Astros 1 - 5 Rangers
Final
  for this game

Astros, Feldman try to avoid Rangers' brooms

Sep 24, 2014 - 2:25 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - Scott Feldman has pitched well in the final month of the season, but it's not quite as well as the Texas Rangers have been playing.

The veteran will face one of his former teams on Wednesday night when the Houston Astros return to Globe Life Park for the finale of a three-game series with the red-hot Rangers.

Texas, which is last in the American League's West Division -- 4 1/2 games behind the Astros -- has nonetheless won three straight games and 10 of its last 11 to finish a dreadful season on a more palatable note.

With a win, the Rangers can sweep a third series in two weeks. Prior to this stretch, they'd had one series sweep all season.

"To go ahead and have a good string of games right here at the end gets their confidence going," Rangers interim manager Tim Bogar said.

Houston, meanwhile, has lost six of eight games and its second baseman, Jose Altuve, was hitless in four at-bats while pursuing the AL batting title. He leads that race by eight points over Detroit's Victor Martinez with four games remaining.

He also leads the league in hits with 221 and stolen bases with 54.

Feldman, meanwhile, has compiled a 1.44 earned run average across his last four starts, which includes a three-hit shutout against the Rangers on Aug. 30.

He gave up one run one four hits in his last start on Thursday, in a game the Astros lost, 2-1, to Cleveland.

Feldman is 2-0 with a 2.30 ERA in four starts against Texas this season.

The Rangers start Lisalverto Bonilla, who aims for his third win in his third big- league start.

He's walked eight batters in 11 innings thus far, but his body of work -- which includes 35 relief outings and six starts in the minors this season -- has him on the Texas radar when it comes to a big league role for 2015.

"It would be smart for us to do that," Bogar said. "I think what he's done at this level the first two starts has kind of put him on the map that way. He gets lumped in with all the other guys to decide what we're going to do with the last few spots of our starting rotation."

On Tuesday, Robinson Chirinos homered and the Rangers held off Houston, 2-1. Adrian Beltre and Jake Smolinski both had three hits and Daniel Robertson hit an RBI single for the Rangers.

Nick Martinez (5-11) was solid over 6 2/3 innings, limiting Houston batters to five hits with no walks and five strikeouts.

Marwin Gonzalez had two hits and Matt Dominguez drove in a run for Houston, which saw Brett Oberholtzer (5-13) allow two runs on nine hits and two walks across 4 1/3 innings.

Houston is 11-7 versus the Rangers this season.






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