Houston has won three straight
Astros' bats erupt against the Angels to secure series win
Apr 24, 2021, 6:34 pm
Houston's bats teed off on Saturday. Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Houston's bats teed off on Saturday.
After taking the first two games of this series, including in dramatic fashion with a three-run tenth-inning rally for the walk-off win Friday night, the Astros tried to make it a three-game winning streak and secure the series with a victory over the Angels on Saturday.
They would get the win, and dominantly, as their offense would explode throughout the day to back up an impressive debut by Kent Emanuel:
Final Score: Astros 16, Angels 2
Astros' Record: 10-10, third in the AL West
Winning Pitcher: Kent Emanuel (1-0)
Losing Pitcher: Griffin Canning (1-2)
Odorizzi exits with injury, Emanuel impresses in his impromptu debut
The ballgame would start with some misfortune for Houston, as after just one batter and one out, Jake Odorizzi would exit with forearm tightness. That set up Kent Emanuel for his major-league debut. He would give up two solo home runs, one to the Astros-terrorizing Albert Pujols in the top of the second and one to Shohei Ohtani in the top of the third.
Emanuel would settle in well after those early homers, retiring ten batters in a row after the Ohtani homer keeping Los Angeles at bay, heading to the seventh inning. In the top of the seventh, he erased a leadoff single for another scoreless frame, then followed that up with a scoreless eighth. He came back out for the ninth, and despite the first two batters reaching base, would finish off the impressive debut: 8.2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 90 P.
Houston's offense erupts
Luckily for him, though, Houston's offense was doing damage against Griffin Canning over that same span. Carlos Correa set the tone early with a leadoff solo home run in the bottom of the first before Houston would put up two more runs to grab an early lead. The top of the order repeated their success in the bottom of the third, with Correa and Michael Brantley reaching base to set up a three-run homer by Alex Bregman to make it a four-run lead at 6-2.
They kept punishing Los Angeles' pitchers in the bottom of the fourth, batting around the order and putting up four more runs on RBI hits by Jason Castro and Yuli Gurriel, extending the lead to 10-2. The train kept moving in the next inning, with a three-RBI triple by Yordan Alvarez to make it an eleven-run game, 13-2.
With the game out of reach in the bottom of the eighth, Los Angeles brought in a position player to try and get through the rest of the game on the mound. Kyle Tucker took advantage, launching a two-run opposite-field homer to make it 15-2 before Jason Castro would bring in another in the inning, making it a fourteen-run lead, which would go down as the final score to give Houston a three-game winning streak.
Up Next: The finale of this four-game series will be Sunday at 1:10 PM Central. Lance McCullers Jr. (1-1, 5.27 ERA), who had to miss his last scheduled start with illness, will be back on the mound for Houston, going opposite of Dylan Bundy (0-2, 4.50 ERA) for Los Angeles.
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Marcell Ozuna hit his major league-leading eighth homer and Orlando Arcia’s RBI single in the 10th inning lifted the Atlanta Braves to a 5-4 win over the Houston Astros on Wednesday.
It completes a three-game sweep of the struggling Astros and is Atlanta’s fourth straight victory.
The Braves scored two runs in the eighth inning to tie it at 4-4. Michael Harris II started the 10th as the automatic runner on second and there was one out in the inning when Seth Martinez (1-1) intentionally walked Matt Olson.
Ozuna lined out to right field to send Harris to third base. Arcia then singled on a ground ball to left field to score Harris and put the Braves on top.
Pinch-runner Jake Meyers was on second when Kyle Tucker walked with no outs in the 10th. Meyers moved to third on a fly out by Yainer Diaz but Jeremy Peña grounded into a double play to end it.
A.J. Minter (3-1) got the last two outs of the ninth for the win and Raisel Iglesias earned his fifth save.
Reigning NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. added his first homer of the season to help the Braves to the victory. Ozuna also leads the majors with 23 RBIs and he extended his hitting streak to 16 games, which ties his career best and is the longest active streak in the majors.
Yordan Alvarez and Mauricio Dubón both homered for the Astros, who fell to 6-14 and are last in the AL West.
There was one out in the first when Alvarez connected on his homer to the seats in left field to put Houston up 1-0.
Ozuna opened the second with his 432-foot shot to left field, which bounced off the wall and tied the game.
Acuña put the Braves up 2-1 when he sent the first pitch of the fifth inning to straightaway center field.
The Astros tied it on an RBI single by Alex Bregman in the fifth and Kyle Tucker’s RBI double came next to put the Astros up 3-2.
Dubón hit his first home run of the year off Jesse Chavez to start Houston’s sixth and push the lead to 4-2.
Harris singled to start the seventh before a ground-rule double by Austin Riley. Olson reached, and Harris scored on a fielding error by first baseman José Abreu when he couldn’t grab a routine ground ball.
There was one out in the inning when Riley scored on a sacrifice fly by Arcia to tie it at 4-all.
Houston starter J.P. France allowed four hits and two runs in five innings.
Max Fried gave up seven hits and three runs in five innings.
UP NEXT
Braves: Atlanta is off Thursday before opening a series against Texas on Friday night with LHP Chris Sale (1-1, 4.58 ERA) on the mound.
Astros: Houston is also off Thursday before ace Justin Verlander will make his season debut Friday night against Washington. The three-time Cy Young Award winner opened the season on the injured list with inflammation in his right shoulder.