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Sports

Rangers nip Astros in AL West battle

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

Arlington, TX (SportsNetwork.com) - Texas' Martin Perez outdueled Houston's Brett Oberholtzer in the Rangers' 1-0 victory over the Astros on Sunday.

Perez (2-0) gave up five hits over eight innings for the Rangers, who took two of three games in the series. Alexi Ogando pitched a perfect ninth to record his first save since 2012.

"When you get runners on base, you have to stay tough and make your pitches," Perez said. "I'm not a power pitcher, I'm not trying to strike out a lot of guys. I'm trying to throw the ball down. I had a good changeup and a good [sinker] away. That's what happens when you throw all your pitches down."

Donnie Murphy knocked in the lone run of the contest. He came into the game after Elvis Andrus was ejected at the end of the third inning.

Oberholtzer (0-3) took the hard-luck loss after allowing one run on five hits with seven strikeouts over seven innings for the Astros, who were trying for their first series victory over Texas since June 24-26, 2008.

After striking out looking to end the third, Andrus tossed his bat and exchanged words with home plate umpire Alan Porter. Murphy entered the game and played second base, and Josh Wilson moved from second base to shortstop.

Andrus struck out in both of his at-bats, ending his 11-game hitting streak.

Oberholtzer had retired 11 straight batters before Wilson led off the bottom of the sixth with a single to center. Shin-Soo Choo followed with a single to center to put men on the corners. Murphy's sacrifice fly to left made it 1-0.

"I just felt like he mixed and matched pretty good and kept us off-balance and got into some predictable fastball counts and threw changeups," Astros manager Bo Porter said of Perez. "We were out in front and he was able to induce some ground-ball double plays."

Game Notes

The Astros failed to move a runner past first base ... Prior to Sunday's game, the Rangers placed third baseman Adrian Beltre on the 15-day disabled list and added right-handed pitcher Hector Noesi to the active roster.