Houston hosts Texas, looks to build on Valdez's solid outing

Updated Jun. 15, 2021 3:20 a.m. ET

Associated Press

Texas Rangers (25-41, fifth in the AL West) vs. Houston Astros (37-28, second in the AL West)

Houston; Tuesday, 8:10 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABLES: Rangers: Kyle Gibson (4-0, 2.14 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 58 strikeouts) Astros: Lance McCullers Jr. (3-1, 2.96 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 59 strikeouts)

LINE: Astros -179, Rangers +154; over/under is 8 1/2 runs

BOTTOM LINE: Houston heads into the matchup fresh off a strong showing by Framber Valdez. Valdez threw seven innings, giving up one run on five hits with two strikeouts against Minnesota.

The Astros are 21-12 against teams from the AL West. Houston has slugged .445, good for second in the American League. Yuli Gurriel leads the team with a .536 slugging percentage, including 27 extra-base hits and 10 home runs.

The Rangers have gone 8-14 against division opponents. Texas has a team on-base percentage of .299, led by Joey Gallo with a mark of .377.

The Rangers won the last meeting 3-2. John King notched his fifth victory and Nick Solak went 1-for-5 with a double and an RBI for Texas. Ryan Pressly took his first loss for Houston.

TOP PERFORMERS: Gurriel leads the Astros with 47 RBIs and is batting .323.

Adolis Garcia leads the Rangers with 22 extra base hits and 46 RBIs.

LAST 10 GAMES: Astros: 6-4, .320 batting average, 3.83 ERA, outscored opponents by 24 runs

Rangers: 3-7, .237 batting average, 5.42 ERA, outscored by 22 runs

INJURIES: Astros: Justin Verlander: (elbow), Joe Smith: (undisclosed), Austin Pruitt: (elbow), Enoli Paredes: (shoulder), Lance McCullers Jr.: (shoulder), Josh James: (hip), Kent Emanuel: (elbow), Pedro Baez: (right shoulder), Bryan Abreu: (calf), Aledmys Diaz: (hand), Jason Castro: (achilles).

Rangers: Hunter Wood: (elbow), Jose Leclerc: (elbow), Ian Kennedy: (hamstring), Jonathan Hernandez: (elbow), Kyle Cody: (right shoulder), Matt Bush: (elbow), Kohei Arihara: (finger), David Dahl: (rib), Ronald Guzman: (knee), Sam Huff: (hamstring).

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.