Wyatt Langford slugged a tiebreaking home run as the Texas Rangers exploded for four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning en route to a 7-3 win over the Houston Astros on Friday in Arlington, Texas.
Langford answered the Astros’ rally from a three-run deficit with his ninth homer of the season. He drilled a 1-0 fastball from left-handed reliever Bryan King 404 feet to left field, marking the first homer King (2-2) has allowed to a right-handed hitter this season.
Three batters later, Jake Burger joined Langford in that exclusive category. After Langford supplied the Rangers with a 4-3 lead, King walked Josh Jung and surrendered a single to Brandon Nimmo before Burger smacked his 16th homer to left-center. King had not allowed more than one run since April 21 before Texas hung a four-spot on him.
Trailing 3-0 entering the top of the sixth, the Astros mounted their comeback against Rangers starter Cal Quantrill, who had retired eight consecutive batters. Yordan Alvarez blasted his 30th home run of the season and 200th of his career leading off the sixth, a 455-foot shot to right.
Yainer Diaz clubbed a two-run homer off Texas reliever Chris Martin that knotted the score at 3-3 in the seventh.
Quantrill stranded Jeremy Pena and Isaac Paredes in the first after Pena was doubled off at second base on a Christian Walker flyout to left field. Jose Altuve and LaMonte Wade Jr. stroked consecutive singles to open the second, only for Quantrill to retire the subsequent three batters.
After Alvarez singled with one out in the third, Quantrill hit his stride before Alvarez struck a bigger blow. Quantrill allowed one run on five hits and one walk with one strikeout in six innings.
The Rangers struck for two runs in the bottom of the first against Astros right-hander Hunter Brown. Nimmo plated Langford on a single and Burger followed with a run-scoring groundout that drove home Jung.
Joc Pederson stretched that lead to 3-0 with his leadoff homer in the fifth, his 15th of the season.
Brown labored but completed six innings, allowing three runs on four hits with five walks and four strikeouts.
