Lynn Gets MLB-Best 12th Win As Rangers Beat Astros 5-0
ARLINGTON (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — Lance Lynn matched his season high with 11 strikeouts in seven stellar innings for his major league-best 12th victory and the Texas Rangers beat the AL West-leading Houston Astros 5-0 in the only game Thursday night when Major League Baseball resumed after the All-Star break.
Lynn (12-4) won his fifth consecutive start, and is 8-1 over his last 10 starts. He scattered six hits (five singles and a double) and walked two while throwing 75 of 110 pitches for strikes.
Astros lefty Framber Valdez (3-5) didn't make it out of the first inning, when Texas jumped ahead with four runs.
Houston (57-34) still has a seven-game division lead over Oakland, with the Rangers (49-42) eight games back in third place.
Lynn, who signed a $30 million, three-year free agent deal over the winter after pitching for Minnesota and the New York Yankees last year, is 8-0 with a 3.90 ERA in 10 home starts for the Rangers.
The big right-hander has thrown at least 100 pitches in 10 consecutive starts, the second-longest streak in the majors this season — Washington's Max Scherzer had 12 consecutive games with at least 100 pitches earlier this season.
Jose Leclerc and Chris Martin each pitched an inning to wrap up the fourth shutout for the Rangers this season. It was the sixth time Houston was held scoreless.
After Elvis Andrus got Texas on the board in the first with an RBI groundout, sluggers Nomar Mazara and All-Star outfielder Joey Gallo had less-traditional hits. Mazara had an infield single when the ball spun off his shattered bat at 44 mph and barely got past the mound, then Gallo drove in a run with a double that ricocheted hard off second baseman Jose Altuve and never got out of the infield.
Rougned Odor, still hitting .198, made it 4-0 when he drove in two runs with the first of his two doubles. Odor doubled again in the third, and then scored on a single by Jeff Mathis.
The Texas Rangers now have a 49-42 record and will take on the Houston Astros again tomorrow at 7:05 p.m.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)