Verlander, 3 Astros homers enough to drop Rangers

Justin Verlander allowed one hit over seven strong innings, and the Houston Astros belted three solo homers while overcoming an injury to star Jose Altuve to beat the visiting Texas Rangers 3-0 on Friday night for their third consecutive victory. Verlander, who improved to 6-1 with a 2.51 ERA, struck out eight and yielded only Asdrubal Cabrera's single to lead off the fifth inning as the American League West-leading Astros (24-15) won for the sixth time in seven games. It's the third time in Verlander's career that he has allowed just one hit in a start against the Rangers (17-19).

Houston's Ryan Pressly pitched a perfect eighth to extend his scoreless-inning stretch to 35 innings dating to last season. Roberto Osuna allowed Texas' only other hit to Shin-Soo Choo, but closed out the ninth for his 10th save. However, Houston's latest victory might have come with a price as Altuve exited with left hamstring discomfort in the bottom of the first after beating out an infield hit. The team listed him as day-to-day.

For the rest of the night, the Astros were just fine without Altuve. Jake Marisnick clubbed his third homer of the season, a deep shot to right-center in the third inning. In the seventh, with two outs and Texas starter Lance Lynn in a nice groove, Yuli Gurriel and Robinson Chirinos delivered back-to-back home runs to pad the Astros advantage. Gurriel is batting .407 (11 of 27) with two homers during a seven-game hitting streak.

Lynn (4-3, 5.48), who retired 11 straight Houston batters at one point, allowed those three homers and three other hits while also fanning eight in seven innings to fall short of a third straight winning start. The Rangers have dropped the first two of this four-game set after winning four of the first six meetings against Houston this season -- all of which were at home. Former Astros player Hunter Pence's streak of a home run in three consecutive games ended with an 0-for-3 night on Friday.

--Field Level Media

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