Astros outslug the Rockies for fourth straight win

Astros daily report presented by APG&E: 3 hits from the 9-8 win

Astros daily report presented by APG&E: 3 hits from the 9-8 win
Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images

After a successful weekend series sweep against the Mariners at home in Houston, the Astros had Monday off before starting a two-game series with the Rockies in Colorado. Here is a quick rundown of the first of the two games that took place Tuesday night:

Final Score: Astros 9, Rockies 8.

Record: 54-32, first in the AL West.

Winning pitcher: Will Harris (3-1, 1.44 ERA).

Losing pitcher: Jake McGee (0-1, 1.89 ERA).

1) Decent debut for Urquidy

With Brad Peacock landing on the injured list, the Astros made a move to bring up Jose Urquidy to make his MLB debut on the mound to start Tuesday's game. It was a tough task in the hitter-friendly confines of Coors Field, which Urquidy learned immediately.

He allowed back-to-back two-out doubles to Colorado in the bottom of the first, allowing the Rockies to tie the game 1-1 after the Astros had gone up 1-0 in the top of the inning. He would give up more hits in the next inning, starting it with back-to-back singles before a wild pitch scored a run to tie the game 2-2.

Urquidy would get out of that inning, then had his best inning in the third with his only 1-2-3 inning of his start. He would put more runners on in the fourth after some struggling defense behind him, and with his pitch count rising would have his debut ended somewhat early. Jose's final line: 3.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K.

2) Yuli Gurriel stays hot to power the offense 

If his back-to-back walk-off hits over the weekend weren't enough, Yuli Gurriel was taking charge at the plate in this game to keep Houston's offense in the driver's seat. After a sacrifice fly by Alex Bregman in the first gave the Astros their first run, Gurriel hit a solo home run in the second which gave them a 2-1 lead.

After the Rockies tied the game 2-2 in the bottom of the second, Michael Brantley gave Houston the lead right back in the top of the third with a two-RBI double, then Gurriel added another RBI on a single to extend the lead further to 5-2. After the bullpen blew that lead and had Houston down 8-5, the Astros had another big inning in the top of the seventh.

They started the inning by hitting back-to-back-to-back doubles from George Springer, Jose Altuve, and Alex Bregman, scoring two runs to trim the lead to one at 8-7. Brantley moved Bregman to third, but which base he was on would not matter because Gurriel would get his third and fourth RBIs and a second homer on the night with a one-out blast to regain the lead for the Astros at 9-8.

3) James melts down in the fifth, rest of the bullpen holds

Josh James was first out of the bullpen to finish off the fourth for Urquidy, which he did with a strikeout to end the inning. However, James would return in the fifth and have a disastrous time, blowing the three-run lead by allowing Colorado to score five runs on three hits including walking in a run with the bases loaded, handing the Rockies a 7-5 lead.

Will Harris took over in the bottom of the sixth trying to keep it only a two-run deficit, but he too would find himself in a jam, loading the bases with no outs on three consecutive singles to start the inning. He would limit the damage to just one run, increasing Houston's deficit to three runs at 8-5.

After another big inning in the top of the seventh to bail out Houston's pitching again, Chris Devenski was next on the mound in the bottom of the inning with a freshly acquired one-run lead. He was able to work around a leadoff walk to get through the scoreless inning with a couple of strikeouts.

Ryan Pressly took over on the mound in the bottom of the eighth and was able to get one of the best innings of the night for Houston pitching by retiring a tough part of Colorado's lineup in order including two strikeouts. That gave Roberto Osuna another save opportunity in the bottom of the ninth, and he would get it by finishing off the 9-8 win.

Up Next: The Astros will wrap up this quick series tomorrow night the second of these two games starting at 7:10 PM. Wade Miley (6-4, 3.39 ERA) will get the start for Houston and go opposite of Peter Lambert (2-0, 6.57 ERA) for Colorado.

The Astros daily report is presented by APG&E.

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Fred VanVleet scored 20 points in the loss. Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images.

Cade Cunningham had 32 points, nine rebounds and seven assists to lead the Detroit Pistons to a 107-96 win over the Houston Rockets on Monday.

Cunningham was 12 of 22 from the field. He scored 19 points in the third quarter as the Pistons built a 90-80 lead after three.

Jalen Duren had 16 points and 14 rebounds, Malik Beasley added 17 points off the bench, and Ausar Thompson had 11 points and nine rebounds for the Pistons, who shot 48% and were 10 of 27 on 3-pointers.

Fred VanVleet scored 20 points, and Jalen Green scored 19 points. Amen Thompson, who missed the game at Portland on Saturday with left calf soreness, added 17 points for Houston, which shot 39% and struggled from 3, connecting on 11 of 39.

Takeaways

Detroit: The Pistons committed 23 turnovers but were able to overcome it by forcing the Rockets into 17 turnovers and converting it into 19 points.

Houston: The Rockets got balanced scoring with five players in double figures, including Alperen Sengun, who had 11 points and eight rebounds, and Cam Whitmore, who had 10 points off the bench, but they couldn’t overcome poor shooting.

Key moment

After Houston cut Detroit’s lead to 90-85 three minutes into the fourth quarter, Marcus Sasser hit a jumper and three-pointer to spark an 11-2 run as Detroit pulled away.

Key stat

Detroit had a 52-39 advantage in rebounding and a 50-40 edge in points in the paint.

Up next

Houston hosts Cleveland on Wednesday, and Detroit plays at Atlanta the same day.

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