Road Rangers Sweep Astros

The winning streak is now at eight games after Josh Hamilton (above) hit the game-winning single Sunday afternoon as Texas closed out it's sweep of Houston. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

Three games and three different heroes for the Texas Rangers (41-28) as this team has refused to lose a game for over a week. The most recent victim, the Houston Astros (26-42), never seemed to have a chance - even after taking 4-1 lead in the final game of the series - as the Rangers' had an answer for anything the Astros threw at them.

Justin Smoak carried Texas with a home run and four RBI in the first game, Colby Lewis pitched his first career complete-game, leading Texas to victory on Saturday, while Josh Hamilton brought the series home Sunday afternoon with a 5-hit game capped off with the game-winning single.

A major storyline in the weekend series with the Astros was how the Rangers were able to score with two outs. All four of Smoak's RBI came with two outs in Friday nights game. In fact, eight of the nine total RBI for Texas came in the form of clutch, two out hitting.

"It was a great night for everyone," Smoak said. "When guys are getting on base ahead of you good things can happen."

Rangers' starter Scott Feldman (W, 5-6) scattered nine hits in seven innings, allowing three earned and striking out six Astros. It's the second consecutive quality start for Feldman after seven straight outings without one and second straight start earning a W. Feldman even began a six-run third inning with a hit, a double to right field, for the first double (and only second hit) of his career.

"Pretty much, if I get a hit, it's luck," Feldman said. "I haven't hit on a regular basis... you just try not to look like an idiot up there."

Saturday's star would have to be starter Colby Lewis (W, 7-4), who went nine strong innings, although Smoak was a candidate yet again with another homer and three more RBI. However, Lewis threw the first complete game of his career, allowing only one earned run on two hits, while striking out nine batters.

"The pitcher was making perfect pitches," said Astros' center-fielder Michael Bourne, who had one of the two hits on Lewis - a double in the seventh. "He was on his game. He had all four pitches working. You tip your cap to him. What can you do? I was able to squeeze one, but as a team we couldn't get a lot going on him."

Lewis has allowed a total of nine hits and four earned runs in his last 24 innings pitched, along with 24 strikeouts. Could these be signs of a new Ace for the Rangers' rotation?

Sunday afternoon's game saw the Rangers' dig themselves in an early hole thanks to a few costly errors. Houston scored four runs in the first two innings (two unearned), taking it's first lead of the series at 2-0 after the first and 4-1 concluding the second inning. Rangers' starter C.J. Wilson (ND) bounced back strong, however, allowing no more runs and only one hit as he allowed only three baserunners over his last five innings pitched.

Texas used Wilson's five-innings of scoreless baseball to it's advantage, closing the gap to 4-3 going into the top of the ninth. Ian Kinsler led of the inning with a single and subsequent stolen base and a Vladimir Guerrero ground-out allowed him to scramble to third. Josh Hamilton, on the very first pitch of the at-bat, knocked a single up the middle - scoring Kinsler and tying the game at 4-all. Hamilton came up again in the 10th with runners on first and second and two outs in the inning, but the Astros were reluctant to intentionally walk him with the red-hot Smoak batting behind him. Ham-Bone made Houston pay yet again, this time with a single to right that scored Julio Borbon from second base and giving Texas it's first lead of the afternoon at 5-4.

"(Smoak) had been tearing them up the whole series so you had to pick your poison," manager Ron Washington said.

Hamilton finished the game matching a career-high with five hits, with a run and two RBI. So, to me at least, it would seem like a better decision to walk Hamilton and face the unproven Smoak - but that's just me. Neftali Feliz closed out the game with a flawless 10th inning, striking out two of the three batters he faced for his American League-leading 19th save of the season.

Texas has now won eight straight games, have the second best record in the American League (fourth-best in all of baseball) at 41-28, and hold a 3.5 game lead in the American League West. The Rangers finished their nine-game road trip with an outstanding 8-1 record as everything seemed to go right on this trip and are now over .500 on the road (18-17) for the first time all season.

The competition doesn't get any stronger as Texas travels back home to take on the Pittsburgh Pirates (25-44), who have the second-worst record in baseball. The Pirates also have the second-worst road record in the Majors at 9-25. The game has a scheduled 7:05 p.m. start time with Tommy Hunter (2-0, 2.08 ERA) taking the mound for Texas and Ross Ohlendorf (0-5, 5.22) getting the nod for Pittsburgh.

News and Notes:

• For the series against the Astros, Justin Smoak went 7 of 14 with two home runs and eight RBI. The Rangers' first baseman came into the series with the Astros in the midst of a 2-22 slump.
• While he may not have had the pop that Smoak had, Josh Hamilton went 9 for 15 and raised his batting average from .327 to .337 in just three games. Hamilton also furthered his career-high hitting streak to 16 games in the series.
  
• Even though Saturday's game was the first complete-game of his career, Colby Lewis did pitch nine innings of no-run baseball earlier in the season. A 2-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners in which Lewis had 10 K's and allowed only three hits but was negated by a 0-0 tie that went into extra innings. Texas won it in the 12th.
• For the series, 14 of the 19 total runs Texas scored were with two-outs in the inning.

(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)