Rangers' Kirby Yates: Throws scoreless ninth

Yates allowed a walk and struck out one over a hitless and scoreless ninth inning in Friday's 12-8 win over Houston.

The Rangers raced to a big lead before the Astros made a late push to force manager Bruce Bochy to deploy his trusted arms -- David Robertson, then Yates -- to close out the game. Bochy told Jeff Wilson of RangersToday.com that closer Jose Leclerc was temporarily being moved to low-leverage situations after Leclerc pitched the sixth inning Friday, when Texas was leading, 12-3. Yates has not allowed a run over five appearances and could be in the mix for save opportunities along with Robertson.