Astros daily report presented by APG&E: 4 hits from the 11-4 Win

Jose Partida
May 11, 2019, 10:30 pm
Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images

The Astros came into the third game of this series looking for a series win. Here's a quick rundown and four points from the game:

Final Score: Astros 11, Rangers 4

Record: 25-15, first in the AL West.

Winning pitcher: Gerrit Cole (4-4, 3.88 ERA)

Losing pitcher: Drew Smyly (0-3, 6.85 ERA)


1. The Cole Train ran on full steam

Gerrit Cole pitched his worst start this season against the Texas Rangers. In fact, he entered tonight's game 0-2 with a 9.58 ERA in his two starts against them this season. Despite giving a line drive HR to Hunter Pence, Cole struck out FIVE in the first two innings. He struck out two more in the third. Cole was challenged in the fourth, but back to back strike outs to Gallo and Pence got him out of the inning stranding Santana at third. For those keeping score, Cole had nine strike outs through four. Odor and Guzman were victims to Cole's strike out in the fifth. With runners on third and second, Cole got Gallos looking with a 100 mile an hour fast ball to end the inning and earn his twelfth strike out of the night. He tied Brad Peacock for the most strike outs by a starter this season with twelve.


2. Aledmys Diaz with his biggest moment as an Astro

In the sixth inning, in a on run game, Aledmys Diaz answered the call for the offense. With two outs, Diaz hit a Grand Slam to the Crawford Boxes. The bottom of the order was what got the Astros the win last night with three solo HRs. The bottom of the order, tonight, set themselves up for the nine hole hitter to bring them all home in the biggest moment in his Astro tenure.


3. Devo makes things interesting before the Bullpen settles things down

After a shut down start from Cole and a gushing Grand Slam from Diaz, Chris Devenski entered the seventh striking out Hunter Pence. He then gave up singles to Odor and Cabrera before Guzman hit a bomb to the upper deck in right field to cut the Astros lead to 6-4. Hector Rondon would get the last out of the inning striking out Santana. Josh James entered the 8th with a five run cushion and got out of the inning with two strike outs. James would get two more strike outs in the 9th to rack up a total of four, 18 as a staff for the night.


4. The two out magic was in full effect

What did Josh Reddick's RBI single, Aledmys Diaz' Grand Slam, Tyler White's RBI single, Robinson Chirinos' two RBI single, Carlos Correa's RBI single, and Yuli Gurriel's RBI single have in common? Well, aside from obviously putting points on the board, they were all runs scored when the Astros were at bat with two outs. 10 of the Astros' 11 runs came with two outs.


Up Next: Nothing better than a Sunday day game at Minute Maid Park. A 1:00 start on Mothers Day. The Astros will look to sweep the series as Corbin Martin makes his Major League debut. He was 1-1 with a 1.48 ERA in five games for Triple A Round Rock. The Rangers will counter with Adrian Sampson (0-2, 4.41 ERA)

The Astros daily report is presented by APG&E.

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Springer had two homers Sunday

Springer helps lift Astros to series win over D-backs

Photo by Bob Levey / Getty Images

With a win on Saturday to tie the series 1-1, the Astros took the field at Minute Maid Park for the last time of 2020 on Sunday. A victory would give them the series against Arizona and move them one step closer to securing one of the two playoff spots for the AL West's highest-record finishing duo. Here are the quick highlights from Sunday's rubber game:

Final Score: Astros 3, Diamondbacks 2.

Record: 27-26, second in the AL West.

Winning pitcher: Blake Taylor (2-1, 2.41 ERA).

Losing pitcher: Junior Guerra (1-2, 3.04 ERA).

Urquidy goes six while allowing two runs

After three scoreless innings on both sides, Arizona would start the scoring in the top of the fourth. They would load the bases with no outs against Jose Urquidy, getting back-to-back singles to start the frame before Urquidy issued a walk. He would get out of the jam with just one run allowed, though, thanks to a timely double play and a flyout to end the inning.

The D-backs ambushed Urquidy in the top of the fifth, getting a leadoff solo homer to double their lead to 2-0. Urquidy would go on to finish six innings while allowing just the two runs. His final line: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 HR, 90 P.

Springer takes it into his own hands

After tagging him with eight runs on August 4th in Arizona, the Astros were unable to figure out Madison Bumgarner on Sunday, going scoreless over his five innings on the mound. They went to work against Arizona's bullpen in the bottom of the sixth, starting with a near-conventional homerun turned inside-the-park homer for George Springer to start the inning, cutting the lead in half 2-1.

They went on to load the bases with two outs but would strand all three runners to keep it a one-run game heading to the seventh. Andre Scrubb was first out of Houston's bullpen and had a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts. In the bottom of the seventh, Springer tied the game with his second homer in as many innings, this time over the right-field fence, making it 2-2.

Astros grab the late lead, take the series

Scrubb would retire one more batter, getting a groundout to start the top of the eighth before Houston moved on to Blake Taylor to face the top of Arizona's order. He would keep it a tie game, working around a two-out infield single to end the inning.

Houston would get the go-ahead run in scoring position in the bottom of the eighth, with Alex Bregman getting hit by a pitch then moving to second on a walk to Michael Brantley. They'd go on to load the bases with another walk and one out, setting up a go-ahead sac fly by Carlos Correa to take a 3-2 lead.

That presented another chance for a save for Ryan Pressly, which he would notch as the Astros would take the final two games of the three-game set to win the series. The win moved them up to 27-26 on the year, keeping them a leg up on the Mariners for second place in the AL West.

Up Next: Seven games remain in Houston's regular season, all on the road, with a three-game series in Seattle against the Mariners and then a four-game set in Arlington against the Rangers. The opener in Seattle will get underway at 8:10 PM Central on Monday and features the pitching matchup of Marco Gonzalez (6-2, 3.49 ERA) for the Mariners and Lance McCullers Jr. (3-2, 4.87 ERA) for the Astros.

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