ASTROS WIN AGAIN!
Kyle Tucker homers as the Astros sweep the Rockies
Apr 29, 2024, 8:50 am
Astros beat the Rockies, 8-2. Photo by Getty Images.
Kyle Tucker and the Houston Astros had a very successful stay in Mexico City.
Tucker, Jose Altuve and Jeremy Peña each hit a solo homer, helping Framber Valdez and the Astros beat the Colorado Rockies 8-2 on Sunday.
Tucker and Yainer Diaz each drove in two runs as Houston swept the two-game series at Alfredo Harp Helú Stadium.
“The plan was to use the series as a springboard looking forward,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “We want this series to be like a new beginning for us. We need to have more urgency."
Valdez (1-0) pitched five innings of two-run ball in his first big league start since April 2. The left-hander allowed five hits, struck out six and walked none.
“He threw the ball well the first couple of innings," Espada said. "Command was not there, but he settled in the third and he gave us five innings. It was encouraging to see the way he threw the ball.”
Valdez had been sidelined by elbow inflammation, one of several pitching injuries that had contributed to Houston’s 9-19 start. Justin Verlander is back, but the Astros are awaiting the return of José Urquidy, Luis Garcia and Lance McCullers Jr. at some point this season.
"When the rotation is healthy, we have proved that we can do great things in the postseason,” Espada said.
Elias Díaz had two hits for Colorado, and Sean Bouchard and Jacob Stallings each drove in a run. Austin Gomber (0-2) was charged with four runs and six hits in seven innings.
The Rockies have dropped 11 of 14 games.
“We have not played our best baseball and our record is indicative of that, but the players come with energy to compete. There has not been one sign of them not being happy,” manager Bud Black said. “We will continue to play hard."
Houston had lost five in a row before arriving in Mexico City, scoring a total of 10 runs during the slide. But it fared much better at Alfredo Harp Helu, with its elevation of 7,349 feet.
Yordan Alvarez hit two homers and Tucker also went deep during Saturday’s 12-4 victory.
Tucker connected in the first inning in the finale of the two-game set. Altuve went deep in the third, and Peña hit his third homer in the fourth.
It was Houston’s second regular-season visit to Mexico. It swept two games in Monterrey against the Angels in May 2019.
The Astros also played exhibition games in Mexico against the Padres in 2016 and Marlins in 2004.
The Rockies also had played in Mexico before. They beat San Diego in Monterrey in their 1999 season opener.
Colorado pushed across two runs in the second, tying it at 2. Bouchard singled home Elias Díaz, and Stallings had a sacrifice fly.
Altuve responded with his seventh homer on a drive to left.
Houston broke it open with four runs in the eighth. Alex Bregman hit an RBI single, and Yainer Diaz added a two-run double.
UP NEXT
Astros: RHP Hunter Brown (0-4, 9.68 ERA) is scheduled to start Tuesday night against Cleveland. Carlos Carrasco (1-2, 4.63 ERA) pitches for the Guardians.
Rockies: RHP Ryan Feltner (1-2, 5.68 ERA) will start the series opener against the Marlins on Tuesday in Miami.
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Valdez strikes out eight, Astros limit A's to two hits in 3-0 victory
May 15, 2024, 10:02 pm
Astros starter Ronel Blanco received a 10-game suspension Wednesday for violating MLB’s prohibitions on foreign substances after being ejected from the game against the Oakland Athletics.
The suspension was announced by Michael Hill, MLB’s senior vice president of on-field operations. The suspension will begin Wednesday night unless Blanco appeals the penalty, which also includes an undisclosed fine.
Blanco was ejected at the start of the fourth inning of the 2-1 win over Oakland on Tuesday after umpires found a foreign substance that first base umpire Erich Bacchus said was “the stickiest stuff I’ve felt on a glove.”
Third base umpire Laz Diaz ejected Blanco after a check of his glove before he threw a pitch in the fourth inning. The umpires, Blanco and Houston manager Joe Espada stood at the mound for a couple of minutes discussing the issue before the right-hander was ejected.
Bacchus said there was nothing on Blanco’s glove when he checked it in the middle of the first, but he discovered it when he did his second check before the fourth.
“I felt something inside the glove,” Bacchus said. “It was the stickiest stuff I’ve felt on a glove since we’ve been doing this for a few years now.”
After Bacchus discovered the substance he called the rest of the crew in to confer.
“Everybody checked the glove to make sure we all had the same thing and he had to get ejected because he had a foreign substance on his glove,” Diaz said.
Blanco denied using an illegal substance.
“Just probably rosin I put on my left arm,” he said in Spanish through a translator. “Maybe because of the sweat it got into the glove and that’s maybe what they found.”
Espada added that when he went to the mound he saw “white powder” inside Blanco’s glove.
“It looked to me when I grabbed the glove (that) there was some rosin,” Espada said. “You’re not allowed to use rosin on your non-pitching hand and that’s what it looked like to me. It was a little bit sticky with the moisture and the sweat but that’s what it looked like to me.”
Blanco, who threw a no-hitter in his season debut, allowed four hits and struck out one in three scoreless innings Tuesday. He has a 2.09 ERA this season.