Rangers hold on to take Astros in 11 innings

The Rangers held on against the Astros for a 5-3 win in 11 innings Sunday afternoon to take the final two games of the three-game series. Texas increased its lead over Houston in the American League West to 7 1/2 games. After the Astros forced extra innings with a run in the ninth, the Rangers reclaimed the lead with two runs in the 11th. Ian Desmond singled in Shin-Soo Choo, who started the inning with a double, and Desmond scored on Rougned Odor’s double off the right-center field wall. Matt Bush earned the win after two scoreless innings. The Astros had the tying runs on before Bush ended the game with a strikeout.

Pitching: Yu Darvish retired 15 of the first 17 batters he faced. The Astros didn’t have a runner reach third until two hits in the sixth. Adrian Beltre made a back-handed stop down the third-base line and a long throw to end the inning.

Darvish struck out eight and allowed five hits (four singles and a double) with no walks over seven innings. It’s the longest he’s pitched since Aug. 3, 2014. The Astros scored twice against Jeremy Jeffress, who started the eighth. Runs scored on Alex Bregman’s double and Jose Altvue’s single. Jeffress struck out Evan Gattis to end the inning and preserve a 3-2 lead. The Astros forced extra innings with a run against closer Sam Dyson in the ninth. A one-out walk set up Tony Kemp’s two-out, run-scoring single. Pinch-runner Carlos Gomez slid in safely just ahead of Ian Desmond’s throw home from center field. Matt Bush worked the 10th and 11th innings to earn the win. He improved to 5-2. Bush had runners on the corners with two outs before getting George Springer swinging on a full count to end it.

Hitting: Astros’ right-hander Joe Musgrove retired the first 10 Rangers until Desmond singled in the fourth. Odor led off the fifth with a single and scored on Jonathan Lucroy’s RBI double to left. The Rangers added two more runs in the eighth to take a 3-0 lead on Jurickson Profar’s two-run double to right field against Ken Giles. Mitch Moreland started the ninth with a double off the left-field wall and the Rangerrs had the bases loaded with no outs before Giles struck out Choo, Ian Desmond and Profar to escape the jam.

Notable: Musgrove, 23, made his first major league start ... Profar’s two-run double snapped an 0 for 15 slump ... the Rangers were 2 for 14 with runners in scoring position and left nine runners on base.

This story was originally published August 7, 2016 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Rangers hold on to take Astros in 11 innings."