Texas Rangers Series Preview vs Houston Astros

The Rangers are once again playing a weekend series against the Astros. This time at home and both Saturday and Sunday’s game will be afternoon start times.

In tonight’s game, Houston’s starting pitcher will be making his Major League debut. Tyler Ivey is the Astros number nine prospect and has been playing in Triple-A Sugar Land. He’s made an appearance in two starts this season and has gone 6.1 innings with a 7.11 ERA.

Kyle Gibson will face Houston for a second straight start and looking to build off his no-decision from last week after giving up just two runs on on four hits and two walks in seven innings.

Lance McCullers Jr. will make the 3:05 p.m. CDT start for Houston on Saturday. Last week he pitched six innings of no-run baseball against the Rangers and gave up just five hits, two walks, and struck out five.

Jordan Lyles is one of the few pitchers this week that is not making a back-to-back start against the opposition. His last start being against the Yankees was far and away his best start of the season giving up just one run on six hits and a walk in six innings. He has a 3.47 ERA and 0.94 WHIP in five appearances against the Astros in his career.

In Sunday’s series finale, Cristian Javier will start for Houston. He faced the Rangers in the last series, he gave up three runs on four hits and two walks in seven innings. Willie Calhoun hit a leadoff homer off him. Mike Foltynewicz went five innings and gave up three runs on eight hits and three walks last week against Houston.