gurriel, while Aledmys Díaz’s sacrifice fly scored Kyle Tucker.

The Rangers return home for a three-game series with the Seattle Mariners that starts on Friday. With Spencer Howard on the 15-day injured list, the Rangers have not announced their starting pitcher for the first game of the series.

---

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

Catch up with Inside the Rangers on Facebook and Twitter.