Rangers jump on Keuchel early en route to 14-3 romp over Astros

ARLINGTON, Texas The Rangers jumped on Cy Young candidate Dallas Keuchel for six runs in the first, including home runs by Mike Napoli and Rougned Odor to win their third straight against the Astros 14-3 Wednesday at Globe Life Park. The win moves Texas 11/2 games ahead of Houston atop the American League West. The teams meet in the series finale at 7:05 p.m. Thursday.

Pitching

Martin Perez held the Astros scoreless through five innings and left leading 14-1 in the seventh inning. Rookie Andrew Faulkner allowed a two-run homer to Evan Gattis in the eighth, which made it 14-3. Perez allowed a run on nine hits and a walk and struck out three.

The Astros scored a run in the sixth to make it 9-1 after an infield single from Jose Altuve started the inning. Luke Jackson closed it out in the ninth.

Hitting

Four of the first five Texas batters reached against Keuchel as the Rangers scored six runs in the first. A three-run homer by Napoli and a two-run homer by Odor were the big blows. Keuchel was pulled in the fifth after allowing a season-high nine runs on 11 hits. He hadn’t allowed more than five runs in a game this season.

The Rangers offense kept rolling. Fielder’s solo homer in the third made it 7-0. Texas scored two more in the fifth on RBIs from Adrian Beltre and Elvis Andrus to build a 9-0 lead. Fielder added a three-run upper-deck homer to right in the sixth to make it 12-1. Catcher Bobby Wilson’s two-run homer in the seventh gave Texas a 14-1 lead.

(c)2015 Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Visit the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at www.star-telegram.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.