After a rainy start, Astros leave Rangers all wet in opener
Correa, Springer launch long balls in support of ace
ARLINGTON — The Astros blazed into Globe Life Park in Arlington on Friday more like meteorites than asteroids for an eighth consecutive win, searing the Rangers 7-1 in a rivalry that sizzles a bit extra during Texas summers.
The Astros (39-16) have totaled nine or more hits during each win and scored 69 runs during the streak.
Early morning showers returned for a gloomy early evening that delayed first pitch two hours, six minutes.
The rainfall and idle wait did not appear to cool the Astros. The offense exploded, like a bottled up firecracker, with threerun homers by Carlos Correa in the fifth inning and George Springer in the eighth. Keuchel (9-0) scorched hitters through six scoreless innings to remain undefeated.
Keuchel is the first Astros pitcher to start a season 9-0 since Roger Clemens in 2004, when Clemens won the Cy Young Award. The lefthander allowed the Rangers three hits and two walks while striking seven in six scoreless innings.
Correa came up with men in scoring position three times against Darvish and looked offbalance, even in his triumphant third at-bat. Darvish struck out Correa twice and induced whiffs on four of the six strikes.
In the fifth, Josh Reddick ripped a single up the middle to begin a two-out rally. Jose Altuve followed with a double on the ground out of the reach of shortstop Elvis Andrus. After whiffing on a cutter, Correa got underneath a slider that carried deep enough to left field for his 10th home run of the season.
Correa’s deep fly was hit 96 mph at a 26 degree launch angle, which has been a home run on 11 percent of similarly batted balls,
according to MLB Statcast.
In the eighth, Yuli Gurriel doubled to the left-field corner with a friendly caroms that helped drive in Carlos Beltran to make the score 4-0.
Springer hit a redemptive three-run homer 440 feet to center to make it 7-0. It was his 14th of the year. He had been bothered by calls all game. When he had struck out to end the sixth, he threw his bat into the dirt, spiked his helmet to follow and emphatically peeled off his batting gloves on a cool-down walk through the infield.
Astros closer Ken Giles surrendered a solo home run to Adrian Beltre in the ninth inning for the Rangers only run.
Beltre launched it 426 feet to center with such certainty that he dipped his head moments after connecting.