ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Jeremy Peña and Isaac Paredes homered in the first inning, and Spencer Arrighetti pitched the Houston Astros past the Texas Rangers 5-1 on Thursday night.
The Astros took three of four games in the series from their in-state rivals, finishing a 7-3 trip with six wins in the last seven games.
The Rangers, no-hit Monday by three Houston pitchers, have lost six of seven overall.
Texas manager Skip Schumaker missed the game to attend
his son’s high school graduation in California. Bench coach Luis “Pipe” Urueta ran the team.
Arrighetti (7-1) tossed six effective innings, allowing only Josh Jung's homer in the second. He gave up three hits, walked one and plunked two batters with pitches. The right-hander's ERA rose just a hair, from 1.32 to 1.34.
Peña pulled Nathan Eovaldi’s fourth pitch to left field for his second homer this season, both in the last three games.
After a walk to Yordan Alvarez, who homered five times in the first three games of the series, Paredes ended an 0-for-10 skid with another home run to left.
Houston made it 5-1 in the third on two-out RBI hits by Taylor Trammell and Cam Smith.
Eovaldi (5-6) permitted four hits in seven innings and walked two, with both coming around to score. He threw seven shutout innings 11 days earlier at Houston in an 8-0 win.
Smith pulled back a ball hit by Brandon Nimmo over the 8-foot wall in right field with a leaping grab in the first inning.
Alvarez, who entered leading the AL with a .312 batting average and tied for first with 20 home runs, went 0 for 3 with a strikeout and a walk.
Both teams open weekend series at home on Friday. Astros RHP Kai-Wei Teng (3-3, 2.19 ERA) will face Milwaukee RHP Coleman Crow (0-0, 2.61). Rangers LHP MacKenzie Gore (3-4, 4.42 ERA) opposes Kansas City RHP Stephen Kolek (3-0, 2.77).
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