‘Not fun.’ Houston Astros remind upstart Texas Rangers how much more they must improve
.jpg "Texas Rangers relief pitcher Kolby Allard reacts after giving up a solo home run to Houston Astros’ Martin Maldonado during the fourth inning Wednesday at Globe Life Field. The Astros won 9-2 to take the final two games of the three-game series.")
Well, that was a cold dose of reality.
The Texas Rangers, who have overcome an early rough stretch to pull into second place in the American League West Division, got a reminder how much still separates them and the first-place Houston Astros.
Granted, no one confused the 2022 Rangers with a division-winning candidate when the season began. And a discouraging April that saw Texas start 7-14 and in last place in the division, had some re-calibrating the club’s trajectory.
But an 11-10 stretch since May 25, including a three-game winning streak and a come-from-behind series-opening win against the Astros on Monday at Globe Life Field had the Rangers closing in on a .500 record.
Two days later, however, after a deflating Tuesday loss in which the Astros rallied to score four eighth-inning runs, and a 9-2 loss Wednesday afternoon, has offered a humbling return to reality.
“I think it’s always a good measuring stick,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said of the Astros. “They’re a good team … they have really talented players, but their processes are pretty tight. The way they pitch you, the way they defend you, they do a good job all around. And their players obviously follow suit with their game plans. Every time you up against them you know it’s not going to be easy.”
The Rangers still have a long way to go to catch the Astros, who have a 9.5-game lead atop the West and have won eight of 11 games against Texas.
In fact, a Los Angeles Angels win Wednesday evening could drop the Rangers into a tie for second place in the division.
Wednesday’s loss picked up exactly where Tuesday’s loss left off. The Astros scored six times in the first inning on five hits, two walks, and a hit by pitch. Rangers starter Tyson Miller was knocked from the game before finishing the inning.
“I do love playing these guys because it really reveals some things to us, to our players, especially when we’re trying to deliver messages home to these guys and say, ‘hey, we’ve got to tighten things up. If you don’t tighten things up, this is what happens,’” Woodward said.
“And we’ve played them pretty tough … but they just keep coming up at you with good pitching, good defense, and good at-bats over and over again. If you can’t handle that, you’ve got to play nine innings against them because they will not give in. We saw that last night.”
To add insult to injury, Astros pitchers twice completed immaculate innings against the Rangers. Both came against Nathaniel Lowe, Ezequiel Duran and Brad Miller. An immaculate inning in baseball is when a pitcher strikes out the side on nine pitches. Astros starter Luis Garcia and reliever Phil Maton did in the second and seventh innings.
How rare is the feat? It’s the first time two have occurred on the same day in MLB history. And they came in the same game.
“Not fun, obviously, the last two days,” Miller said. “Today was definitely a grind and they jumped on us from the beginning but we have to have a quick memory.”
The Rangers start a four-game series against the Tigers in Detroit at 6:10 p.m. Thursday.
Miller, who was 1 for 9 with an RBI and four strikeouts in the series, including 0 for 3 with two strikeouts Wednesday, acknowledged that there is little room for error against a team such as the Astros.
“This is a tough league. We respect everybody,” he said. “We play these guys a lot. We know you have to play a nice, sharp game and take the fight to them and they kind of did the opposite to us.”
This story was originally published June 15, 2022 at 4:55 PM.
