Five things we learned Wednesday: The Astros will catch the Rangers

1:27 AM ET

Aroldis Chapman made his debut for the Chicago Cubs, the Milwaukee Brewers made five errors before they’d recorded six outs, Stephen Strasburg improved to 14-1 and the Detroit Tigers swept the Boston Red Sox. But our top five for Wednesday leads with the Houston Astros and their chances of chasing down the Texas Rangers:

1. The Astros’ ace is Lance McCullers Jr. The 22-year-old right-hander struck out 10 for the second game in a row and third time in five starts as the Astros beat the New York Yankees 4-1 and has a 2.11 ERA over his past seven starts. He has a lethal combo of strikeouts and ground balls. There’s still room for improvement — he has 44 walks in 76 1/3 innings, although he’s managed to pitch around them because he’s allowed just three home runs — but the stuff is exhilarating to watch, especially that curveball from the gods:

#Yankees catcher Brian McCann said it felt like 89 of Lance McCullers’ 90 pitches tonight were curveballs. #Astros

— Jordan Ray (@JordanLRay) July 28, 2016

It wasn’t quite that many, but he did throw 48 curveballs. The Yankees swung at 24 of them, missed 13 times and put just five of them into play. Nine of McCullers’ 10 strikeouts came via the curveball — all swinging. It’s a tough pitch to hit and is in the strike zone often enough that you can’t just stand there and wait for him to throw his fastball, which, by the way, averaged 94 mph on Wednesday. McCullers is a key reason why I liked the Astros heading into 2016 and why the Astros are now just 2½ games behind the Rangers after that terrible April (when McCullers was on the DL). Check out the Houston rotation since June 1:

McCullers: 2.59 ERA

Collin McHugh: 3.44

Dallas Keuchel: 3.48

Doug Fister: 3.61

Mike Fiers: 4.10

That’s a solid group, coming together after a slow start. The Rangers, meanwhile, are scrambling in their …

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