ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Texas Rangers keep winning, giving themselves a chance to reach the playoffs for the fourth season in a row. Athletics Jerseys China . Theyre just not getting any help while running out of games. Leonys Martin hit a three-run double, Ian Kinsler homered and the Rangers beat the Houston Astros 7-3 on Wednesday night, a victory they needed just to keep pace while chasing in the AL wild-card race. "We put ourselves in this position. We have to win the games, weve got to get help from someone else," Kinsler said. "The best we can do is win four more games." The Astros lost their 12th in a row and set a team record with their 108th of the season. The Rangers completed a three-game sweep and finished 17-2 with 11 straight wins against their instate rival. "Its one of those things where we want to win, but we have to take account of what weve done," first-year Astros manager Bo Porter said. "Nobodys going to feel sorry for us." The Rangers remained a game behind Cleveland for the ALs second wild-card spot -- Tampa Bay is a game ahead of the Indians. Texas has four games left in the regular season, with the series opener at home against the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday night. "You just get the mentality of taking care of the business thats in front of you," manager Ron Washington said. "If we can continue to win ballgames, I dont care what they do. And if they win out the streak and we win out the string also, then thats just the way it is." Rookie left-hander Martin Perez (10-5) struck out eight over seven innings. The bases-loaded double by Leonys Martin was the big blow for the Rangers when they had seven consecutive batters reach with two outs in the fourth off Dallas Keuchel (6-10). That put the Rangers up 4-3, and Martin scored on a single by Kinsler. Alex Rios added an RBI single before Adrian Beltres hard liner ended the inning. Kinslers 13th homer, a solo shot in the sixth, chased Keuchel. Before sweeping Houston, the Rangers hadnt won consecutive games since a three-game sweep at Seattle from Aug. 26-28. They had an AL-best record of 20-7 in August and a two-game lead in the AL West before starting this month 5-15 while Oakland claimed the division title for the second year in a row. "Just keep winning. Thats our mindset right now. Were competing right now," shortstop Elvis Andrus said. "We now at the same time were winning, we have to hope for the other guys to lose. ... Thats our reality right now." The Astros tied the 2001-03 Detroit Tigers for the fifth-most losses over a three-year span at 321, according to STATS. They trail only the 1962-64 New York Mets (340), the 1963-65 Mets (332), the 1915-17 Philadelphia Athletics (324) and the 1940-42 Phillies (323). After a day off Thursday, the Astros complete their season with three games at home this weekend against the New York Yankees. The Rangers 17 wins are the most Texas has ever had against a team in the same season, and Cleveland won its 17th against the White Sox on Wednesday night. The last team with 17 wins against another opponent before that was Oakland over Seattle in 2006. Houston finished with a 27-54 record on the road, still its most wins away from home since 2010. Ten of the first 11 outs by Texas came on groundballs against Keuchel, one of the majors best with a 2 1/2-to-1 ratio of groundballs to flyballs. In the Rangers third, Craig Gentry reached on a throwing error by shortstop Jonathan Villar. After a stolen base and a wild pitch, Gentry scored when Andrus hit what could have been an inning-ending double play grounder. But the ball slipped out of second baseman Jose Altuves hand when he tried to make the relay throw to first. Altuve, whose 39 hits in September are most in the majors, opened the Astros fourth with a double off the left-field wall and scored on a single by Chris Carter. Brandon Lairds two-run homer made it 3-1. Keuchel got the first two outs of the fourth on grounders before the Rangers loaded the bases on Jeff Bakers single, a walk and a hit batsman. Martin cleared the bases with a double to right. "Its disappointing from my aspect," Keuchel said. "Especially when we just put a three-spot up on the board." NOTES: Houston had 12 strikeouts in the game, increasing its franchise-record season total to 1,504. That is 25 shy of the major league record set by Arizona in 2010. ... The Astros also had a 12-game losing streak last year. ... Villar has 15 errors in 54 games. ... Houston was 1-8 this season at Rangers Ballpark, the only win a game Keuchel started July 6. Athletics Jerseys 2019 . -- Hal Steinbrenner says Alex Rodriguez is "a great player" and "obviously an asset," but the New York Yankees managing general partner wouldnt discuss the third basemans possible return to the team following a season-long suspension. Chris Bassitt Jersey . - The Detroit Lions have 13 takeaways this season — three less than all of last season — and the defence isnt the only unit pleased with the performance.Following a pair of lopsided losses in San Jose to begin the Western Conference quarterfinals, the Los Angeles Kings will aim for a better showing in front of the home crowd Tuesday at the Staples Center. Down 2-0 in the series, the Kings host Game 3 against a Sharks team that simply dominated them in the first two meetings of the best-of-seven series at SAP Center. Los Angeles trailed 5-0 en route to a 6-3 loss in Game 1. On Sunday, the Kings actually led 2-0 before San Jose scored seven unanswered goals to post a 7-2 blowout win and take a two-game lead in the series. Although losing by wide margins in Games 1 and 2 did not look good, the Kings and Sharks both know this series is far from over. Last spring, L.A. managed to come back from down 2-0 to win its first-round series in six games against the St. Louis Blues. In the next round, the Kings won all four of their home tilts to outlast San Jose in seven games. Of course, the Sharks also went 3-0 at home in that series and hold home-ice advantage in the 2014 rematch. Including the playoffs, Los Angeles has won eight straight and 10 of its last 11 home games against the Sharks. If the Kings fail to extend that home streak tonight, the club will face a do-or-die Game 4 on home ice this Thursday. All told, The Kings went 23-14-4 on home ice during the regular season. San Jose was 22-15-4. Kings forward Justin Williams did his best to sum up his teams situation following Sundays setback. "It obviously stinks sitting here, talking after another lopsided loss," said Williams. "But they did what they set out to do and now its response time. Were going back to our arena. We won the first two in our arena last year and they came back and won the next two in theirs. So were looking to repeat that, but we need to start with one." Joe Pavelski collected a goal and two assists to lead the way in San Jooses Game 2 victory. Oakland Athletics Pro Shop . Patrick Marleau and Logan Couture added a score and a helper each for the Sharks, who managed to score more in the first two games of this years series (13) than in all of last years seven-game loss to the Kings (10). Mike Brown, Raffi Torres, Joe Thornton and Justin Braun also recorded tallies, while Antti Niemi shook off a shaky first period to record a 24-save victory. "Its just been a couple of great nights for us offensively," Braun said. "Shored up a few things defensively, Niemi has bailed us out a few times. But you cant be that disappointed with that many goals in two games. Its been good so far at home." Jake Muzzin and Trevor Lewis provided first-period scores for the Kings, but L.A. failed to score over the final 50 minutes, 27 seconds of the game. "I dont really know if its one thing in particular," Kings captain Dustin Brown said. "Again, we gave up a lot of odd-man rushes. Even in the first (period) when we were up 2-0, they had a lot of good chances. We need all 20 guys to be on top of their game." Jonathan Quick was left in net for all seven goals on 40 shots. The Conn Smythe winner when L.A. won the Stanley Cup in 2012, Quick has a dreadful 7.22 goals against average and .824 save percentage in the first two games of this set. He was pulled from Game 1 midway through the third period, but Kings head coach Darryl Sutter didnt blame his goaltender for Sundays setback. "I thought he was fine tonight," Sutter said of Quick. "Hell tell you that he struggled in the first game." The 28-year-old Quick entered this postseason with a career playoff line of 29-21 with a 2.03 GAA and.929 save percentage. Quicks GAA now stands at 2.19 through 52 career playoff games and his save percentage has dipped to .924. ' ' '
