The Astros Just Destroyed the Rangers And Quite Possibly the Rangers' Season

After getting swept by the Yankees last weekend at home, the Astros traveled across the state to play three critical games against the Texas Rangers with both teams—and the Seattle Mariners—battling for the American League West division title. It was a Texas-sized thrashing from which the Rangers may never recover.

Houston took all three games by a combined score of 39-10, a run differential that undersells how much the Astros dominated every facet of the game. Houston hit 16 home runs in the series, setting a new franchise record. And the Astros became the first team in MLB history to hit 5 home runs and score at least 12 runs in three consecutive games.

Houston’s power surge was ignited by Jose Altuve, who became the first player in the Expansion Era (1961 to the present) to hit a home run in 4 consecutive innings—in the 9th inning of Monday’s game and in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd innings of Tuesday night’s game. Mauricio Dubón, Martin Maldonado, Yordan Alvarez, and José Abreu each hit two home runs in the series.

The Astros’ offense has come alive in the second half, with the team batting .282/.359/.482 since the All-Star break. But the home run barrage against the Rangers was still a bit unexpected. For one, Houston’s hit 196 dingers this season, far behind the Braves’ league-leading 265. And second, as shaky as the Rangers’ pitching has been this season, the rotation and bullpen combined have given up only 1.25 home runs per 9 innings—putting them in the middle of the pack among all 30 teams.

Texas starter Andrew Heaney gave the Rangers a decent 4 2/3 innings in Monday’s game (3 runs on 5 hits, 4 BB and 1 SO) but Nathan Eovaldi and Max Scherzer couldn’t contain the Astros at all in their starts on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

Eovaldi pitched for the first time in nearly two months; he came off the injured list on Tuesday after landing there in July with a forearm strain. Scherzer, too, has been dealing with forearm tightness, although he didn’t spend time on the IL. In 6 starts for the Rangers prior to Wednesday’s beatdown by the Astros, Scherzer had a 2.21 ERA across 36 2/3 innings pitched.

For their part, Astros starters Framber Valdez and Justin Verlander kept the Rangers’ explosive offensive in check. Texas has been averaging nearly 5.5 runs per game, yet mustered only 2 runs each in Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s contents. Not that it would have mattered all that much, with the 16 home run barrage unleashed by the Astros.

To make matters worse for Texas, All-Star outfielder Aroldis Garcia left Wednesday’s game with right knee discomfort. Garcia appeared to tweak his knee when he crashed into the outfield wall in an attempt to catch Michael Brantley’s home run.

The Rangers had led the AL West all season until August 29 and now find themselves 3 games back of the Astros in the division race and 1/2 game out of the third Wild Card spot, behind the Blue Jays.

Texas will lick its wounds today, an off day, and then head to Oakland for 3 games this weekend against the surging A’s. That’s right, Oakland is 4-2 in September.

As I wrote last week, the Rangers’ bullpen is down right awful and reliever Josh Sborz took the loss in Monday’s game. But this month-long swoon that has sent Texas to third place in the AL West is not just the bullpen’s fault. Nothing is going right for the Rangers. It will take some heavy lifting from soon-to-be Hall of Fame manager Bruce Bochy to turn things around quickly.

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