Hamels, Kazmir trending in opposite directions

He was on base for both of Beltre’s homers, a two-run shot in the fourth and a three-run blast in the fifth.

Following a lousy showing during a Saturday night loss to the Oakland A’s, the Rangers offense took over from the start to wipe out their AL West rivals by a score of 12-4. And while that Wild Card lead is nice to maintain for Texas, they have bigger fish to fry.

And Monday night’s matchup is MLB.TV’s Free Game of the Day. Jose Altuve blasted a solo home run in the top of the first inning for the Astros to give them an early 1-0 lead. Thought I did a good job against Seattle. This will be a pivotal game in the series regardless of what happens in the first two games. After the game Joe Maddon said “I’m just glad we’re not in the same division as the Phillies”. That’s tied with David Ortiz for third-most by any player since the 2005 season began (2005 was Fielder’s first season).

Of course, the two teams could split and we could be no closer to crowning a champion Friday morning than we are today. I’ve noticed this year that postgame praise for the other team like that has spiked to unprecedented levels. The Astros are 7-21 on the road since July 7 and 29-42 on the road overall.

“We’ll see how it plays out” said Banister. “You don’t just come in here and win these games easily”, someone will say after beating a team a lot of people beat easily. But it is pretty remarkable. At the very least he should be able to run down a fly ball and throw to the cutoff man, but it doesn’t seem likely that he’ll be making any diving catches or throwing out a guy at home. Kazmir also turned in a solid outing as he went seven innings giving up three runs (two earned) and striking out four. He hasn’t had much of a change of scenery, considering he’s still pitching in the AL West and is now in his hometown of Houston, but he’s been a bit inconsistent in his past five starts. Imagine doing anything you used to do a lot for the first time in six years. The victory moved the Yankees within three-games of AL East-leading Toronto. A much-needed win for the Yankees, stopping a five-game losing streak.

“It’s one more game with 19 games left”, Fielder said. St. Louis avoids a sweep and remains two and a half in front of Pittsburgh.

“To me, it doesn’t matter who I’m playing against”, Hamels said. Max Scherzer tossed eight shutout innings and struck out six.

Pirates 7, Brewers 6: The Pirates rallied from a five-run deficit to force extra innings and then Josh Harrison walked them off in the 11th inning.

Giants 10, Padres 3: Mike Leake finally won a game for the Giants. “They hit homers there”. That will hopefully propel them above the Rangers for the second Wild Card spot, but it will depend on how the Rangers fare against the Astros, Mariners and Athletics. He was only in two batters after replacing Doubront before getting hurt….

Kazmir is 2-1 against Texas this season and his ERA is a stout 1.35. One unearned run scored following a dropped popup by third baseman Jed Lowrie.