Jake Burger’s two-run, two-out home run in the sixth inning produced the winning runs as the Texas Rangers beat Framber Valdez and the Houston Astros 4-2 on Sunday afternoon in the rubber game of a key three-game American League West series in Arlington, Texas.
Burger’s opposite field homer off Valdez (12-9), who had been moved up in the rotation in an attempt to give the Astros an edge in the deciding game of the series, just reached the first row of the seats in right field barely out of the reach of Houston outfielder Cam Smith.
The win allowed Texas (74-70) to clinch the series to climb to within four games of the front-running Astros (78-66) in the the AL West standings and remain 1 1/2 games behind Seattle in the race for the league’s final wild-card spot. Houston is just 2 1/2 games in front of the second-place Mariners in the division.
Phil Maton (3-5) was the beneficiary of Burger’s round tripper after allowing a run on one hit and striking out two in 1 1/3 innings of work in relief of starter Patrick Corbin. Shawn Armstrong got the final four outs for the Rangers to earn his seventh save.
Valdez went seven innings, surrendering four runs (three earned) on five hits and a walk in seven innings while striking out five.
The Rangers were gifted the game’s first run when Dylan Moore raced home from third on a wild pitch after a two-out strikeout of Jonah Heim in the second inning by Valdez. Houston catcher Yainer Diaz slipped when chasing the loose ball and hit Heim in the back with his throw to first, allowing Texas to grab a 1-0 lead.
Houston knotted the score in the sixth off Corbin as Mauricio Dubon doubled to open the frame and scored on Jeremy Pena’s single. Maton later struck out Carlos Correa with Yordan Alvarez on third base to end the uprising.
Texas reassumed the front in the bottom of the sixth. Cody Freeman singled with two out and came around to score on a double to the left-center-field gap by Josh Jung. Burger then cracked his home run that scored Jung and improved the Rangers’ lead to 4-1.
The Astros cut into their deficit in the seventh when Diaz’s groundout plated Christian Walker, who opened the inning with a double into the left-field corner but that was Houston’s last serious threat.
