Nathan Eovaldi, Texas Rangers Hold Down Astros To Even Series

Nathan Eovaldi held the Houston Astros scoreless over seven innings as the Texas Rangers evened the series with a 5-2 win Saturday.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Nathan Eovaldi held the Houston Astros offense in check as the Texas Rangers evened the four-game series with a 5-2 win Saturday at Globe Life Field.

Eovaldi (10-3) held the Astros scoreless on two hits over seven innings. He struck out five and walked four while lowering his ERA to 2.64.

"It's great to have somebody to stop [the Astros offense]," Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. "He's got that kind of stuff, he's got the resume. What a great job he did today. Good four-pitch mix, he stayed in command the whole way. After a loss like that [Friday], it's good to have Nate going out there and pitching the way he did."

The Rangers' offense collected 15 hits, including four doubles, in front of 40,380, the largest crowd in the four-year history at Globe Life Field. That's a season-high hits allowed by the Astros.

The Rangers (50-33) scored a run in the third and two more in the fourth to build a 3-0 lead.

Leody Taveras led off the third with a single and scored on Nathaniel Lowe’s single. Jonah Heim doubled to start the fourth and scored on Travis Jankowski’s single. Jankowski later scored on Marcus Semien’s single to left.

Adolis Garcia and Josh Jung started the seventh with consecutive doubles to stretch the lead to 4-0. The Rangers added an unearned run in the eighth when Leody Taveras led off with a single, moved to second on Marcus Semien's walk, and scored on a throwing error by center fielder Jake Meyers, who threw aimlessly into the infield after a flyout. Taveras, who was tagging on the play, was able to score from third and Semien was able to move from first to third on the play.

Semien and Heim each had three hits. Heim had two doubles, including a check-swing double down the third-base line. Each Rangers batter had at least one hit except for Ezequiel Duran, who was 0 for 4 with two of Texas' 11 strikeouts.

Hunter Brown (6-5) took the loss for the Astros (45-38). He allowed three runs on 10 hits in four innings.

Josh Sborz pitched a scoreless eighth. Joe Barlow was an out away from the same, but Lowe dropped a pop-up down the first-base line that allowed a two-out, Alex Bregman double. Kyle Tucker followed with a two-run homer. Will Smith took over and forced Jose Abreu into a game-ending groundout. 

Andrew Heaney starts Game 3 for the Rangers against Astros right-hander Shawn Dubin at 1:35 p.m. Sunday.

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