Griffin, Desmond Propel Rangers To Sweep Over Houston

AJ Griffn and the Texas Rangers got the best of Cy Young winner, Dallas Keuchel on Thursday to complete the sweep of the Astros.

On The Mound

The Texas Rangers handed the ball to number five starter, AJ Griffin, on Thursday as they went up against 2015 Cy Young winner, Dallas Keuchel and the Houston Astros. Griffin effectively outpitched Keuchel in the 7-4 win, moving his record to 2-0 on the season. Griffin went 6 innings against Houston allowing two earned runs on just four hits. Most impressive of all was Griffin’s six strikeouts, which showed his ability to miss bats out on the mound.

Tony Barnette came in out of the bullpen to throw the seventh and part of the eighth inning, allowing Houston’s final two runs on two hits. Jake Diekman came in to get the last out of the eighth inning before heading to the ninth. Closer Shawn Tolleson threw a shutout ninth recording his sixth save of 2016, allowing just one hit and getting a strikeout in the frame.

At The Plate

The Rangers continued to stay hot at the plate, scoring seven runs on fourteen total hits. They got the offense going early with back-to-back singles in the first from Prince Fielder and Adrian Beltre. Ian Desmond then blasted his first homerun in a Rangers uniform putting Texas up three runs early.

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Ryan Rua then scored in the second off of a Delino DeShields ground out after reaching third following a couple of singles and a Hanser Alberto sac-fly. Desmond double in the third, scoring off an Andrus triple to keep building the lead. In the fifth, Mazara scored on a fielder’s choice hit by Prince Fielder. The final Texas run of the game came in the seventh when Adrian Beltre hit his third homerun of the season.

Stats

Pitching

WP- Griffin (2-0): 6IP, 4H, 2ER, 6K

LP- Keuchel (2-2): 6IP, 13H, 6ER, 5K

SV- Tolleson: 1IP, 1H, 0ER, 1K

Hitting

Mazara: 2-4 2B, R

Beltre: 3-4  HR, 2R, RBI

Desmond: 2-4  HR, 2R, 3 RBI

Up Next

The Texas Rangers made their way to Chicago to play the White Sox tonight. First pitch is at 7:10 CT.

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