Rangers recap: Texas-sized statement against Astros’ ace Dallas Keuchel

The Rangers jumped on Cy Young candidate Dallas Keuchel for six runs in the first, including home runs by Mike Napoli and Rougned Odor to win their third straight against the Astros 14-3 Wednesday at Globe Life Park. The win moves Texas  1 1/2 games ahead of Houston atop the American League West. The teams meet in the series finale at 7:05 p.m. Thursday.

Pitching: Martin Perez held the Astros scoreless through five innings and left leading 14-1 in the seventh inning. Rookie Andrew Faulkner allowed a two-run homer to Evan Gattis in the eighth, which made it 14-3. Perez allowed a run on nine hits and a walk and struck out three. The Astros scored a run in the sixth to make it 9-1 after an infield single from Jose Altuve started the inning. Luke Jackson closed it out in the ninth.

Hitting: Four of the first five Texas batters reached against Keuchel as the Rangers scored six runs in the first. A three-run homer by Napoli and a two-run homer by Odor were the big blows. Keuchel was pulled in the fifth after allowing a season-high nine runs on 11 hits. He hadn’t allowed more than five runs in a game this season. The Rangers offense kept rolling. Fielder’s solo homer in the third made it 7-0. Texas scored two more in the fifth un RBI from Adrian Beltre and Elvis Andrus to build a 9-0 lead. Fielder added a three-run upper-deck homer to right in the the sixth to make it 12-1. Catcher Bobby Wilson’s two-run homer in the seventh gave Texas a 14-1 lead.

Notable: In their previous 28 games before Wednesday, the Rangers had gotten four RBI from their left-fielder. Napoli, playing left for the third time in his career, had three RBI on Wednesday ... Fielder has 27 multi-homer games in his career.

This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 9:48 PM with the headline "Rangers recap: Texas-sized statement against Astros’ ace Dallas Keuchel."