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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There was a conversation Cleveland guard Donovan Mitchell had during training camp, the topic being all the teams that were generating the most preseason buzz in the Eastern Conference. Boston was coming off an NBA championship. New York got Karl-Anthony Towns. Philadelphia added Paul George.
The Cavs? Not a big topic in early October. And Mitchell fully understood why.
“What have we done?” Mitchell asked. “They don't talk about us. That's fine. We'll just hold ourselves to our standard.”
That approach seems to be working.
For the first time in 36 seasons — yes, even before the LeBron James eras in Cleveland — the Cavaliers are atop the NBA at the 25-game mark. They're 21-4, having come back to earth a bit following a 15-0 start but still better than anyone in the league at this point.
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Cleveland was a playoff team a year ago, as was Orlando. And the Rockets planted seeds for improvement last year as well; an 11-game winning streak late in the season fueled a push where they finished 41-41 in a major step forward after a few years of rebuilding.
“We kind of set that foundation last year to compete with everybody,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “Obviously, we had some ups and downs with winning and losing streaks at times, but to finish the season the way we did, getting to .500, 11-game winning streak and some close losses against high-level playoff teams, I think we kind of proved that to ourselves last year that that's who we're going to be.”
A sign of the respect the Rockets are getting: Oddsmakers at BetMGM Scorebook have made them a favorite in 17 of 24 games so far this season, after favoring them only 30 times in 82 games last season.
“Based on coaches, players, GMs, people that we all know what they're saying, it seems like everybody else is taking notice as well,” Udoka said.
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“I think that has to do a lot with Mose. ... I have known him a long time,” Phoenix guard Bradley Beal said. “A huge fan of his and what he is doing. It is a testament to him and the way they’ve built this team.”
The Magic know better than most how good Cleveland is, and vice versa. The teams went seven games in an Eastern Conference first-round series last spring, the Cavs winning the finale at home to advance to Round 2.
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