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    Joe Rutland
    Sep 18, 2025, 03:09
    Updated at: Sep 18, 2025, 03:43

    It could not have gone worse for the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night at Daikin Park. The Houston Astros, behind home runs from Jose Altuve and Jeremy Peña, defeated the Rangers 5-2. With the win, Houston keeps the Silver Boot inside its home park for another season as the Astros won the season series 7-6.

    The Astros now have a five-game lead over Texas in the American League West Division and own the tiebreaker between both teams. Want more bad news, Rangers fans? Houston moved back into first place in the AL West by a half-game over the Seattle Mariners. The Kansas City Royals defeated the Mariners 7-5, ending Seattle's 10-game win streak.

    The Astros also are 1.5 games behind the Detroit Tigers for the second seed in the AL playoff picture.

    Rangers manager Bruce Bochy probably hoped that starting pitcher Jacob deGrom could pull off a stellar start. He's been pretty good against the Astros in his career. But it didn't work out as the Astros pushed deGrom into a 35-pitch first inning.

    Jose Altuve goes deep off Jacob deGrom.

    That may have set the table for deGrom's outing, which only lasted five innings. All five runs that the Astros scored were earned runs off deGrom. 

    In the bottom of the first inning, the Astros loaded the bases. Yainer Diaz came through with a two-run single to left fielder Alejandro Osuna, scoring Peña and Carlos Correa for a 2-0 Houston lead.

    Texas battled back, though in the top of the second inning. Josh Jung doubled to left field, scoring Osuna and cutting into the Astros lead to 2-1. Cody Freeman then hit a run-scoring single that brought in Jung and tied things up at 2-2.

    Josh Jung, Cody Freeman come through for Rangers.

    But that was all that the Rangers would score.

    Altuve, who has been a thorn in the Rangers side for a long time, took a chest-high pitch from deGrom and hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the third, giving Houston a 4-2 lead. Altuve's 26th homer this season also brought home Correa.

    In the bottom of the fifth, Peña hit his 16th home run, an opposite-field shot that landed two rows beyond the right-field fence.

    Astros starter Cristian Javier went six innings and gave up just the two runs. Craig Kimbrel pitched a solid seventh, Steven Okert followed with two outs in the eighth, and Bryan King came on to pitch a four-out save.

    Javier got the win, throwing five innings of two-run, five-hit ball while striking out four. It was King's second save as closer Bryan Abreu was not available.

    To say this loss is devastating would not be an understatement for the Rangers. They needed to come into Houston and at least take two of three games. That didn't happen. After Wednesday's loss, the Rangers are also 4.5 games out of a Wild Card spot and have lost four in a row.

    Texas is 32-46 on the road this season, while they have dominated teams at Globe Life Field.

    The Rangers will have Thursday off before opening a three-game home series against the Miami Marlins. 

    The "Little Rascals" group of young players have been doing their best to keep Texas in the postseason conversation. They're going to have to find ways to contribute in a big way at Globe Life Field. 

    But it might be much ado about nothing at this point.