Texas Rangers undone by mistakes as Houston Astros win opening game in deciding series

LOS ANGELES — When you’re seven games back and in third place in the American League West, the head-to-head matches with the teams in front of you are especially important.

This was the situation for the Texas Rangers at the start of a crucial three-game series against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park.

In Friday night’s opener, the Rangers buckled under pressure, making two errors, striking out 10 times and creating two double plays, resulting in a 6-3 loss.

It is the Rangers’ first game with multiple errors since May 22 in Philadelphia, when they committed four errors. It is only their sixth game with multiple errors this season.

The errors also came from the very reliable left side of the infield. Shortstop Corey Seager had not made an error since the game against the Phillies. Third baseman Josh Smith had last made an error on June 4. Both made crucial errors that led to runs for the Astros on Friday night.

Seager failed to catch Mauricio Dubón’s short hop to start the third inning. Dubón later scored on Yordan Alvarez’s two-out infield single to Seager, who threw late to first base. Dubón ran home and scored easily as Seager threw to first base, giving Houston a 1-0 lead.

After the Rangers cut the Astros’ lead to 3-2 on Seager’s two-run homer in the sixth inning, a walk with two outs and a throwing error to first base on a slow roller to Smith set up Jose Altuve’s three-run homer.

Andrew Heaney held the Astros to three runs (two earned) with five hits and two walks in five innings. His only errors were solo home runs against Jake Meyers in the fourth and Alex Bregman in the fifth. He had five strikeouts.
“I wasn’t quite as crisp as I have been the last three or four starts for the most part,” Heaney said. “I stayed away from the run, had weak contact and then those two solo home runs, just bad fastball position. I’ve said it a million times, solo home runs don’t usually beat you. But tonight, they did.”

Marcus Semien was 3 for 3 with a walk and a run, continuing his record-setting pace at Minute Maid Park. Semien has had a safe hit in 23 consecutive games in MMP since May 7, 2021. He is tied with Joey Votto for the longest hit streak by an opponent in MMP history. He has eight games with three or more hits on the team this season. He has walked in six consecutive games, one shy of his career-long streak set with Toronto from May 3-10, 2019.

Right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (6-3, 3.10) will face right-hander Spencer Arrighetti (4-7, 5.96) of the Astros in Game 2 on Saturday at 3:05 p.m.

You can follow Stefan Stevenson on X @StefanVersusTex.

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