Josh Smith Joined Select Texas Rangers Group To Do This Against Houston Astros

Josh Smith is the third Texas Rangers player to beat the Houston Astros with a walk-off home run.

Stefan Stevenson/Texas Rangers On SI

ARLINGTON—The Texas Rangers' first walk-off home run of 2024 couldn't have come at a better time.

Josh Smith's two-run homer in the 10th inning Monday beat the Houston Astros to tighten the American League West standings. The Rangers trail the Astros by 3.5 games and the first-place Seattle Mariners by five games.

Smith became the third Rangers player to beat the Astros with a walk-off homer, joining Adolis García on May 21, 2021, and Mitch Moreland on June 21, 2011.

It's the Rangers' first walk-off homer since García beat the Twins on Sept. 3, 2023.

"Every game is pretty important to us now, at this point," said Smith, who has a career-high 12 homers. "So to do it in that situation, against that team, with where we're at right now is pretty important. They've got a couple of games on us, so this series is big."

The Rangers are desperate to turn a win such as Monday night into something that helps ignite an extended winning run. Except for a couple of five-game winning streaks, sustained stretches of winning has, so far, eluded the club in 2024.

"It's kind of been the story of this year," Smith said. "We'll have a really good win and then kind of struggle for a few games, so hopefully, this can kind of push us over the edge to win the series tomorrow and just kind of keep it going from there."

Starting pitcher Andrew Heaney, who held the Astros to a run on an Alex Bregman solo homer over six innings, said the clubhouse knows they need to start piling up the wins.

"Obviously, it's a game we needed to win. We feel like we need to win every [game]," he said. "We're going to keep approaching it like that. We've got to keep piling on, and we haven't been doing that. [Tuesday's game] is at 0-0, so we've just got to come in and play well."

Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said everyone involved, including the Astros, knows how important the series is.

"You always hope it gets momentum going," Bochy said of the win. "It's a great win for these guys. They fought hard. These are important games. We know it. They know it. And just love the way they came out and played."

Josh Smith on the first walk-off home run of his baseball career ... pic.twitter.com/DPC8ahXOM1

— Stefan Stevenson (@StefanVersusTex) August 6, 2024

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