Chas McCormick produced a career-high six RBIs and Yainer Diaz delivered a walk-off single in the ninth inning as the host Houston Astros rallied for a 10-9 victory over the Texas Rangers on Monday.
McCormick just missed cranking a grand slam off Rangers starter Jon Gray in the first, settling for a 418-foot, two-run double that keyed the Astros' four-run frame. McCormick wasn't cheated by the park's dimensions in the seventh when he crushed a three-run, game-tying homer off Texas reliever Aroldis Chapman, a 388-foot blast to left-center that knotted the score at 9-9.
Two innings later, Diaz followed walks from Kyle Tucker and McCormick with a single to right off Rangers reliever Alex Speas (0-2), driving home Tucker and pulling the Astros to within two games of Texas in the American League West. Tucker finished 1-for-2 with three walks and four runs scored while McCormick finished 2-for-3.
It was a wild back-and-forth game. Josh Jung and Josh Smith both homered for the Rangers, who were without injured sluggers Adolis Garcia and Corey Seager. Marcus Semien and Travis Jankowski joined Jung in recording multi-hit games, but Gray allowed six runs over five innings before Chapman imploded after Texas took a 9-6 lead in the top of the seventh.
Astros starter Brandon Bielak struggled to produce an out pitch when the moment sorely required it. He surrendered a two-out walk to Nathaniel Lowe in the top of the first after getting ahead in the count 1-2 and then surrendered a two-run homer to Jung on a 2-2 sinker.
After the Astros erased that two-run deficit with a four-spot in the bottom of the first, Bielak was undone by a pair of misplays from first baseman Jose Abreu in the second. Smith reached on an Abreu fielding error that enabled Brad Miller to score from second base and, later in the inning, Abreu failed to smother a sharp grounder from Jankowski. Leody Taveras, who like Miller walked with one out, scored on the play as the Rangers pulled even at 4-4.
Lowe tacked on an RBI single later in the second that gave Texas a 5-4 lead, an advantage the Rangers extended to two runs when Smith bashed the first pitch of the fourth inning into the upper deck in right field for his fourth homer. Bielak recorded two quick outs to open the fifth but departed after issuing a walk to Ezequiel Duran and having allowed six runs (three earned) on six hits and four walks with five strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings.
Ryan Pressly worked a scoreless top of the ninth to get the win and improve to 3-2.
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