Christmas came six months early for the Astros. After Joey Loperfido tripled with 1 out in the 8th, Blue Jays reliever Jeff Hoffman inexplicably attempted to pick him off at third base. His errant throw would send him home, making Loperfido the hero for the second straight day.
Gifts continued in the bottom of the 8th when Luis Urias would get doubled up off of second base, after a sensational play by Cam Smith, thwarting any threat for Toronto.
The final gift would add an insurance run, as Brice Matthews
scored when Guerrero was pulled away from first on a sloppy throw. The combination of miscues would make the final score 3-1.
Not only were the Astros beneficiaries of Toronto’s charity, but they would also retire the opening batter in all nine innings, a rare feat for this staff. Mike Burrows brief flirtation with the bullpen has already paid dividends. Burrows’ lone mistake would be a solo shot to Nathan Lukes, but after that, he’d finish strong.
In the 6th inning, Burrows would retire Springer, Lukes and Guerrero with relative ease. Burrows would go six, strike out three and only walk one runner. By contrast, his counterpart, Trey Yesavage issued five walks on the night.
Issac Parades would start the scoring with a double which brought home Jeremy Pena who was the first runner of the night after drawing a walk.
Two weeks ago in Anaheim, Joe Espada summarized what every Astros fan was feeling stating “We’ve got to start winning some series”. After taking the rubber match from the Jays, Houston has now won their last four series, and in total have won 8 of their last 12 games.
Steven Okert would notch the win. Josh Hader would record his 6th save of the season. He’s now 6 for 6 in save opportunities.
Houston now heads to Detroit for a 4 game series with the Tigers beginning tomorrow night.
The Astros are now 39-43, 4 games under .500. They are even in the win column with Toronto, and trail the Jays by 1 game in the Wild card race.
Houston is 2.5 games behind Seattle in the AL West.
