Holland struggles as Rangers fall to Astros, 9-7

HOUSTON The Rangers starting pitching couldn’t hold a big early lead. The bullpen and the defense couldn’t keep it close.

The Houston Astros aren’t dead yet.

Houston came back from an early deficit against still-struggling starter Derek Holland, took advantage of Mitch Moreland’s first error in 91 games and greeted a pair of Rangers relievers with home runs in a 9-7 win Saturday. The win broke the Rangers’ eight-game winning streak against the Astros and got Houston back to within 3.5 games of the AL West-leading Rangers with eight games to go. The Rangers magic number remains at five.

The teams meet for the final time this season on Sunday with Houston ace Dallas Keuchel facing Rangers’ lefty Martin Perez.

On Saturday, the Rangers appeared to be taking the same approach as they had in Friday’s series opener by creating first-inning runs after two-quick outs. But after the lead grew to 4-1 on Shin-Soo Choo’s third-inning homer, the offense shut down. And the Astros’ came to life.

Houston got a leadoff homer from Jose Altuve to start the bottom of the third, then got a two-run homer from Carlos Correa his second of the game to tie it up before Holland had an out in the inning. Despite lacking command for the third consecutive start, Holland got the Rangers through the fifth with the score tied at four.

Based on recent results, that would have seemed to give the Rangers an advantage due to the recent performance of their bullpen. On Saturday, though, the bullpen allowed three homers. Chris Carter greeted reliever Chi Chi Gonzalez with a home run to start the sixth to give Houston its first lead against the Rangers in 45 innings.

In the seventh, Gonzalez walked Correa, the leadoff hitter in the inning, and then Moreland missed a swipe of Jed Lowrie’s grounder. The error allowed Correa to go to third. He scored on a sacrifice fly. Then, after Gonzalez was removed, Colby Rasmus greeted Sam Freeman with a two-run homer to give Houston a commanding lead. The Astros added to it when Altuve homered for the second time in the game as the second batter to face reliever Luke Jackson.

The Rangers made it interesting in the ninth by scoring three runs after there were two outs on a Choo RBI single and a Prince Fielder two-run single. But with two on, Moreland grounded to second.

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