Rangers Squander Lead, Lose to Astros

A wild pitch helped give the Texas Rangers a win on Tuesday night. A wild pitch handed the Rangers a loss on Wednesday night.

Rangers reliever Jonathan Hernandez’s wild pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th allowed Houston’s Jose Altuve to score and gave the Astros a 4-3 win.

The Rangers (59-77) had a 3-0 lead, lost it and failed to score a run in the top half of the 10th.

In the bottom half, the Astros loaded the bases with two outs for Alex Bregman. Hernandez’s first pitch got past Rangers catcher Sam Huff and Altuve scored easily to give send the Rangers to a series loss and a 1-6 road trip.

Reinforcements are also coming, however. The Rangers’ No. 1 overall prospect, third baseman Josh Jung, will make his Major League debut on Friday when the Rangers host the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday.

The Rangers official Twitter account made it clear Jung was coming . The Rangers are also making Jung available to the media at 2 p.m. Thursday.

Like Tuesday night, the Rangers opened up an early lead, surrendered it before late dramatics.

The Rangers grabbed a 1-0 edge in the top of the first after a solo home run by Nathaniel Lowe. Texas posted a two-run third inning, as Nick Solak reached on a Jeremy Peña throwing error and moved to second on a Bubba Thompson sacrifice bunt. Marcus Semien’s single scored Solak. Semien came home after stealing second, advancing to third on a Lowe single and scoring on Kole Calhoun’s single to center.

Houston’s Kyle Tucker scored the Astros’ first run in the fourth on a wild pitch, and then he tied the game in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run home run off Rangers reliever John King.

Rangers starter Cole Ragans only lasted three innings, but didn’t give up a hit while allowing three walks and striking out three. The Rangers bullpen did a good job of keeping the Astros from making an impact until Tucker’s home run.

Astros starter Cristian Javier lasted into the sixth inning and struck out eight. Only one of the three runs he gave up were earned and he ended up with a no-decision.

The Rangers will open the series with Toronto on Friday by starting Dane Dunning against Toronto’s Ross Stripling. On Saturday, Kohei Arihara squares off with the Blue Jays’ Kevin Gausman. On Sunday, the series concludes with Martín Pérez starting for Texas. The Blue Jays have not announced their probable starter for Sunday.

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

Catch up with Inside the Rangers on Facebook and Twitter.