Houston Astros (27-48) at Texas Rangers (40-35) Series Finale Preview

The Lone Star Series concludes tonight as the Houston Astros look to take at least one of the three while the Texas Rangers will aim for another sweep for the year. If they are able to come through on a sweep of the Astros, it will be the first time in six years that they have done so at home in their own ballpark (they’ve only done once before in May of 2005). They last two series against the Astros in Houston have been sweeps so they are in a very good position to get three consecutive overall sweeps.

Last night was an impeccable game and I grew so much fonder of Mitch Moreland with his walk-off homer. If you got a look at last night’s game, you saw that the Astros’ bats heated up significantly from the night before but the Rangers’ weren’t far behind either. Let’s take a look at the pitchers that will take their place on the hill tonight at the start of the game as well as how the teams’ hitters fare against them.

Pitching Matchups

RHP Colby Lewis is 6-7 with a 4.80 ERA. Recently he has struggled on the mound, but his last time out showed some improvement. After two straight losses against Detroit and Minnesota in which he pitched a combined total of 4.2 innings allowing 15 runs – all earned – on 18 hits, it was about time to get a win and that’s just what this right-handed pitcher did. Lewis earned a win at Atlanta against the Braves after pitching 6.2 innings in which he struck out 10 batters and allowed just two earned runs on five hits. If he can keep that momentum up, he may be able to pull off another win tonight assuming his offense backs him up completely.

The Astros will counter with RHP Brett Myers. Myers is 3-6 with a 4.75 earned run average. Myers has also seemed to have struggled this year but has made it into at least the sixth inning in the majority of his games. Last time out he pitched a complete game allowing three on four getting the win. His two previous games, though, were both factored losses after permitting nine runs on 11 hits over 13 innings combined. He is definitely been inconsistent this year and may struggle tonight as he faces the impressive Rangers offense.

Pitchers vs. Hitters

RHP Colby Lewis: Carlos Lee is 4-for-13 against Lewis with two doubles and one RBI, Hunter Pence is 2-for-7 with one RBI and Chris Johnson is 2-for-2 with two runs batted in. Michael Bourn and Jeff Keppinger are a combined 1-for-12 against Lewis.

RHP Brett Myers: Adrian Beltre is 2-for-14 with two RBIs, Endy Chavez is 2-for-17 and Yorvit Torrealba is 3-for-13 with four RBIs. Michael Young is 1-for-2. David Murphy, Ian Kinsler and Josh Hamilton have hit safely against Myers in their at-bats although that only consists of one, two and one respectively for the three Rangers.