Leody Taveras Powers Rangers Past Astros

The Rangers center starred as Texas broke a two-game losing streak and overcame Astros ace Justin Verlander.

Leody Taveras had a career night at the plate as the Texas Rangers defeated the Houston Astros 8-4 in 10 innings at Minute Maid Park on Wednesday night.

Taveras went 2-for-4 with a career-high five RBI. That included driving in three runs on a double in the top of the 10th, which gave the Rangers (49-61) a five-run lead and sealed the win.

Taveras entered the game hitting .300 in his last 30 games. Before the bases-clearing double, Taveras had an RBI triple, scored a run and had an RBI sacrifice fly.

“I think I just have to be focused every single day and try to do my best,” Taveras said. “The confidence I have today is all I need to play.”

His teammates set him up to put the Astros (71-41) away as Marcus Semien’s sacrifice fly scored Ezequiel Duran and broke the 3-3 tie in the 10th, followed by Corey Seager’s RBI single to score Josh Smith to make it 5-3.

Phil Maton, who gave up all five of the Rangers’ runs in the 10th, took the loss.

The Astros added one run in the bottom of the 10th off Rangers reliever Jonathan Hernández.

The game set up as a duel between Rangers rookie Glenn Otto and Astros ace Justin Verlander, the latter of which has two Cy Young Awards and is a prime candidate to win his third this season after recovering from Tommy John surgery, which ended his 2020 season and wiped out his 2021 season.

Neither pitcher factored in the decision. Otto threw five innings of four-hit baseball, giving up two runs and four walks, while striking out five. Verlander lasted six innings, giving up five hits, three runs and a walk while striking out seven. Verlander left in line for the loss before Yordan Alvarez got him off the hook with a game-tying solo home run in the bottom of the seventh off Rangers reliever Brock Burke.

“We haven’t had a lot of success here against an elite guy like that,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “Just the quality at-bats we had against him tonight, those are things we haven’t been able to do.”

Taveras’ RBI triple in the top of the fourth scored Nathaniel Lowe from first. Taveras later scored on an RBI sacrifice fly by catcher Meibrys Viloria, which gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead.

Taveras gave the Rangers a 3-2 lead in the top of the sixth with an RBI sacrifice fly that scored Adolis García.

The Astros, meanwhile, scored two of their first three runs on home runs. Astros infielder Jeremy Peña drove in the Astros’ first run in the bottom of the second, as his groundout to Seager scored Alex Bregman to give the Astros a 1-0 lead.

Kyle Tucker hit a solo home run off Otto in the bottom of the fourth, and Alvarez tied the game in the bottom of the seventh.

The Rangers end the series on Thursday as the Rangers’ Cole Ragans (0-0) makes his second MLB start against Houston’s Framber Valdez (10-4) at 1:10 p.m.

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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