Astros bats come alive as they down Rangers

After scoring three runs in the top of the first inning, the Rangers looked to be in very good shape to extend their lead in the AL west to 5.5 games. But the Astros were not fazed as they had their best power performance of the season, belting six homeruns, a season high. The six homers allowed were also the most allowed by the Rangers this season, and the power display from the Astros propelled them to a 9-7 victory.Collin McHugh picked up the win for Houston to improve to 18-7, Holland threw five innings for Texas and got a no-decision while Chi Chi Gonzalez (4-6) took the loss. Will Harris picked up the save, his second this season.

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Texas started the scoring early with a two run double by Mitch Moreland to go up 2-0 and Prince Fielder and Adrian Beltre came in to score. Later Rougned Odor singled to right to bring Moreland in and put Texas up 3-0 before the Astros had seen a single pitch. They got one back in the bottom of the first as Carlos Correa hit a solo shot, the first of his two homeruns on the day.

After a huge night last night, Shin-Soo Choo hit another dinger, a solo shot in the third inning to put the Rangers up 4-1. After that, Houston had liftoff.

In the bottom of the third, Jose Altuve hit a solo shot to pull Houston within 4-2, and then Correa hit his second homerun, a two run shot which brought in George Springer to tie the game. In the bottom of the sixth Chris Carter homered to put Houston up 5-4, In the seventh Evan Gattis hit a sac-fly to score Correa and then Colby Rasmus hit a two run shot to cap off a three run inning that put Houston up 8-4. In the eighth Altuve hit another solo shot, his second of the day, to put Houston up 9-4. But Texas was not finished.

The Rangers made it interesting in the top of the ninth with three runs of their own. Choo scored Will Venable on an infield single to make it 9-5, then Fielder hit a two run single to score Choo and Delino DeShields to get within two runs at 9-7 with two outs. After that Adrian Beltre was hit by a pitch to put the go ahead run at the plate. Mitch Moreland has been top power guy this season for Texas, but he grounded out to second to end the game. For the second game in a row both Choo and Fielder had multiple RBIs.

This was the first loss for the Rangers against the Astros in the last nine meetings. Houston is now just 3.5 games behind Texas in the AL west with eight games left in the season for Texas, seven for Houston.