After a blown lead yesterday, the Houston Astros came out on Wednesday and took care of business against the Toronto Blue Jays, winning 3-2 courtesy of a game-changing homer in the ninth from Yeiner Diaz
No better way to describe the first half of this game than a good old fashion pitching duel.
Both team’s starters in this game, Jason Alexander for the Astros and José Berríos for the Jays, shut their opponents down for the first five innings of the game, with just one run and six hits between the two
pitchers.
The Astros ended up getting to Berríos, knocking him out in the sixth inning, while Alexander kept on rolling, getting through five innings of scoreless ball. This marks the first time in his career that he has gone 7+ innings and given up no runs.
Jason Alexander’s final line:
7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, 89-56 TP-S
It was once Alexander came out that, for the second straight night, the Blue Jays got to Astros pitching late game.
Espada turned the ball over to Steven Okert to start the eighth inning and things quickly unraveled after he allowed three singles in the first four batters he faced and allowed the Jays their first run.
And things just kept getting worse after Okert was pulled for Enyel De Los Santos, who, after giving the Jays their first run yesterday, allowed a second run to tie the game at two. That was all for them though as Bryan Abreu gave Houston a shutout ninth inning to finish off the game.
That one run between the two starters belonged to the Astros and it came back in the second inning after a leadoff walk to Jesús Sánchez was brought home on a Diaz double into the rightfield corner, giving Houston a 1-0 lead quickly.
The Astros didn’t extend that lead until the sixth inning, when they finally got another run off Berríos, knocking him out of the game. That second run came off the bat of Carlos Correa, who sent his 200th career home run over the left field wall on a laser.
Houston had a chance to extend that lead even further in the top of the eighth after loading the bases, but couldn’t get anything across, leaving the door open for the Blue Jays to come back and tie the game up at two.
That tie didn’t last long thanks, once again, to Diaz, who blasted a solo-shot over the right field wall and into the Jays’ bullpen to give Houston their lead back, now up 3-2.
Now with the lead, Espada handed the ball back over to Abreu and, even after tying a season-high in pitches yesterday, he was able to sit the Jays down 1-2-3 and finish off a 3-2 win.
Yordan can’t stop hitting. With another two hits in today’s game, he is now a ridiculous 20-45 (.444 AVG) since coming back, raising his average from .206 to .289 in the past 14 games.
Houston has one more game against the Blue Jays before they head back to the states. That game will start at 2:07 CT.
