Rangers recap: After tussle, Texas responds and holds on in Houston

Colby Lewis pitched seven strong innings and Rougned Odor, Robinson Chirinos and Josh Hamilton each homered to power the Texas Rangers past the Houston Astros, 7-6, Saturday evening at Minute Maid Park. The rubber match of the series is at 1:05 p.m. Sunday.

Pitching: Lewis held the Astros to two runs on four hits in 7 1/3 innings and struck out seven, including four in a row between the third and fourth. After an infield single to start the third, he retired 12 consecutive batters. Carlos Correa snapped the string with a towering homer to deep center to leadoff the seventh to make it 4-1. Lewis did not walk a batter. He led in the eighth with one out and a Jon Singleton on first. Tanner Scheppers took over and allowed a run-scoring double to Jose Altuve and a single through the right side by Carlos Correa, which pulled the Astros to within 5-3. A play at the plate on Jose Altuve’s double to the left-center gap was reviewed. Catcher Robinson Chirinos thought he had applied the tag at home but the base runner was ruled save. After a four minute, 34 second review, the call stood. That made it 5-2. After Scheppers walked Preston Tucker on four pitches, Correa singled off Odor’s glove to make it 5-3. Evan Gattis followed with a slower roller that got under the glove of a charging Elvis Andrus, allowing Tucker to score to make it 5-4. Sam Freeman took over for Scheppers and induced a comebacker to the mound to end the inning. Shawn Tolleson, pitching for the first time since blowing his first save last week, allowed a double and a two-run homer by Hank Conger that pulled the Astros to within 7-6 in the ninth. But Tolleson regrouped and retired the next three batters to earn his 14th save.

Hitting: Rougned Odor put Texas on top with a two-run homer in the third. In the sixth, Josh Hamilton led off with a double to the right-field corner and moved to third on Elvis Andrus’ sac-bunt. Odor scored on Shin-Soo Choo’s sac-fly to right. Robinson Chirinos followed with a solo homer to left to make it 4-0. Choo’s RBI was his first in his last 15 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Hamilton snapped an 0 for 11 streak stretching back to July 11. Hamilton homered in the eighth to make it 5-1. It’s his third of the season and first since May 29 when he hit two. After the Astros had pulled to within 5-4 with a three-run eighth, the Rangers struck back after a pre-inning dugout-clearing jawing match that started between Odor and Astros catcher Hank Conger. He scored on Adrian Beltre’s single to center after he battled through a nine-pitch at-bat. With two outs, Hamilton doubled to the right-field corner and Beltre came all the way around from first to just beat the throw at home to maker it 7-4.

Notable: The Rangers’ blue jersey for Saturday’s throwback 80s night in Houston is the seventh different jersey top they’ve used in 2015 ... Saturday’s attendance of 41,941 at Minute Maid Park was the third sellout for Houston in 2015. Last time the Astros had three sellouts in a season was in 2009 ... the Rangers have 29 hits combined in the past two games.

This story was originally published July 18, 2015 at 9:45 PM with the headline "Rangers recap: After tussle, Texas responds and holds on in Houston."