Astros host Rangers, seek consistency to remain atop AL West

The Houston Astros will complete the first half of the season atop the American League West despite debilitating injuries to their rotation, with a trio of starters — right-handers Hayden Wesneski, Ronel Blanco and Spencer Arrighetti — sidelined for significant portions of the season.

If Houston is to hold on to first place, it will need veteran right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. to establish some semblance of consistency. McCullers lasted only three innings in a 7-3 loss to the Texas Rangers on Friday in the opener of a three-game weekend series and continued what has been an uneven return from his two-plus-season injury absence.

Before limiting the Los Angeles Dodgers to one run over six innings in his previous start, McCullers allowed 12 earned runs over 8 1/3 innings in starts against the White Sox and Cubs. He totaled 20 strikeouts over his last two starts of May but allowed seven runs while recording just one out against the Cincinnati Reds on May 10 in his second start of the season.

The challenge for McCullers is eliminating the wide variances in his starts for the Astros, who have lost four straight games after winning six of their previous seven.

“For me (it’s) getting ahead, staying ahead and being able to use his stuff to get the swing-and-miss that he’s capable of doing,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “Once he gets going and gets ahead of hitters, he commands the at-bat. But as long as he fights himself in that position, it’s going to be tough to navigate.”

Left-hander Framber Valdez (10-4, 2.90 ERA) has the starting assignment for the Astros on Saturday. He allowed four runs on seven hits and two walks with seven strikeouts over six innings in a 6-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 5 to remain unbeaten over his last 11 starts (9-0, 2.07 ERA). Valdez has 78 strikeouts against 26 walks in 74 innings in that span.

He is 9-5 with a 2.90 ERA across 18 career appearances (15 starts) against the Rangers. In his last appearance against them on May 18, Valdez allowed three runs on six hits and one walk with eight strikeouts over seven innings in a 4-3 road victory.

Right-hander Jacob deGrom (9-2, 2.29 ERA) is the scheduled starter for Texas on Saturday. He is 5-0 with a 2.09 ERA and six quality starts over his last seven outings.

deGrom produced 14 consecutive starts of five-plus innings with two runs or less, the longest streak in franchise history and the longest by an AL pitcher since Seattle’s Felix Hernandez posted 17 such consecutive starts in 2014. deGrom’s streak was snapped in his last outing when he allowed three runs on five hits and two walks with five strikeouts over five innings on Monday in a 6-5 loss to the Los Angeles Angels.

deGrom made his first career start against the Astros on May 15 when he pitched eight shutout innings and allowed five hits and one walk with seven strikeouts in the Rangers’ 1-0 victory.

The Rangers continued their recent offensive resurgence by recording 13 hits on Friday. While scoring 37 runs in their four-game series split against the Angels this week, the most runs they’ve scored in a series in nearly seven years, the Rangers scored eight-plus runs in three consecutive road games for the first time since Sept. 22-24, 2015.

Texas entered this season with the talent to produce at a level comparable to the top teams in the AL. The Rangers finally appear to be rounding into that form.

“We’ve been saying all along it’s a talented club that has the ability to explode offensively,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said.

–Field Level Media