ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Jake Burger followed Josh Jung's tiebreaking double with a two-run homer off Framber Valdez in the sixth inning, and the Texas Rangers beat the Houston Astros 4-2 on Sunday to keep pace in the American League wild-card race.

The Rangers (74-70) remained 1 1/2 games behind Seattle (75-58), which won at Atlanta, for the final AL wild-card spot. Texas is four games behind the AL West-leading Astros (78-66) with 18 games remaining.

Valdez (12-9) was pitching for the first time since crossing up César Salazar and hitting his catcher with a pitch Tuesday in an incident that was perceived as intentional after the left-hander had given up a grand slam. Salazar wasn't in the lineup.

With two outs and the bases empty in the sixth, Cody Freeman singled and scored from fir

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