5-11 - Round Rock Express Rangers come back to beat Astros 6-5

Today marked a tenth of the 2018 season in the books and the Rangers came into today’s game on a five game losing streak, a nearly 50 inning trailing streak, and was without five members of their Opening Day lineup. Facing the reigning champions, it didn’t look good for the Rangers to avoid their worst start in franchise history.

Mike Minor had a no-hitter going after the first time through the order and then allowed hits to the next five Astro hitters to begin the bottom of the fourth. When all was said and done, Minor had allowed five runs before he recorded his tenth out and it looked even worse for Texas.

With Minor making the reverse conversion from starter to reliever back to starter, one of his big challenges will be facing guys a second or third time each outing. Today, that proved Minor’s undoing but the Rangers didn’t give up.

After trailing 5-0, the Rangers scored the next five runs, all on home runs, to send the game to extra innings and give themselves an opportunity to mount an unlikely come from behind victory.

Somehow, the Rangers scored a run in extras before the Astros did as the Texas bullpen went six scoreless innings of work to end the game. 5-11 feels way better than 4-12.

Player of the Game: Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit his first big league home run in just his second big league start after hitting only five home runs in his entire minor league career. Not to be outdone, Ronald Guzman hit his first big league home run as well and his solo shot tied the game 5-5 with two outs in the top of the eighth. Guzman’s RBI infield single in the tenth plated the eventual winning run for Texas.

Up Next: The Rangers will try to use the momentum from today’s win to get a winning streak going with Bartolo Colon set to take the mound opposite Justin Verlander in the finale from Houston. First pitch from Minute Maid Park is scheduled for 7:08 pm CT.