Ronel Blanco shines again, propels Astros past Rangers

Ronel Blanco followed up his no-hitter with six innings of one-hit shutout ball and Yordan Alvarez slugged a three-run homer as the Houston Astros recorded a 3-1 victory over the Texas Rangers on Sunday night at Arlington, Texas.

Blanco began the season with a no-hitter against the Toronto Blue Jays last Monday and started Sunday's game with 5 2/3 hitless innings to raise his hitless stretch to 14 2/3 frames.

Texas star Adolis Garcia ended the no-hit bid with a sharp single up the middle. Blanco then retired Evan Carter on a flyout to center to end the sixth and complete his 90-pitch outing.

Alvarez's third homer of the year was all the Astros would need to win for just the third time in 10 games this season. Houston lost the first two games of this four-game series, which concludes Monday.

Justin Foscue had an RBI single in the ninth for the Rangers, who had just two hits while seeing their three-game winning streak end.

Blanco (2-0) struck out four and walked four in his ninth major league start. He said he never thought about throwing a second straight no-hitter.

"No, I wasn't thinking about it at all," Blanco said during ESPN's broadcast, with analyst Eduardo Perez serving as an interpreter. "I was thinking of competing and making better pitches."

Rafael Montero pitched a perfect seventh, Ryan Pressly worked a flawless eighth and free-agent addition Josh Hader allowed a run in the ninth while notching his first save with Houston.

Garcia drew a one-out walk in the ninth and moved to second on Hader's wild pitch. Foscue followed with a ground-ball single to center to score Garcia. Hader then induced Ezequiel Duran to bounce into a game-ending double play.

Dane Dunning (1-1) allowed three runs and four hits over 6 2/3 innings for Texas. He struck out seven and walked three.

Jake Meyers and Jose Altuve drew one-out walks against Dunning in the third before Alvarez came up. The slugger ripped the second pitch he saw over the fence in right to give the Astros a three-run lead.

The blast was just one of Houston's four hits. The others were singles by Altuve, Meyers and Jeremy Pena.

The Rangers outscored Houston 17-4 over the first two games of the series before Blanco and the Astros' bullpen silenced their bats.