Astros drop the middle game to Cleveland
Astros daily report presented by APG&E: 2 hits from the 10-4 loss
With a huge trade deadline in the books which came to a peak when it was announced that the Astros had traded for Zack Greinke, Houston got back to work on Wednesday night for the middle game of the series against the Indians. Here is a recap of the game:
Final Score: Indians 10, Astros 4.
Record: 69-40, first in the AL West.
Winning pitcher: Zach Plesac (6-3, 3.41 ERA).
Losing pitcher: Jose Urquidy (1-1, 5.87 ERA).
1) Urquidy takes a step back
After back-to-back quality starts from Jose Urquidy, he was on the mound to make it three straight against a tough Indians lineup on Wednesday night. Instead, he would lose the battle and regress from his recent success. He allowed a lot of traffic on the bases, recording no 1-2-3 innings in the start.
Putting baserunners on resulted in big blows two times in the start for Urquidy, who would allow three-run home runs in the second and fifth innings, erasing one-run leads that Houston had accumulated both times.
Houston would remove him before recording an out in the fifth, making it a short and disappointing night. His final line: 4 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 2 HR. Chris Devenski was brought in to complete the fifth inning.
2) Houston's offense unable to dig out of the hole
As mentioned, Houston had worked their way to leads twice in the game with Urquidy on the mound. First, they moved to a 1-0 lead after a solo home run by Carlos Correa in the top of the second. Then, after loading the bases in the third, Yuli Gurriel put an exclamation point on his terrific month with a bases-clearing double to make it 4-3 at the time.
They threatened in the top of the sixth, loading the bases with two outs but would come away empty. Meanwhile, the Indians tacked on to their lead to put things out of reach by getting four more runs on two homers against Collin McHugh in the bottom half of the inning, extending their lead to 10-4.
While Houston would get scoreless innings from Cy Sneed in the seventh and Bryan Abreu, making his MLB debut, in the eighth, the Astros would be unable to mount a comeback, dropping the middle game of the series.
Up Next: The series finale and rubber match between Houston and Cleveland will be tomorrow night with another 6:10 PM start. Houston will send Gerrit Cole (12-5, 2.94 ERA) to the mound to try and extend his recent hot streak and win the series, while Cleveland is expected to start Danny Salazar who will be making his first start since 2017 after undergoing shoulder surgery.
The Astros daily report is presented by APG&E.
