Texas @ Houston preview

Last Meeting ( Aug 6, 2016 ) Texas 3, Houston 2

The Texas Rangers made a series of moves at the trade deadline, in part to give themselves a better chance of holding off the Houston Astros in the American League West, and so far, those moves are paying off. The Rangers will try to ride the hot bats of Carlos Beltran and Jonathan Lucroy to a series win when they visit the Astros for the rubber match of their three-game set.

The Astros held a 1-0 lead on Saturday before Lucroy tied it with a solo home run, Beltran put Texas ahead with an RBI single and Lucroy added an insurance run with another solo blast in the eighth inning of a 3-2 win. The victory increased the Rangers’ lead over Houston in the AL West to 6 1/2 games and pushed them back to 30-30 on the road with three contests left on their trip. The Astros have lost nine of their last 12 games to turn a tight race atop the division into a comfortable lead for Texas. The one good thing to come from Saturday’s setback for Houston was rookie Alex Bregman going 3-for-5 with an RBI - one more hit than he managed in 38 at-bats over his first 10 major-league games.

TV: 2:10 p.m. ET, FSN Southwest (Texas), ROOT (Houston)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Rangers RH Yu Darvish (2-3, 3.29 ERA) vs. Astros RH Joe Musgrove (0-0, 0.00)

Darvish is racking up big strikeout numbers but is having a difficult time finding his way into the win column. The native of Japan has allowed three or fewer runs in each of his four starts since coming off the disabled list on July 16 and notched 35 strikeouts in 22 2/3 innings but is 0-3 over that span. Darvish faced Houston on June 8 before hitting the DL and was in a similar spot, striking out seven while allowing one run in five frames without factoring in the decision.

Musgrove made his major-league debut in relief of Lance McCullers on Tuesday and struck out eight while allowing one hit and walking one in 4 1/3 scoreless innings. The 23-year-old will take over the rotation spot vacated by McCullers (elbow) after breezing through two levels of the minors in 2016. Musgrove went 7-4 with a 2.74 ERA and 87 strikeouts in 85 1/3 combined frames with Double-A Corpus Christi and Triple-A Fresno.

WALK-OFFS

1. Beltran exited Saturday’s game with a quad contusion and is day-to-day.

2. Houston RF George Springer is 2-for-20 with six strikeouts in his last five contests.

3. Rangers RF Shin-Soo Choo (back) is 5-for-12 in three games since coming off the DL.

PREDICTION: Rangers 4, Astros 1