ARLINGTON, Texas _ Cole Hamels allowed three hits and two walks Friday over seven scoreless innings, and Elvis Andrus doubled twice and scored three runs as the Texas Rangers beat the Houston Astros, 6-4, in the opener of a three-game series.
Hamels, who tossed a complete game last weekend at Minnesota, didn't allow a base runner until the third inning on a two-out walk and didn't allow a hit until one out in the fourth.
The Rangers scored four times in the third, with Andrus driving in the game's first run. He scored later in the inning on a two-out two-run single by Carlos Gomez, and came home again in the fifth on Adrian Beltre's double and in the seventh on Nomar Mazara's bloop single.
The Astros mounted a comeback in the eighth against Jose Leclerc, who opened walk, homer, walk. Jose Altuve bounced into a double play, a key sequence as the next three Astros reached. Two scored, and only a lunging catch by Mazara kept the Astros from notching a five-run inning.
