Lowe delivers big hit when Rangers' offense needs him most

HOUSTON – Nathaniel Lowe needed a hit, and the Rangers needed a win.

Lowe snapped an 0-for-14 slump with a go-ahead RBI single in the top of the 10th to give the Rangers a 2-1 win over the Astros Saturday at Minute Maid Park.

Lowe hit a 3-2 pitch to left field off Tayler Scott, scoring Josh Smith, who started the inning at second base.

“I’ve been beating myself with changeups, and I got one to hit,” Lowe said.

Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said Lowe had been “out of sync” of late.

“He hadn’t been seeing the ball well,” Bochy said. “That’s pretty obvious. You just keep grinding. … He did a good job of going the other way with a pitch he could handle there.”

Before Lowe’s single, the Rangers weren’t able to get much going offensively.

Marcus Semien continued his hot hitting in Houston, leading off the game with a solo home run to left-center, his fifth leadoff homer of the season.

The homer extended Semien’s hit streak at Minute Maid Park to 24 games, a record for the longest in the stadium’s history. Semien’s hitting streak started on May 7, 2021, when he was a member of the Blue Jays.

However, Texas left the bases loaded in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.

“We weren’t happy because everybody wants to score every time we get a runner in scoring position,” Lowe said. “Baserunners want to score, hitters want to drive them in, pitchers want runs for comfort and the lead. It’s just one of those things we didn’t really do today until we executed at the end. Scoring more than them after 30 outs, we’ll take it.”

The Rangers finished 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left 12 on base.

“There was a lot of fight,” Bochy said. “The bats were tough. It looked like guys had trouble seeing the ball today. There were a lot of awkward swings that we haven’t seen, but you keep going and hope your pitching comes through. That’s what happened today.”

The Rangers did draw a season-high nine walks.

“You create enough opportunities, something good will happen,” Bochy said. “Though it didn’t today, when you’re not getting hits, hopefully you are drawing some base on balls. Guys did a great job of that.”

While the offense continued to sputter, the Rangers’ pitching was superb.

Nathan Eovaldi continued his recent string of stellar outings, yielding one run on eight hits -- all singles -- with seven strikeouts in seven innings.

“I felt like that first inning, I was struggling to get my breaking pitches down in the zone,” Eovaldi said. “I felt like trying to read their swings, they were making the adjustments to my hanging offspeeds that were up in the zone, and they were able to drive the ball. Fortunately, they were singles.”

It was Eovaldi’s third straight quality start and third straight outing allowing two runs or fewer in seven innings.

Eovaldi allowed five singles in the first 10 batters he faced, but he escaped a bases loaded, one-out jam in the first with a strikeout of Jeremy Peña and a Jake Meyers lineout to third. After Jose Altuve singled with two outs in the second, Eovaldi retired 11 straight, including the last five by strikeout.

“That game could have been gone in the first inning,” Bochy said. “What it says about Nate, more than anything, is how competitive he is, his intestinal fortitude in tight situations.”

After Eovaldi, David Robertson threw two scoreless innings before All-Star Kirby Yates pitched a scoreless 10th for his 15th save.

“You can’t say enough about what the pitching did,” Bochy said. “That first inning, [Eovaldi] had bases loaded, one out. He just continues to amaze me. He’s just got so much poise out there and has that ability as we have said so many times to turn it up when he has to. What a great job he did, and then Robertson has two great innings and Yates has a man on second with the heart of the order up and he got through it.”

Heading into the series finale and last game before the All-Star break, the Rangers would like their third straight series win.

“Every game counts at this point,” Robertson said. “We definitely needed to win a game here, and hopefully, we can win the series tomorrow and that would be two series on the road and it would be great for us.”