HOUSTON (AP) - Josh Reddick has made a habit of making outstanding defensive plays.
His latest one saved the game for the Houston Astros on Thursday night.
Reddick hit the tiebreaking RBI single and preserved Houston’s lead with a leaping grab over the wall in right field, and Wade Miley struck out seven in six solid innings as the Astros beat the Texas Rangers 4-2 for their fifth victory in six games.
The Rangers led off the ninth with a walk by Shin-Soo Choo, followed by a single from Elvis Andrus. Roberto Osuna struck out Nomar Mazara and Reddick robbed Hunter Pence of a possible go-ahead home run with a leaping grab over wall.
“He’s a strong guy and Reddick was tracking it; you just don’t know if it’s going to come down in time,” Houston manager AJ Hinch said. “And then he jumps up Spider-Man style and comes back with it. It’s a range of emotion, pretty much from (Uh, oh) to incredible catch.”
Reddick said he was playing deep.
“Fortunately, it wasn’t hit high enough, and I was able to jump up just high enough over the wall to get there,” Reddick said.
Pence was wowed by the catch.
“It’s the big leagues and he’s one of the best outfielders I’ve ever seen,” Pence said. “He’s done that a lot. He’s robbed me of some really good swings. That’s what happens when you’re competing at the highest level.”
Osuna struck out Joey Gallo to earn his ninth save.
Reddick’s single with two outs in the sixth scored Yuli Gurriel and gave the Astros a 3-2 lead.
Michael Brantley pushed the lead to 4-2 with a bases-loaded walk off Jose LeClerc in the eighth. Jeanmar Gomez got George Springer to ground out to end the inning.
Alex Bregman tied it at 2-all in the fifth with a sacrifice fly that scored Jake Marisnick.
Springer gave the Astros a 1-0 lead with a solo home run to left in the third.
Pence gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead on a two-run homer to right in the fourth. Pence has homered in three straight games.
“I think it was just more frustrating because of how the whole game went,” Texas manager Chris Woodward said. “Really unlucky. I’d hate to call a team lucky, but I’d like to say they were lucky today. They got a lot of weak hits, we didn’t get much going offensively. Seemed like all the calls were going their way and for Reddick to catch that last ball just kind of topped it off.”
Miley (3-2) allowed two runs on two hits.
“I got to crowd them in,” Miley said. “Have to stand them up a little bit to keep them from just diving out on the cutter. I threw a lot of cutters and was able to do that for the most part.”
The left-hander recorded his 1,000th career strikeout with a second inning strikeout of Gallo. Miley has allowed three runs or fewer in each of his eight starts this season.
Mike Minor (3-3) gave up three runs on seven hits with five strikeouts in five innings. Minor has allowed three runs or fewer in six of his eight starts this season.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rangers: Texas placed RHP Shawn Kelley on the 10-day injured list retroactive to Monday with an infection and recalled RHP Wei-Chieh Huang from Triple-A Nashville. The Rangers activated 1B Ronald Guzman (hamstring) from the injured list. The Rangers had optioned OF Delino DeShields to Nashville following Wednesday’s game.
RAINING INSIDE THE DOME
In the eighth inning, it started raining inside Minute Maid Park, and some fans could be seen taking cover. The façade in center field was wet and rain could be seen around the upper deck down the right field line, in center field and above the Crawford Boxes in left field. The flags in deep center were whipping around and were drenched.
UP NEXT
Rangers: LHP Lance Lynn (4-2, 5.75 ERA) starts Friday looking for his third straight win after allowing five runs in six innings against the Blue Jays on Saturday.
Astros: RHP Justin Verlander (5-1, 2.86) starts his ninth game of the season Friday after yielding four runs in 6 1/3 innings on Sunday against the Angels.
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