Major League Baseball
Houston 5, Texas 3
When: 8:05 PM ET, Friday, June 30, 2023
Where: Globe Life Field, Arlington, Texas
Temperature: Indoors
Umpires: Home - Bill Miller, 1B - Roberto Ortiz, 2B - Chad Whitson, 3B - Rob Drake
Attendance: 39174

Jose Altuve hit the first pitch of the game out of the ballpark, but the Houston Astros needed a sixth-inning rally to defeat the Texas Rangers 5-3 to open a four-game series on Friday in Arlington, Texas.

Trailing 3-1, the Astros scored a run on Altuve's RBI groundout by Altuve in the fifth, and then completed the comeback one inning later.

Mauricio Dubon had a two-run double down the left field line, the second run coming when Yainer Diaz beat the Rangers' relay throw home to score from first. Dubon then scored on a sacrifice fly by Jake Meyers.

The teams exchanged single runs in the first inning. Altuve sent a first-pitch fastball over the center field wall off Rangers starter Jon Gray. The Rangers evened it in the bottom half as Marcus Semien scored when Nathaniel Lowe grounded into a double play.

Texas took a 3-1 lead in the fourth on back-to-back home runs by All-Stars Josh Jung and Jonah Heim. Jung sent an 0-1 fastball over the right-center field fence, while Heim belted a 2-1 fastball out to center.

With their rally, the Astros evened the regular-season series at 2-2.

Astros starter Ronel Blanco (2-0) earned the win, allowing three runs on four hits with four walks and two strikeouts over five innings. Four relievers each threw a scoreless inning, including a 1-2-3 ninth by closer Ryan Pressly for his 16th save.

Rangers starter Gray (6-4) surrendered five runs on seven hits with two walks and four strikeouts over six innings. Gray finished the month of June by going 1-3 over five starts. He allowed at least five runs in two of those losses.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Houston   Texas
Ronel Blanco Player Jon Gray
Win W/L Loss
5.0 IP 6.0
2 Strikeouts 4
4 Hits 7
5.40 ERA 7.50
Hitting
Houston   Texas
Chas McCormick Player Josh Jung
2 Hits 1
0 RBI 1
0 HR 1
2 TB 4
.500 Avg .333
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Houston 8 1 12 .242 7 4 5 2 1 1
Texas 5 2 12 .161 9 7 2 4 0 0