HOUSTON – After a difficult road trip that produced a 3-4 mark against two teams that are not considered competitors, the Astros returned home Friday night to deliver the kind of victory they didn’t enjoy in much of the way. time: beautiful, easy burst, for a team fighting for a playoff spot.
By beating the Mariners 12-3, the Astros first-place finisher got a couple of things: they pushed a division rival a little further down the AL West standings and found some life in a lineup that fought for the Royals ’last place. to finish his recent road trip.
“We hit a few balls during the road trip, with nothing to prove,” manager Dusty Baker said. “You love to see some of the fruits of your hard work. It was great for us to put these wrong numbers in consecutive entries. Those guys didn’t take their foot off the pedal, and that’s how they play, and that’s how I love to see them play. “
Lance McCullers Jr. produced one of his sharpest outings of the season, but would have been in a good position even with less effective performance, given the Astros ’hitters paired up against Mariners’ torn left Yusei Kikuchi.
By the time Kikuchi came out with two outs in the third, the Astros had already scored seven runs. That included a RBI triple from Carlos Correa in the first and consecutive from Yordan Alvarez and Yuli Gurriel in the third, marking the first time this year that the Astros threw long consecutive balls at their home stadium. Alvarez’s home run, which dropped his bat at 110.6 mph, traveled 429 feet, for Statcast.
“It simply came to our notice then [win] We really needed it as a team, to be honest with you, “Gurriel said through the team’s interpreter.” Especially the batters, after the last series we had, it was very hard for us. Therefore, it was something that gives us a lot more confidence to come back and have a performance like this ”.
The overcrowding did not recede until the sixth, a pattern that seems to have been historic. Houston scored at least two runs in each of its first five innings, something it had never achieved before in franchise history.
The A’s were the last team to do so on September 10, 2019 and coincidentally played the Astros in Houston. A won this match, 21-7.
“When our lineup gets underway, it’s something special,” said McCullers, who destroyed eight Mariners batsmen to bring the season total to 144, a maximum in his career. “Hopefully, we can continue to carry it through this house. Obviously, we didn’t play the way we expected towards the end of the road trip, but that’s baseball, and we’re back today.”
The win improved the Astros ’August mark to 8-9 and provided a break from a three-week stretch where the offense fought harder than it hit. As of the day after the trade deadline, July 31, the Astros had lost 10 of 17, and were 25th in the Majors in races scored during that stretch.
Breaks that come along over a long season are inevitable, even for a team as dangerous as Houston. They are also usually temporary. However, while these offensive lapses occur, they are unpleasant.
Victories like the Astros Mariners ’defeat on Friday surely helped them pass a crazy series to a struggling Royals team that kept them only two or fewer runs in two of the four games.
There are emerging patterns that can provoke optimism. Correa, for example, has been in a tear for more than three weeks. In his last 22 games, he hit .325 (27 vs. 83) with six doubles, three homers and 10 RBIs. In addition to Kikuchi’s triple on Friday, he also led the third inning with a base hit and scored three runs.
Alvarez also warms up. In August, he hit .339 (21 vs. 62) with four homers and 14 RBI. He led in four of those series opening races with Seattle.
The Mariners ’loss pushed them 6 1/2 games behind the Astros in the AL West race, and allowed Houston to maintain a 2 1/2 game lead over the A.D.
“It’s been great for us tonight,” Alvarez said. “It simply came to our notice then. Everyone knows we haven’t played too well. So it was important that we come back tonight and have a performance like we did tonight. “