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Rangers edge Astros on Lewis’ moxie, Prince’s bat
- Updated: May 21, 2016
HOUSTON — Colby Lewis fired seven scoreless innings and Prince Fielder provided the offense with a two-run double as the Rangers edged the Astros, 2-1, on Friday night at Minute Maid Park.
“He [provided] us with the two runs that were the difference in the ballgame, our only offense really,” Texas manager Jeff Banister said of Fielder’s third-inning double. “I think we struck out 13 times tonight. Sometimes just enough is just enough.”
Lewis (3-0), who went 4-0 with a 4.15 ERA against the Astros last year, improved to 10-1 against Houston in his career. He allowed only four singles, didn’t walk a batter and struck out six.
“He does a really good job of pounding the strike zone,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said of Lewis. “There’s a lot of first-pitch strikes, he can throw a couple of different styles of breaking balls and never really makes a mistakes against us. We just couldn’t generate any offense against him.”
Lance McCullers (0-1) held the Rangers two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts in six innings, but the Astros didn’t get the bats going until the ninth.
Jose Altuve started the rally with a leadoff double to extend his hitting streak to 12 games, and Colby Rasmus shot an RBI single to left two outs later to make it 2-1. Rangers reliever Sam Dyson struck out Evan Gattis to strand Rasmus at first and end the game.
MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDLewis’ wild night: It was not a boring night for Lewis, and his pitching was the least of it. He made a beautiful play with a nifty flip of his glove to rob a bunt hit from Tony Kemp in the sixth. Oh, and he got drilled in the head by a Carlos Correa line drive Statcast™ tracked at 101 mph. In his final inning, Correa hit a ball that caromed off the back of Lewis’ head high in the air and into shallow center field, where second baseman Rougned Odor reeled in with a sliding catch. The Rangers got the out, and then no doubt a feeling of relief after head trainer Kevin Harmon confirmed Lewis was OK.
“I felt it a little bit,” Lewis said. “I turned around and saw the ball in the air and all I wanted to do was … I was kind of yelling at myself and yelling at Rougie like, ‘Catch the ball. Get the out.’ …
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