Rangers end Astros' 10-game winning streak
Texas Rangers starting pitcher Ross Detwiler didn't come away with his first win of the season Monday night, but his performance, along with some timely hitting, was enough to help his club take down the red-hot Houston Astros, who had won their previous 10 games, 2-1.
"It's a huge win for the team," Detwiler said. "Obviously everybody was talking about the 10-game winning streak. It's really nice to be able put an end to that and put a really good game together."
Out-dueling Astros starter Dallas Keuchel, who was named pitcher of the month in the American League for the month of April, Detwiler threw seven innings, striking out seven while allowing just one run in the first inning against a team that has been on an offensive tear. While defeating Keuchel is not easy task, Detwiler focused on rebounding from the rough first inning where two walks resulted in an early run.
"You don't really go in pitching against the other guy. You're facing the hitters, you're not facing the pitcher," Detwiler said. "Trying to limit the damage, especially that first inning threw a ton of pitches, with not even half of them in the zone. It was really good to bounce back after that first inning."
While the outcome was positive for Texas, things looked bleak early in the game with Keuchel looking dominant after striking out six-straight Rangers in the second and third innings. After two more three-up-three-down innings, the Rangers had leadoff doubles from Delino DeShields in the sixth inning and Prince Fielder in the seventh, with both ending three-straight outs to end threats.
"That's not how we draw it up," Rangers manager Jeff Banister said about the leadoff doubles going to waste. "We got to be better in those situations. We made it challenging on ourself in those situation."
In the eighth, DeShields, who replaced Leonys Martin in the fifth after he was injured attempting to make a diving catch in centerfield one inning prior, drew a walk and came around to score to tie the game at 1-1 after a Jake Smolinski single off Keuchel.
After Keone Kela held the Astros hitless in the bottom of the eighth inning out of the bullpen, Adrian Beltre hit another leadoff double for the Rangers, this time coming around making it count, coming around to score after Robinson Chirinos hit a sacrifice fly to make the score 2-1. Closer Neftali Feliz pitched a flawless ninth inning to end the game and end the Astros' 10-game streak.
"Full of grit, one those you kind of draw it up in the dirt as it goes. It was a pitching victory with some timely hitting," Banister said. "Kela coming in and shutting the door down after Detwiler, and then [Feliz] with some of the best velocity we've seen from him and one of the better sliders we've seen thus far this year. To lock down a one-run game is something we haven't done."
The Rangers were 2-8 in their last 10 games heading into the three-game series in Houston, and while the win Monday wasn't ideal, Banister said his club will take a victory any way they can.
"What a tremendous job for our guys tonight," Banister said. "We won a couple games here lately that are those type of wins. We need those, we need this type of win. We need to win games that are close, we need for our pitching to show up for us like that, until our bats get going."
Follow Shawn Ramsey on Twitter: @ShawnPRamsey
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