Swept Away! Astros Dominate Series, Leave Texas Rangers Lifeless

The Houston Astros completed a sweep of the Texas Rangers with another dominating win Wednesday night.

ARLINGTON, Texas – The Houston Astros dusted off a complete dismantling of the Texas Rangers Wednesday night.

The Astros' 12-3 win completed a three-game sweep in dominating and demoralizing fashion at Globe Life Field.

The Rangers (76-63), who had led the AL West for nearly the entire season until last week, are now sitting three games back in third place in the division, and trailing the Toronto Blue Jays by a half-game in the wild-card race. Texas has lost 15 of its past 19 games.

The Astros (80-61) hit 16 home runs in the series, including five on Wednesday, and outscored the Rangers 39-10, outhit them 50-22 and outhomered them 16-6. The 39 runs and 50 hits are Astros' records for a three-game series.

The luster of the matchup of future Hall of Fame pitchers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander fizzled out quickly. At least from a Rangers perspective.

The Astros took a 2-0 lead on Yordan Alvarez's two-run homer in the first inning and kept barrelling up Scherzer. Michael Brantley homered in the second, and Jose Abreu's grand slam in the third knocked Scherzer from the game.

Scherzer (12-6) was charged with seven runs on six hits and two walks in just three innings.

Verlander (11-7) earned the win for the Astros. He held the Rangers to a first-pitch, leadoff homer by Marcus Semien in the first and an unearned run and that was it over seven innings.

Astros 12, Rangers 3

Here are the key moments from Wednesday's Rangers-Astros game:

For Starters, It's Been Bad

Rangers starting pitchers are winless (0-7) in the team’s last 19 games (starting Aug. 16). It's the longest such streak in club history. Previous long was 17 games in June 2013.

Leadoff By Example

Marcus Semien tied the single-season franchise record with his seventh leadoff home run in 2023 on the first pitch in the first inning Wednesday. It's the fifth time a Rangers batter has hit seven leadoff homers in a season, joining Shin-Soo Choo in 2019 and Ian Kinsler in 2009, 2011, and 2012.

Semien now has nine leadoff homers in two seasons with Texas, third-most in team history behind Kinsler (29) and Choo (25).

Semien was 4 for 4 with three RBI. He added another solo homer in the eighth.

Max Mad

Max Scherzer did not have it Wednesday night. The Astros touched him for seven runs on six hits and two walks in three innings. Houston hit three homers, including a two-run shot by Yordan Alvarez in the first, a solo homer by Michael Brantley in the second, and a grand slam by Jose Abreu in the third.

Up Next

The Rangers are off Thursday before starting a three-game series against the Oakland Athletics at 7:05 p.m. Friday at Globe Life Field.

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You can follow Stefan Stevenson on Twitter @StefanVersusTex.

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