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Hamilton's two homers, five RBI power Rangers past Astros

May 17, 2008 - 5:30 AM ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- It all came together for Josh Hamilton.

Hamilton homered twice and drove in five runs Friday as the Texas Rangers rolled to a 16-8 victory over the Houston Astros in interleague play.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia, David Murphy, Chris Shelton and Michael Young also went deep as the Rangers hit six homers and scored their most runs of the season.

Texas (21-22), which has won three of four, is now one game under .500 after having the worst record in the majors following a seven-game losing streak three weeks ago.

Hamilton, who went 5-for-5, hit a solo homer in the second and a two-run shot in the fourth before adding an RBI triple in the seventh that gave Texas a 10-8 lead.

"It was a great night. That's why you play the game, right there," Hamilton said. "It doesn't happen all the time but when it does, that's what keeps you coming back. It was an awesome night."

The center fielder's five RBI gave him a major league-leading 49 for 2008 - six ahead of Houston's Lance Berkman. Hamilton also scored four times.

"Hamilton was really impressive," Berkman said. "He's got tremendous bat speed.

"We saw some of that when he played in Cincinnati last year, but he was hitting pitches tonight that I wouldn't swing at and hitting them off the right field facade. If I had've swung at pitches like that I'd probably be making outs."

Shelton's solo homer and Young's two-run shot were part of a six-run eighth inning that broke the game open.

"Several of our runs tonight, including some in the seventh and eighth, were scored with two outs," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "That was our stickler earlier but now it's part of us. It seems lately that someone has always been coming up with the big hit for us to keep the inning alive."

All six runs in the eighth came off Astros reliever Oscar Villarreal.

Houston starter Shawn Chacon set a major league record for consecutive no-decisions to start a season with nine, despite getting shelled for eight runs - five earned - along with six hits and four walks. It broke the record he shared with Dick Stigman of the 1965 Minnesota Twins.

Chacon departed after 3 1/3 innings and the Astros trailing, 8-2, before his teammates rallied for six runs in the fifth and sixth innings.

"I didn't make my pitches tonight and they really put the barrel on the ball," Chacon said. "Hamilton hit everything tonight. It's too bad that someone else had to get the loss tonight when I started this mess."

RBI singles by Hunter Pence and Berkman and run-scoring doubles by Miguel Tejada and Darin Erstad were part of the five-run fifth. Kaz Matsui tied the game with an RBI hit in the sixth.

"At 8-8, I thought we had a really good chance to win the game," Berkman said. "But this is an American League park and an American League team so we'll have games like this."

Rangers starter Sidney Ponson surrendered seven runs - three earned - and nine hits while walking two in five innings.

Pence and Berkman extended their hitting streaks to 14 and 15 games, respectively, for the Astros.