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Rangers get past Astros in 12 innings

Apr 12, 2014 - 6:47 AM Arlington, TX (SportsNetwork.com) - Robinson Chirinos drilled a single up the middle to help the Texas Rangers defeat the Houston Astros for the 12th consecutive time with a 1-0 decision in 12 innings on Friday.

Texas, which went 1-for-15 with runners in scoring position, had runners on second or third in each of the final six innings before Chirinos cashed in.

Kevin Kouzmanoff singled to right with one out in the 12th and moved up to second on a wild pitch by Brad Peacock (0-1). Two batters later, Chirinos worked the count full and ripped one up the middle to break the deadlock.

"I really thank God for this great moment and this great opportunity to come through when the team needed," said Chirinos. "You have to really give credit to the whole pitching staff. They kept battling, getting outs. We kept pushing and pushing and finally we did it."

Five Texas pitchers combined for a two-hit shutout with Jason Frasor (1-0) earning the win. Rangers starter Yu Darvish, who made just his second start of the season, carried a perfect game through five innings before Matt Dominguez broke it up with a leadoff single in the sixth.

Darvish threw eight scoreless innings, allowing one hit and a walk with nine strikeouts.

Leonys Martin collected two hits for the Rangers, who had eight hits as a team.

Scott Feldman toed the slab for Houston and allowed two hits and four walks with three strikeouts over seven scoreless frames. Dominguez had both Houston hits.

"He (Feldman) left it all out there," said Astros manager Bo Porter. "I'm proud of him."

Houston only had five baserunners on the night and went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position.

Alex Rios walked to lead off the bottom of the 10th inning, then stole second on the second pitch of Prince Fielder's at-bat. Peacock proceeded to intentionally walk Fielder in order to keep the force-out intact.

Kouzmanoff drove one down the right-field line that was just foul before he drew a walk to load the bases with no outs.

With the infield in, Mitch Moreland drilled a groundball to first that was stabbed by Marc Krauss, who tossed it to the plate to nab the lead runner and keep the game scoreless.

Chirinos followed with a strikeout and Peacock maneuvered his way out of the jam with a groundout off the bat of Martin.

The Rangers had another chance to put the game away in the following inning but came up short.

After Neal Cotts faced the minimum three batters in the top half of the 11th, Shin-Soo Choo singled to right with one out in the home half. Choo then stole second, but was stranded there after Elvis Andrus grounded out the pitcher and Rios popped out to second.

Game Notes

Darvish had a perfect game through 8 2/3 innings last season against Houston before Marwin Gonzalez broke it up with a single ... Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre missed the game due to a quadriceps strain ... Andrus had two stolen bases and Rios added one.