Adolis Garcia and Wyatt Langford clubbed home runs while Jack Leiter pitched effectively into the sixth inning as the visiting Texas Rangers banged out a 7-3 victory over the suddenly reeling Houston Astros on Friday in the opener of a three-game series.
The Rangers improved to 4-4 on their season-long, 10-game homestand. They did so by pouncing on Astros right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. (2-4), who continued to struggle with inconsistency following his return from a two-season injury absence.
McCullers labored through a 36-pitch top of the first inning and never fully recovered. Langford extended the opening frame with an infield single that loaded the bases with two outs and set the table for Evan Carter, whose two-run single got the Rangers on the board. Carter claimed he was hit by a McCullers pitch earlier in that same at-bat, but Texas lost its replay challenge.
After limiting the damage to a pair of runs in the first and working around a one-out walk in the second, McCullers came undone in the third. Garcia blasted a 425-foot home run to straightaway center with one out in the frame, extending the lead to 3-1 with his 12th homer.
The Rangers then delivered another timely two-out hit, this one coming from Jonah Heim, whose double eluded Astros right fielder Cam Smith and scored Carter and Jake Burger. Heim was erased trying to reach third on the hit, but the damage was done.
McCullers allowed five runs on six hits and two walks with five strikeouts over three innings.
Leiter (5-6) allowed a run-scoring groundout to Christian Walker in the bottom of the first and a two-run homer to Victor Caratini in the fourth that pulled the Astros to within 5-3. But Leiter ended the second, fourth and fifth innings with strikeouts, all on called third strikes. He allowed three runs on five hits and four walks with six strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings.
Langford socked a two-run homer, his 15th, off Astros reliever Ryan Gusto in the seventh.
The Astros have dropped four consecutive home games following a 5-1 road trip that put them a season-high 20 games over .500.
–Field Level Media
