After the Rangers clinched the series with wins on Monday and Tuesday, the Astros — who are 7-6 in June — knocked 19 hits against Texas and earned their MLB-best 45th win.

In his first Major League start, Astros top prospect Francis Martes faced little danger until he wiggled out of a bases-loaded jam, twice, in the fifth inning. Martes tossed five innings, surrendered three hits and one run on a wild pitch, and struck out seven on 88 pitches for his first big league win.

Joey Gallo followed the Astros’ offensive eruption with a 466-foot home run to the batter’s eye in center field with an exit velocity of 111.7 mph, according to Statcast™. It was his longest home run in the Statcast™ era.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Sixth-inning explosion: To start, Fisher homered. In the next at-bat, Marisnick did, too. Following the Astros’ fourth pair of back-to-back homers this season, George Springer singled and Jose Altuve was hit by a pitch from reliever Jeremy Jeffress. The Rangers then brought in Tony Barnette from the bullpen, and he walked Carlos Correa and Carlos Beltran and allowed singles to  Brian McCann and Marwin Gonzalez before prompting another pitching change. Dillon Gee surrendered an RBI single to Fisher — for his second hit in the inning — before Marisnick was hit by a pitch and Springer added a two-run double before the win-sealing inning ended with the Astros ahead, 13-1.

Martes escapes trouble: Martes was left to his own devices to fix the fifth inning. With the bases loaded with no outs, the Astros’ top prospect wiggled his way out of a jam with a strikeout, a popout and another strikeout to limit the Rangers to one run via a wild pitch.