Rangers beat Astros in walk-off, jump into first place

The Texas Rangers are in first place in the American League West.

Let that sink in, enjoy it for a few minutes, and then heed the postgame words Tuesday of manager Jeff Banister.

“We’re not done yet,” he said. “We have a long way to go.”

The Rangers have 18 games remaining, five against the just evicted Houston Astros. The first of those is Wednesday, when the Astros will throw left-handed Cy Young candidate Dallas Keuchel at them.

But no one should doubt the Rangers now after a 6-5 walk-off victory that gave them a slim half-game margin over the Astros in the West. Mitch Moreland lifted a sacrifice fly just deep enough for Drew Stubbs to race home and seal a game the Rangers led 4-0 after one inning.

“We’re not going to look at us being in first. We’re not done,” Moreland said. “We still have a couple weeks left in the regular season, and we’re going to continue to focus on one game at a time and keep playing good baseball.”

Prince Fielder and Adrian Beltre continued to pace the offense. A night after his go-ahead two-run homer, Fielder went 3 for 4 and scored twice. He singled to start the ninth before Stubbs ran for him and went to third on a single by Beltre, who had four hits and drove in two runs.

Moreland was next, and he lofted the second pitch he saw to shallow center field. But Stubbs can run, and center fielder Colby Rasmus’ arm is wildly inaccurate and was again as Stubbs crossed home without so much as a slide.

“Luckily we had Stubbs over at third there where it didn’t have to be too deep,” Moreland said. “He made it in pretty easy.”

But, once again, it wasn’t easy for the Rangers even though it looked early like it would be. The first five Rangers hitters reached against Collin McHugh and four of them scored for a 4-0 lead after one inning.

Fielder had the first RBI, on a shift-beating single to left field that scored Delino DeShields, and Beltre followed with a single to right to score Shin-Soo Choo.

After Moreland was plunked to load the bases, Rougned Odor’s fielder’s choice made it 3-0, and Elvis Andrus capped the big inning with a single down the right-field line.

Derek Holland, though, quickly surrendered most of the lead as the Astros started by putting their first four batters on. Three scored, and Holland avoided more damage by getting Jose Altuve on a popup and Carlos Correa on a one-hopper back to the mound.

Holland managed a scoreless third, but couldn’t escape the fourth with a lead. He nearly did, but Evan Gattis pushed a soft liner over Andrus at shortstop on a 1-2 pitch to score two and give the Astros the lead at 5-4.

McHugh, who entered with 16 wins, wasn’t any better than Holland and couldn’t hold the lead. Fielder singled with one out and rumbled home from first as Beltre followed with a double that rolled into the left-field corner.

Holland made it into the sixth, somehow, despite allowing 10 hits, walking two batters and hitting another in 5  2/3 innings. He had only one strikeout, Jake Marisnick to start the sixth inning.

“I couldn’t get in a rhythm,” Holland said. “My fastball was very erratic. Didn’t have a good tempo or have anything going the way I wanted it to. I have to do a better job than that. I’m really upset with myself.”

Ross Ohlendorf, Sam Freeman and Sam Dyson kept the Astros from adding to their hit total through the eighth, and six Astros relievers pitched around four hits over the first 4  1/3 innings after McHugh’s departure only two outs into the fourth.

Shawn Tolleson (6-3) worked around a Beltre error to start the ninth, setting up the once-dormant offense for a chance to win it. Moreland did, and the Rangers are in first place after trailing by as many at 9  1/2 games in May.

“I really believe it’s a belief system that’s in place,” Banister said. “It’s a mindset this team has. They have fought, scratched and clawed in all imaginable ways to get to this point. We’re not done yet. We have a long way to go.”

This story was originally published September 15, 2015 at 11:35 PM with the headline "Rangers beat Astros in walk-off, jump into first place."