ARLINGTON, Texas -- Adrian Beltre homered for the first time at home in more than a month, then got back to the Texas dugout to find his teammates seemingly nodding off. "I cant blame them. Its been a long time," Beltre said. His solo shot in the sixth put the Rangers ahead to stay in a 3-2 victory over Houston on Tuesday night that kept them close in the wild-card race. "But hopefully thatll be the beginning of a couple this week," Beltre said. "Not because I hit a homer, but because it was a good spot to hit it." With five games left in the regular season, Texas remained a game behind Cleveland for the ALs second wild-card spot. Tampa Bay is a game ahead of the Indians in a crowded pack. The Astros lost their 11th straight game, their 107th overall to match the franchise record set last year. Once Beltre started jostling a few of his teammates, they jumped up and started celebrating with him. "The guys fell out and went to sleep because they hadnt seen him do something like that in a long time. He put them to sleep," manager Ron Washington said. "I was the only one who greeted him. That home run was huge right there. We certainly needed and it couldnt have got it as a bigger time." Beltres 29th homer snapped a 2-all tie with one out in the sixth. That came after Yu Darvish gave up the lead in the top half of the inning. The AL leader with 193 hits, Beltre hadnt homered since Aug. 28 at Seattle. His last at home had been Aug. 20, also against the Astros. Neal Cotts (6-3) struck out two in a scoreless inning after taking over for Darvish. Joe Nathan, the fourth reliever, worked a perfect ninth for his 41st save in 44 chances. Matt Dominguez homered for the Astros, and rookie Brad Peacock (5-6) struck out seven in six innings while allowing three runs and six hits. "I felt like he threw the ball outstanding," Astros manager Bo Porter said. "Even the home Beltre hit was a fastball down. Youve got to tip your cap to him." The Rangers are 16-2 this season against Houston, winning the last 10. Its the most wins Texas has ever had in a season against one team. Darvish threw 101 pitches but failed to get past the sixth inning for the third time his five starts in September, even while going over 200 innings for the season. The right-hander also immediately gave up a Rangers lead for the fifth time this year. Texas went ahead 2-1 in the fifth when Craig Gentry had a leadoff single before a sacrifice bunt by Leonys Martin and a run-scoring hit by Ian Kinsler. Gentry scored while third baseman Matt Dominguez cut off left fielder Marc Krauss throw and threw out Kinsler trying to get to second. Dominguez then led off the top of the sixth with a homer that ricocheted off the left-field foul pole. It was his 21st of the season, and third off Darvish. Two batters later, Darvish was gone after walking Trevor Crowe, a .231 hitter, for the second consecutive time. "I was just trying to survive each inning and try to do the best I can in that situation and thats it," Darvish said through his translator. "The most important thing right now is to win a game. I was able to keep us in the game, and thats all I can say." Darvish struck out nine and walked four while allowing four hits in 5 1-3 innings. Twice this season, Darvish took no-hit bids against Houston into the eighth inning. The Astros loaded the bases in the first on Jose Altuves single and two walks, and Chris Carters sacrifice made it 1-0. "When you get a guy like that on the ropes you want to get three or four runs," Porter said. Beltre drew a leadoff walk in the fourth and scored on Geovany Sotos single to tie it at 1. The big blow came two innings later, a shot into the left-field seats. "Apparently I found out a way today. Its been a long time," Beltre said. "It felt good. It felt really good, I havent had that feeling in a long time." NOTES: Texas won 15 games against Seattle in 2011. ... The last MLB team with at least 16 wins against the same opponent was Boston, which went 16-2 against Baltimore in 2009. ... Suspended Rangers slugger Nelson Cruz, who would be eligible for the playoffs, was 5 for 15 with a homer in this first four instructional league games in Arizona. ... Rangers RF Alex Rios, who hit for the cycle Monday, stole his 40th base. Cheap Shoes Australia Free Shipping . At Manchester United, Ferguson developed Beckham into one of the worlds most recognizable sportsmen, but the midfielder left United in 2003 for Real Madrid under a cloud after his relationship with the manager broke down. Cheap Shoes Online Australia . Mitchell first announced on Twitter that he has signed with the Steelers and his agent Brian Hamilton confirmed the signing to The Associated Press. Financial terms were not released. The Steelers have not announced the addition of Mitchell. http://www.shoescheapaustralia.com/ . -- The NFL cancelled its Hall of Fame game between St. Shoes Online Australia Discount .com) - Scott Parel carded a 5-under 65 on Thursday and he grabbed a 1-stroke lead after one round of the season-opening Panama Claro Championship. Clearance Shoes Online Australia . Under the deal, the Vikings will donate an undisclosed sum of money to five gay rights-related charities over the next five years. Kluwe said he wont receive any money as part of the settlement. "This will help a lot of people that really do need that help," Kluwe said.Toronto, ON – The Toronto Rock (3-0) delivered on Rock owner Jamie Dawick’s guarantee of a home opener win by defeating the Buffalo Bandits (2-2) by a score of 13-11 at Air Canada Centre on Friday night. “I thought we started the game very well,” said Rock Head Coach John Lovell. “I thought of the three games we’ve played so far we made the most mistakes (tonight). I credit Buffalo, they were working just as hard and they had a lot of incentive and motivation themselves. I just thought we were sloppy and made a lot of mistakes, but we were fortunate to get some great goaltending and key goals at key times.” An emotional pre-game tribute to former Rock GM Terry “T” Sanderson, who passed away in late November of last year, began the night. The Rock players formed a “T” at centre floor in honour of their late leader. The Bandits added their own touch of class by meeting the Rock players at their end of the floor to shake hands. The Rock stormed out of the gate building a 2-0 edge. They held another 2-goal lead at 3-1 before the Bandits rallied to score a pair of goals and knot the score 3-3 before the end of one quarter of play. The Bandits scored their 3rd straight goal to go up 4-3, but the Rock scored twice to regain the lead. This was only the beginning of the back-and-forth second quarter with Buffalo’s Mark Steenhuis scoring his third and Ryan Benesch scoring his second and third goals of the game to take a 7-5 lead.dddddddddddd The Rock scored three straight to wrestle the lead away from Buffalo, but the Bandits were full marks for answering the bell when they needed a goal to keep the game deadlocked heading into the 4th quarter, 9-9. Toronto doubled Buffalo’s fourth quarter output, 4-2 to gut out a big 2-goal win on home floor. Stephan Leblanc and Brodie Merrill each scored shorthanded in the final frame. Nick Rose got his first win of the season making 30 saves on 41 shots. Anthony Cosmo was credited with the loss allowing 11 goals on 54 shots. Rock goal scorers were Kasey Beirnes (3), Brett Hickey (3), Rob Hellyer (2), Brodie Merrill (2), Stephan Leblanc (2), and Kevin Ross (1). Josh Sanderson had 6 assists, while Leblanc added 7 assists to his pair of goals for a 9-point game. Ryan Benesch’s 5 goals earned him the games third star, while Sanderson and Leblanc were 1-2 on the star scoreboard. There’s little rest ahead for the Rock as they will travel to Rochester Saturday to face the Knighthawks at 7:30pm at Blue Cross Arena. Toronto’s next home game will be Saturday, January 31st at 7:00pm against the Calgary Roughnecks. ' ' '