It was a day of the long ball, resilience, extra innings and jubilation. In the end, Houston would hang on in a back-and-forth affair, defeating Toronto by a score of 9-7. The hero would ironically be a former Blue Jay, Joey Loperfido, who Houston reacquired for moments such as these. In the bottom of the 11th, Loperfido would launch a 3-run blast breaking the 6-6 tie.
The longball would serve as the story for Houston at different intervals on this day. Shane Bieber would run into a buzzsaw during his season debut. The Astros would tee off on the former Cy Young Award winner in the 4th inning with a barrage of home runs, featuring a trifecta of solo shots from Yainer Diaz, Cam Smith and Taylor Trammell. Trammell’s 421-foot blast would reach the upper deck, ultimately forcing Bieber to the showers a few batters later. The last time the Astros hit three homeruns in consecutive fashion was back on July 19th, 2019, versus the Rangers. The Astros have never lost when hitting back-to-back to-back homers. They are 8-0 in franchise history.
After the barrage of blasts, Toronto would respond on their home half of the 4th. Daulton Varsho, who led things off with a double and would score on a Luis Urias homer, cutting the lead in half at 4-2. It was Urias’s debut as a member of the Jays. Peter Lambert would exit in the bottom of the fifth. In addition to the pair of allowed runs, Lambert would strike out six, walk three, and scatter six hits.
Prior to the fireworks in the fourth, Jose Altuve began smacking his 12th double of the season. He’d advance to third on a wild pitch, eventually coming home on Isaac Parades’ 2 out RBI single to center, scoring the game’s first run. Altuve batted leadoff in place for Jeremy Pena who made an impromptu exit yesterday after sustaining a hamstring cramp in his right leg. Pena would return as a pinch hitter in the 8th for Trammell and would draw a walk. That walk would load the bases in the 8th but Brice Matthews, mired in a 1-18 slump, struck out and Raynel Delgado popped out ending any threat.
Nate Pearson would come on in the 8th and would commit costly mistakes. After issuing a walk to Springer, Vladimir Guerrero would reach on Pearson’s throwing error. Kazuma Okamoto would then drive them in. Okamoto now has 48 rbi’s on the year.
In the 9th, Altuve, Alvarez, and Paredes would load the bases. Joey Loperfido would reach on catcher interference which scored Altuve. Cam Smith would execute a sac fly bringing in Alvarez and once again, things were tied up, this time 6-6. Josh Hader would come in the bottom of the ninth and rack up a 1-2-3 inning. In the 11th, the magic happened and now the Astros are in position to win their fourth consecutive series with a win tomorrow. Logan VanWey earns his first win in relief.
Mike Burrows returns to the rotation after a brief stint in the bullpen to close out the series tomorrow. He’ll get the start and is opposed by Trey Yesavage. First pitch is set for 6:07pm CDT.
Odds & Ends:
Issac Parades has an 8-game hitting streak.
Christian Walker went 0-6 on Tuesday with 3 strikeouts.
One year ago, at the midway point, the Astros record stood at 48-33. They had a 6 1/2 game divisional lead.
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