HOUSTON (Interstat) — Hunter Brown worked into the sixth inning and the Houston Astros battered Texas pitching for 18 hits in an 11-2 victory over the Rangers on Friday night at Daikin Park.

Brown allowed two runs and six hits over 5 2/3 innings, striking out five. He earned his third win against one loss. Nathan Eovaldi took the loss for Texas, allowing six runs on nine hits in five-plus innings. He fell to 10-9.

The Astros took control early with a three-run second inning. Taylor Trammell doubled, Yainer Diaz singled and LaMonte Wade Jr. doubled to drive in the first run. Yordan Alvarez followed with a two-run single to make it 3-0.

Houston added a run in the fourth when Cam Smith tripled and scored on Jeremy Peña’s single. In the fifth, Isaac Paredes homered to left and Christian Walker followed with a homer to left-center to give Houston a 6-0 lead.

Texas got on the board in the sixth. Joc Pederson led off with a homer to right-center. Corey Seager doubled, and Evan Carter singled him home to cut the deficit to 6-2. That ended Brown’s night, and the Houston bullpen kept Texas in check the rest of the way.

The Astros broke it open in the seventh. Diaz led off with a homer to left-center. Wade walked and was replaced by pinch runner Lucas Spence. Cam Smith singled, and Peña doubled to drive in two runs. After an intentional walk to Alvarez, Paredes singled to score Peña, making it 10-2. Houston added another run in the eighth on Lucas Spence’s RBI single.

Diaz finished 4-for-5 with a home run and one RBI. Peña went 3-for-5 with three RBIs. Paredes went 2-for-3 with a homer and two RBIs. Walker also homered. Smith tripled and scored a run. The Astros collected 18 hits, their second-highest total of the season.

For Texas, Pederson homered and drove in a run. Carter had two hits and an RBI. Seager doubled and scored. The Rangers managed eight hits and left multiple runners on base in the early innings, including a double play that ended their first-inning threat.

The game took three hours and one minute before a crowd of 36,621.

The Rangers fell to 55-55. The Astros improved to 57-55. Houston has won two straight and took the opener of this three-game series. Texas had won seven of its previous eight games before dropping its last two.

Houston’s bullpen, featuring Bennett Sousa, Bryan King, AJ Blubaugh and Enyel De Los Santos, limited Texas to one hit over the final 3 1/3 innings. Sousa recorded the final two outs of the sixth with a strikeout. King worked a scoreless seventh with one hit allowed. Blubaugh pitched a perfect eighth with a strikeout. De Los Santos allowed one hit in two-thirds of an inning in the ninth.

The Astros also got a strong defensive performance up the middle. Jose Altuve turned a double play in the first inning. Peña was involved in several key outs and also reached base twice on a single and a hit-by-pitch. Altuve struck out twice but the Astros did not need much from him.

The Rangers had scoring chances early. In the first, Pederson walked and Seager singled, but Brandon Nimmo grounded into a double play. In the third, Pederson walked again and Wyatt Langford singled, but Seager struck out to end the inning. Texas did not put together a multi-run inning until the sixth, but by then Houston had already built a comfortable lead.

Eovaldi struggled in the second inning, allowing three runs on four hits. He settled down briefly but surrendered consecutive home runs in the fifth. He left after the sixth inning, having thrown 96 pitches. The Texas bullpen, led by Luis Curvelo and others, could not stop Houston’s seventh-inning surge.

The Astros also got production from the bottom of the lineup. Trammell doubled and scored in the second. Diaz, batting in the middle of the order, was the constant threat. His homer in the seventh put the game out of reach.

For Texas, the loss snapped a stretch of solid pitching performances. The Rangers had allowed three runs or fewer in each of their previous two games. Friday’s 11 runs matched the most they had allowed since July 20, when Chicago scored 10.

Houston’s win continued its recent surge. The Astros have won four of their last five series and are now two games over .500. They also improved to 4-1 against Texas this season, with three of those wins coming in Arlington earlier in July.

The teams will meet again Saturday and Sunday at Daikin Park before the Rangers head home to face San Francisco. Houston will host Toronto after the series.

Interstat’s game simulator had projected a final score of Houston 7, Texas 5. Interstat’s ELO system gave Houston a 53.60 percent win probability. Houston was a 1.5-run favorite. The combined score of 13 runs went under the 8-run over/under.