Astros earn crucial leg up on Rangers with Lone Star Series win

ARLINGTON -- The Astros were back to their familiar form the last two games against the Rangers at Globe Life Field, where the bats came alive behind clutch hitting and fewer strikeouts, they continued to get terrific starting pitching and the bullpen got some key outs.

After suffering a gut-wrenching walk-off loss in Monday’s opener of the Lone Star Series, the Astros won the final two games to take the Silver Boot from Texas for the eighth year in a row. Houston beat Texas, 6-4, on Wednesday and went 7-6 against the defending World Series champions this year.

By winning the season series, the Astros own the tiebreaker over the Rangers, which came into play last year when both teams finished with 90 wins. Houston won the American League West because of its head-to-head record.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen in the next [48] games,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “We just want to put our club in a good position to win the West. Winning the Boot, it matters. Hopefully, it stays in Houston.”

Here are three key performance from Wednesday’s win:

Dezenzo makes his mark
Zach Dezenzo, called up after playing in only 11 games in Triple-A, shook off an 0-for-4 performance in his Major League debut Tuesday and went 2-for-3 with a double, a walk and two runs scored while starting at first base. For his work, Dezenzo’s teammates gave him the Player of the Game belt.

“Yesterday was yesterday,” he said. "There were a lot of emotions and it was pretty overwhelming. Today I felt a lot more like myself, just playing the game again and enjoying it and having fun with the guys. I was able to produce a lot today, so that was good.”

Dezenzo picked up his first Major League hit with a second-inning double to deep left field that would have been a homer at Minute Maid Park. He singled and scored in the sixth and walked and scored in the eighth.

“He put day one behind him,” Espada said. "He looked like he belongs out there. He looked really confident and he played really good defense. His at-bats were solid, man. He hit some balls hard, took some good hacks. He was aggressive, he was confident. I like it a lot.”

Kikuchi gets first win with Astros
Astros starter Yusei Kikuchi, who was traded from the Blue Jays at the Trade Deadline last week, picked up his first win for his new club, which has won both of his starts. The lefty allowed two runs on four hits and three walks while striking out eight batters in 5 1/3 innings. He carried a shutout into the sixth before giving up a leadoff homer to Marcus Semien.

“I feel like I’ve been settling in and getting used to my surroundings, but getting those two wins definitely eases the pressure,” he said.

Kikuchi threw 100 pitches and relied heavily on his fastball because he wasn’t getting much swing-and-miss from his breaking pitches. His velocity was down more than one mph on his fastball, slider and changeup, but he said he had more in the tank, if needed.

“I was more focused on where the pitches were going today,” Kikuchi said. “I was focusing on throwing up in the zone with the heater. I had faced them [July 26] and the balls were right around the middle with all my pitches, and I wanted to be cautious of the fact I wanted to locate my pitches.”

Alvarez finds power stroke
Yordan Alvarez snapped out of a season-long 13-game homerless drought by bashing homers in each of the wins on Tuesday and Wednesday, giving him 22 for the season. The All-Star slugger hit one homer in a 24-game stretch from July 4-Aug. 5, during which the Astros were 12-12.

“I had a rough series at home, and it feels good to be able to recover the swing again,” he said.

Alvarez’s third-inning homer to center field had an exit velocity of 117 mph, which is the second-hardest-hit homer by an Astro in the Statcast era (since 2015). He has the top eight hardest-hit homers by Astros hitters under Statcast tracking (postseason included). His hardest was 117.7 mph last Sept. 13 vs. Oakland.

His homer left the bat at a launch angle of 18 degrees, which is the lowest of any homer at Globe Life Field this season.

“I really didn’t think that was going to be a homer,” said Alvarez, whose 11 homers at Globe Life Field are the most by any visiting player, including the postseason. “I left the box running and I looked up and the ball was gone, and I was like, ‘Oh wow.’”