Justin Smoak homered and drove in four runs and Josh Hamilton continued his torrid stretch with a pair of RBIs as the Texas Rangers easily dispatched the instate rival Houston Astros, 9-3, on Friday.
Scott Feldman (5-6) tossed seven solid innings and Matt Treanor chipped in a pair of hits and an RBI for the Rangers, who have won six straight and nine of 10.
Texas got to left-hander Wandy Rodriguez (3-10) in the third for six runs to grab a commanding early lead. Rodriguez walked Vladimir Guerrero with the bases loaded for the first run and allowed two-run doubles to Hamilton and Smoak and an RBI single to Treanor to cap the rally.
Smoak hit his seventh homer of the season – a two-run blast – in the fifth to extend the advantage.
Hamilton extended his hitting streak to 14 games and is now batting .456 with 23 RBIs in 17 games this month.
Hunter Pence had two hits and drove in a run for Houston, which has dropped eight of its first 10 interleague games this season.
Texas | Houston | |
Scott Feldman | Player | Wandy Rodriguez |
Win | W/L | Loss |
7.0 | IP | 3.0 |
6 | Strikeouts | 2 |
9 | Hits | 4 |
3.86 | ERA | 18.00 |
Texas | Houston | |
Josh Hamilton | Player | Jeff Keppinger |
3 | Hits | 2 |
2 | RBI | 0 |
0 | HR | 0 |
5 | TB | 2 |
.600 | Avg | .500 |