Astros 2, Rangers 4; Homeruns Do The Astros In

Three of the four uns given up by the Astros were homeruns meaning this one could have been a lot of worse had some runners been on. Nelson Cruz (off Dallas Keuchel), Jeff Baker (off Wesley Wright) and David Murphy (off Travis Blackley) all homered for the Rangers. The homerun by Cruz was especially note worth not only because it tied the game at 2-2 but had the roof been open it would have left the building. The ball hit by Cruz hit off the window panels above the train tracks in left field.

Despite the monster homerun Keuchel pitched well for the Astros going six innings allowing two runs, both earned, on five hits and two walks. He also struck out three. Wesley Wright followed Keuchel and immediately gave up a homerun to Jeff Baker and the lead. Bakers homerun would be the game winner.

The Astros offense failed to cash in on five hits and four walks given up by Rangers pitcher Alexi Ogando. Marwin Gonzalez and Chris Carter were the only players to reach base twice. Gonzalez did so by collecting two hits, while Carter collected a hit and two walks. Recently called up, Trevor Crowe hit a homerun to the Crawford Boxes in left field and Jose Altuve scored from third after a ball bounced away from catcher Geovany Soto.

Friday's game against the Rangers was rather mundane compared to the previous night in which Bo Porter and the umpiring crew made some controversy following an illegal pitching change that was allowed by the umpires. MLB came down hard on the umpiring crew for allowing the illegal pitching change. Fieldin Culbreth, the crew chief, was suspended two games and fined. The rest of the umpiring crew also received fines. This came at a bad time for the umpiring crew working the Astros vs. Angels series as other umpiring crews faced controversy in Pittsburgh and Cleveland prior to the incident in Houston.

Bo Porter issued a public apology to Culbreth and his crew for his misapplication of a rule and putting them in that position.

Saturday's game has a 6:10 p.m. CT start time. Erik Bedard will start for the Astros, his mound opponent will be Yu Darvish.