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Astros edge Angels, gain ground on Rangers
- Updated: July 23, 2016
HOUSTON — Lance McCullers faced the game’s most productive offense this month and dominated, twirling eight-plus strong innings to lead his Astros to a 2-1 victory at Minute Maid Park on Friday night, their ninth in a row against the division-rival Angels.
The Astros have gone a Major League-best 35-16 since May 23 and are now only 2 1/2 games behind the first-place Rangers in the American League West.
McCullers gave up just four hits and issued four walks, striking out 10 to capture his fifth win and drop his ERA to 3.33. He became the first right-hander to strike out Mike Trout swinging in three straight plate appearances, using curveballs for each one.
“He threw me curveballs all night, and I just wasn’t picking them up,” said Trout, who struck out three times for the first time all season.
“He’s an unbelievable player — everybody knows that,” McCullers said. “Today I got him a couple times.”
McCullers struck out the side in the eighth, then came back out for the ninth and issued back-to-back walks, prompting Astros manager A.J. Hinch to remove him with a career-high 117 pitches. Will Harris then gave up a two-out RBI single to Andrelton Simmons, but he struck out Ji-Man Choi with the potential tying run in scoring position, recording his 10th save and snapping the Angels’ six-game winning streak.
The Astros couldn’t do much against Matt Shoemaker, who entered with a 2.36 ERA since May 21, but they got just enough.
In the fifth, Preston Tucker got a triple on a ball that rolled all the way up Tal’s Hill and then scored when Jason Castro lined a single past a drawn-in infield. With two outs in the seventh, Angels manager Mike Scioscia removed Shoemaker after he walked Castro to put runners on the corners and put his pitch count at 101. With the next pitch, Joe Smith served up an RBI single to George Springer.
“It was pretty humid in here, even though we’re indoors,” Scioscia said. “There was a lot of things to consider. He threw a lot of pitches [115] last outing. He had an extra day. I thought his stuff was holding up well, but we all felt he was just getting …
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