Astros, Keuchel send Rangers message with dominating shutout
Houston Astros ace Dallas Keuchel took it upon himself to send a message to the Texas Rangers on Sunday.
First he did it with his left arm by dominating the Rangers lineup and baffling them for seven innings, notching a career-high 13 strikeouts as Houston took the series finale 10-0.
After the game, Keuchel, the American League’s All-Star Game starter last week, threw more dirt on the burgeoning rivalry between the A.L. West contenders. He took a shot at the Rangers in the form of Rougned Odor, who was in the middle of a dugout-clearing verbal sparring match late in Saturday’s Rangers’ win.
“When you don’t show respect to other players there are guys who will take offense to that,” Keuchel said. “You don’t disrespect the game of baseball. I felt like we got disrespected [Saturday].”
Keuchel, a leading Cy Young candidate, took it upon himself to neutralize a Rangers offense that had collected 29 hits combined in the previous two games in Houston.
After a two-out double by Prince Fielder in the first inning and a bloop single to center by Josh Hamilton in the second, Keuchel did that just that. He retired the next 18 batters before coming out after the seventh. He improved to 12-4, the most wins in the AL, and lowered his ERA to 2.12.
“He pitched really well. He mixed his pitches up,” Hamilton said. “He did a good job and his beard looks phenomenal.”
While Keuchel was dealing, Rangers starter Yovani Gallardo was struggling to command any of his pitches.
The Astros jumped to a 3-0 lead in the third with five consecutive hits, including a two-run homer by Colby Ramsus. They added two more in the fifth when Gallardo (7-9) was forced out of the game with two on and no outs. The four innings ties Gallardo’s low set in the season opener at Oakland and his five earned runs are a season-high.
“It’s the first I’ve felt like that in a long time,” said Gallardo, who fell behind 1-0 to 12 of the 22 batters he faced. “From the first hitter of the game my command wasn’t there. I couldn’t throw my breaking stuff for strikes and had to throw a lot of pitches and my pitch count got up.”
The Astros piled on with three more runs in the sixth and two in the seventh. Luis Valbuena had a career-high four hits and had two-run singles in consecutive innings to help Houston hammer home Keuchel’s message. Preston Tucker’s two-run homer in the seventh was the last word, at least until Keuchel and his postgame interview.
“It was pretty big just based on we’re playing our in-state rivals and a good team in the Rangers,” he said. “We know we’re a good team and if we continue to play well we know we’re going to be right in the thick of things. Today, they weren’t able to sit on anything. I made some pretty good pitches. That’s a great lineup over there. I knew I couldn’t relax at any point in time. I’m just thankful I could get through seven.”
The Rangers open a three-game series against the Rockies in Denver on Monday before finishing the road trip with three against the AL West-leading Angels in Anaheim.
“When you lose 10-0 it doesn’t look good so the perception of the energy level you can look at it any way you want to,” said Rangers manager Jeff Banister, dismissing any notion of lingering effects from losing two of three to the Astros.
“We knew this game was going to be a tough one. When a team stakes a pitcher to that many runs he can relax, he can fire it however he wants to. That was the case today with Keuchel. I’m sure he was extremely comfortable out there throwing and we didn’t put any pressure on him.”
The teams meet again when the Astros visit Globe Life Park Aug. 3-5.
Stefan Stevenson, 817-390-7760
Twitter: @StevensonFWST
This story was originally published July 19, 2015 at 5:58 PM with the headline "Astros, Keuchel send Rangers message with dominating shutout."