Yuli Gurriel sparks four-run eighth as Astros complete sweep of Rangers

The Astros awaited this turnaround for more than a month. Ineffectiveness and a case of COVID-19 intervened early in their season, stalling the progress from a torrid start. Their lineup is now a lengthy list of nine hitters hellbent on exhausting starters and erupting against the pitchers who follow. Rest days for regulars offer little reprieve. Michael Brantley sat Saturday against the Rangers. Yordan Alvarez did not appear Sunday.

It did not matter. Kyle Gibson gave the Texas Rangers a prayer to prevent a sweep. For whatever reason, the imposing righthander flummoxes the Astros. He owned them in 2020. Houston mustered four hits in its first look at him in 2021. The Rangers could ride him for only seven innings Sunday. 

“They were going to try to go with them as long as they could because their bullpen was overworked in this four-game series,” manager Dusty Baker said.

Chasing Gibson allowed the floodgates to open. The Astros scored four runs off reliever Joely Rodriguez in the eighth, breaking a tie game to secure a sweep with a 6-2 victory. They won eight times during their 10-game homestand and reside a season-high seven games above .500. 

ASTROS INSIDER: Takeaways from series sweep of Rangers

“It’s always good to win games,” second baseman Jose Altuve said. “We have to continue to do this, and we can create some momentum. We’re playing good. We’re playing good defense, throwing the ball good, and the boys are swinging the bat.”

Houston hit .303 during this 10-game homestand. The lineup collected at least nine hits in nine of the 10 games. It had eight in the other. For at least this week, the Astros appeared at least 10 batters deep, a daunting task for any pitchers who oppose them. Aledmys Diaz and Chas McCormick are turning themselves into viable bats off the bench. 

Carlos Correa and Kyle Tucker are arguably the two most terrifying six- and seven-hole hitters in the American League. Correa moved to the two-hole on Sunday and supplied a single to sustain a game-winning rally against Rodriguez.

The Dominican southpaw arrived Sunday as one of Texas’ best relievers. He had not allowed a run since April 17. Altuve and Correa greeted him with consecutive singles. Alex Bregman added another, but too shallow for Altuve to score. Third-base coach Omar Lopez did not test David Dahl’s arm in left field, wise given who loomed in the batter’s box.

Yiuli Gurriel arrived with no mandate to perform any magic. The Astros would welcome it, but the task before him seemed simple. Gurriel is the team’s hottest hitter and best bat handler. Rodriguez fed him changeups low in the strike zone in an effort to induce an inning-ending double play. 

Gurriel waited for one to hang up over the outer half. He hit a fly ball deep enough into the right-center gap to score the go-ahead run. Joey Gallo and his cannon of a right arm caught it on the warning track in right field. 

Rodriguez could not get Tucker to chase four close pitches. Tucker’s plate discipline is keying his offensive surge. Here, it loaded the bases for a replacement. McCormick started Sunday due only to Alvarez’s rest day. Baker opted to keep Alvarez on the bench and allow McCormick to face the hard-throwing lefty. 

Rodriguez gave him four consecutive changeups and evened the count at two. McCormick mashed a putaway sinker into shallow left field — a two-run single that offered more separation. McCormick worked a leadoff walk in the fifth against Gibson, too, providing one of the few threats against Texas’ starter.

Gibson gave the Astros fits last season. The imposing Rangers righty threw 15 scoreless innings against them, including a shutout on Sept. 16. Gibson carried a streak of seven straight quality starts into Sunday’s matinee, mixing a sinker, slider and cutter to induce weak contact.

“He was tough tonight,” McCormick said. “What makes him tough is he has a good two-seam. He’s tall; it also runs and also dives. He has a good slider, and he kind of nitpicks. He doesn’t throw everything center cut. He paints the corners.”

The Astros manufactured two runs against him but saw him far better than the scoreboard might indicate. The lineup struck a slew of hard-hit balls that did not find holes. Gibson thrives on contact but avoided disaster Sunday. 

Altuve ambushed his third pitch of the game for a single. Correa erased it with a double play but struck the baseball at 110.7 mph off the bat, suggesting how well the lineup saw Gibson its first time through. Bregman and Brantley followed with singles that exited their bats 104 mph or harder. 

Bregman’s hit scored Brantley from second base, giving the Astros a lead. Correa chased home McCormick with a fielder’s choice during the fifth, offering some support for starter Lance McCullers Jr. 

McCullers spun six shutout innings without his best stuff. He lowered his season ERA to 2.70. Opponents have just six earned runs in his last 33 innings of work.

McCullers dodged danger all afternoon. Early on, he harnessed little command of his two-seam fastball. The Rangers rarely chased his changeup or curveball and crushed some hard outs against him. McCullers allowed 16 balls in play. They averaged a 96.9 mph exit velocity. Statcast classifies balls hit 95 mph or harder as hard-hit.

McCullers allowed the leadoff man to reach in three of the six frames he finished. He threw 57 percent of his pitches for strikes and generated just eight swings and misses. His middle infield turned a terrific double play in both the third and fourth to bail him out of trouble. 

“I felt in control during the outing, even when there were some guys on base,” McCullers said. “I felt good about my ability to make pitches when I needed to and keep the ball on the ground. I’m happy with it. I’ve had a string of really good guys I’ve been going up against as far as opposing pitchers. I feel like I’ve definitely held my own and more. I’m happy with today.”

McCullers yielded only one extra-base hit — a double by Nick Solak to start the sixth inning. Catcher Martin Maldonado could not block a curveball on the next pitch, allowing Solak to sprint into third base. McCullers left him there. His trademark curveball tied Nate Lowe in knots for a massive first strikeout. Gallo lifted another curveball to Correa on the infield. Adolis Garcia flew out to center field to end the threat.

Baker encountered a dilemma when it did. McCullers entered the dugout with 95 pitches. Inefficiency early in the game inflated his count, but asking him for a seventh inning did not seem unreasonable. Baker activated his bullpen instead.

He entrusted Andre Scrubb with a two-run lead. The hefty righthander held it for two batters. Khris Davis lined a single out of Altuve’s reach in the shift before Dahl destroyed a hanging curveball to dead center field. The Rangers had hope. Two innings later, it disappeared.

“You want to put as much distance on you and .500 as possible,” Baker said. “We needed a good homestand.”