The Texas Rangers will look to move a step closer to a spot in the wild-card race when they face the rival Houston Astros on Saturday night in the second game of a three-game American League West series in Arlington, Texas.
The game will feature a battle of ace right-handers, with Hunter Brown (10-7, 2.34 ERA) starting for the Astros against Jacob deGrom (11-6, 2.69).
The Rangers took the first game of the series 4-3 in 12 innings on Friday when Dustin Harris, who had been called up from Triple-A Round Rock earlier on Friday, singled home the winning run.
The victory allowed the Rangers (73-69) to pull within four games of first-place Houston (77-65) in the AL West and to within a half-game of Seattle in the wild-card race with 20 games to play.
deGrom has been solid for the Rangers, making 26 starts this season and picking up the slack over the past few weeks when fellow ace Nathan Eovaldi went down with a season-ending rotator cuff strain.
The 37-year-old deGrom went 1-3 in his five starts in August and returned to form in his most recent outing, going five scoreless innings while allowing just two hits and a walk and striking out six in a 9-6 win on the road over the Athletics on Aug. 31. It was his first victory since July 22 at home vs. the Athletics, snapping a five-game stretch in which he absorbed four losses and the team dropped each game.
deGrom had just 79 pitches in the win over the A’s and is at 150 1/3 innings for the season, his most since 204 frames in 2019, when he was with the New York Mets.
“The goal is to move it to the postseason,” deGrom said. “What innings are we going to be comfortable going to? If we get in, how many am I going to throw there? We’re trying to tiptoe that line. That’s why we have to win now. It’s going to be something that we gotta keep an eye on and go from there.”
deGrom is 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA in two lifetime starts covering 14 innings against the Astros, with both coming this season.
Brown has won just one of his past 10 starts and has dropped four of his past five decisions, including his past two outings. He was 1-2 despite surrendering just seven earned runs in six appearances in August.
Brown’s most recent start was a 3-0 loss at home to the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 31 in which he allowed just one run on three hits and three walks over six innings with five strikeouts. He continues to be a leader in the clubhouse for Houston even as the team has struggled to score (and win) in his most recent appearances.
“Hunter’s our ace,” Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. said. “Him and Framber (Valdez) are our aces. I love the fact that he’s taken a leadership role with the pitching staff, with the guys. I love that it hasn’t changed his outlook, his view, the way that he interacts with guys.”
Brown is 3-4 with a 3.20 ERA over 45 innings in eight career starts against Texas. Two of those losses have come this season, as he’s allowed five runs on eight hits in 13 innings over the two games.
–Field Level Media
