Rangers recap: Astros hold on to take opener, snap six-game skid

HOUSTON

Pitching: The Astros scored a run in the second and two in the third but Martin Perez, making his first start in more than 14 months, steadied himself and went six innings. A leadoff triple led to a run in the second and two doubles led to two runs in the third. Perez induced three double plays in the first three innings to prevent a big inning. He left after allowing three runs on nine hits and two walks in five innings. He struck out two. Spencer Patton, Keone Kela and Sam Freeman each pitched hitless, scoreless innings of relief.

Hitting: Texas loaded the bases in the first but came away with no runs. That trend continued for much of the night. In the first with one out, the Rangers had four consecutive singles before Josh Hamilton tapped out to first with the bases loaded. Rougned Odor started the string of singles but was thrown out trying to stretch his to a double. In the second, a leadoff single by Elvis Andrus was wiped out by a double play. In the third, Delino DeShields led off with a single but was doubled up off first when he tried stealing second on Odor’s fly out to right. DeShields didn’t pick up the flyout soon enough and was out easily. Texas had runners on the corners with two outs in the fifth but Prince Fielder popped up to the catcher. In the seventh, Odor made it to third with a two-out standup triple but Fielder grounded out to end the inning. Mitch Moreland was at second with one out in the eighth when Andrus doubled him to make it 3-2. Leonys Martin struck out swinging, stranding Andrus at second to end the inning. In the ninth, Tomas Telis pinch-hit for Robinson Chirinos and struck out on four pitches. DeShields grounded out to short. Odor reached on an infield single with two outs in the ninth but Carlos Correa made a great stop on a hard-hit grounder from Fielder and threw him out at first to end the game.

Notable: The Rangers’ 15 hits are their most ever while scoring two or fewer runs. Texas had 14 hits three times in that situation, last in 1991 ...

the Astros-Rangers game Saturday in which the Astros are giving away throwback Nolan Ryan rainbow jerseys, is sold out ... Fielder collected his 38th multi-hit game with two singles Friday.

This story was originally published July 17, 2015 at 10:24 PM with the headline "Rangers recap: Astros hold on to take opener, snap six-game skid."