Jake Burger produced a pair of extra-base hits, including a two-run double that ignited a five-run seventh inning, and Nathan Eovaldi twirled seven shutout innings as the visiting Texas Rangers averted a three-game series sweep with an 8-0 victory over the Houston Astros on Sunday.
Burger was the linchpin in the series finale for a flagging Texas offense that totaled one run in the first two games of the series. He finished 2-for-4 with a home run, the double and four RBIs.
Astros right-hander Peter Lambert (2-4) matched zeroes with Eovaldi (5-4) through four innings before Burger swung momentum in the Rangers’ favor with one out in the top of the fifth.
Alejandro Osuna produced an infield single, the first hit Lambert allowed before Burger followed by drilling a 2-1 fastball the opposite way for a two-run homer that snapped a scoreless deadlock. Burger drove his eighth homer this season 356 feet to right field.
Lambert reclaimed control when he retired the next five batters. But Joc Pederson walked to lead off the seventh before Ezequiel Duran (double) and Osuna (hit by pitch) chased Lambert. Burger greeted Astros reliever Cody Bolton with a double to left that doubled the lead to 4-0.
Kyle Higashioka added a single that plated Osuna and Burger. Two batters later, Brandon Nimmo doubled off the scoreboard in left to score Higashioka, who capped the scoring with a homer in the ninth.
Lambert allowed five runs on three hits and two walks with six strikeouts in six-plus innings.
Eovaldi improved to 4-2 with a 2.54 ERA across seven starts in his hometown. He allowed five hits and two walks with a season-high-tying eight strikeouts. He threw 94 pitches, 64 for strikes.
Eovaldi induced an inning-ending double play from Brice Matthews in the third inning, and he stranded runners on the corners when he got Braden Shewmake to fly out to left in the fourth. The Astros fashioned a threat in the seventh when Cam Smith followed a Shewmake double with a walk, but Eovaldi responded with a pair of groundball outs to conclude his stellar outing.
