Houston has a long climb up if it wants to catch the Rangers atop the American League West division. The Astros, who are 8.5 games behind Texas, will try to cut down that deficit as they hand the ball to Doug Fister later tonight.
Fister has been mediocre since the second half of the season started. Dating back to June 26, Fister has gone 4-6 with a 4.09 ERA in 12 starts. Fister, though, will face the Rangers tonight confident that he can duplicate his performance the last time he went against them. The right-hander surrendered just one earned run on nine hits in six innings of a 3-2 loss back in August 6.
Houston’s going to need its batters to produce though in order to put too much pressure on the struggling Fister. Carlos Correa is among those expected to make things happen at the plate, as the shortstop is gaining steam of late, batting .381 (8-for-21) with a homer and three RBI in his last six games. Jose Altuve, meanwhile, is just not himself the past six games, as the second baseman is only 4-for-25 (.160) in that span.
You can say that the Astros have been Texas’ punching bag this season. After all, the Rangers are 11-2 against their division rivals heading into tonight’s contest.
Texas will look to move further away from Houston in the AL West race as the Rangers open up the series with A.J. Griffin on the mound. Griffin is 6-3 with a 4.39 ERA this season. He was sterling in his last start, tossing six scoreless innings and giving up just five hits while striking out six in a 7-0 win over Cleveland on August 27.
Griffin will be backed by a rich Texas’ offense that provides its starters with 6.35 runs per nine innings—the second most in the majors.
Carlos Beltran is slowly getting his touch back, as the veteran has hit .381 (8-for-21) with a homer in his last five games. Another veteran in Adrian Beltre is also showing some muscle at the plate, batting .368 (7-for-19) with three homers and six RBI in his last six games.
