Taut wins are a trend for the
Houston Astros
this season. Half of their first 36 victories were attained in comeback fashion. Twenty were by one or two runs.
Wednesday, in a formula seldom followed, the Astros built an early lead and enjoyed a blowout. They beat the visiting White Sox, 10-2, bludgeoning the owners of the American League’s worst record who nonetheless have won half of the teams’ meetings this season.
Houston held a three-run lead after one inning and a seven-run lead after four. Six different players had multiple hits. Christian Walker collected three and drove in four runs, his most in a game for the Astros. Isaac Paredes produced three hits and drove in two runs. Four other hitters drove in one.
Rookie
Ryan Gusto
, the beneficiary of the outpouring of offense, responded with his first quality start in the majors. Gusto threw six innings of two-run ball. Two relievers, Bryan King and Steven Okert, finished the win he started.
The Astros were 8-for-17 with runners in scoring position. Eight of their 15 hits were for extra bases. They are 37-30 and will try for a series victory behind Framber Valdez in the finale against the White Sox on Thursday.
Quality start from Gusto
Efficiency has eluded Gusto
in his major-league starts. He had made eight before Wednesday. Just twice had he completed at least five innings. In his last five starts before facing the White Sox, Gusto owned a 7.58 ERA across 19 total innings. Manager Joe Espada was asked pregame what the Astros were hoping to see from the right-hander to work deeper into outings.
“Once he gets ahead of the hitters, more competitive at-bats when he’s ahead of hitters,” Espada said. “I think once you get ahead, if you start giving hitters opportunities to get back into the at-bat, it puts yourself back into a defensive mode. We want to see him be an aggressor. And I think that’s the best way for you to be efficient on the mound.”
Gusto, then, fulfilled that objective better than in any of his previous Astros starts. He worked six innings on 91 pitches, 60 of them strikes. He walked one batter and struck out seven.
Gusto consistently worked ahead of Chicago hitters. Putting them away still proved difficult at times, but Gusto avoided damage in all but one inning. Josh Rojas singled and Vinny Capra doubled with one out in the fifth. Rojas scored on a groundout and Miguel Vargas lined a fastball for a single that drove in Capra.
In only one other inning did the White Sox put a runner in scoring position against Gusto. He leaned on a four-seam fastball that reached 97 mph and generated 20 called strikes and whiffs against it. Five of the seven hits he allowed were singles. His ERA is 4.56. The Astros are 4-5 in games Gusto has started.
First-inning life
The Astros’ lack of first-inning offense this season has been extreme. They entered Wednesday with 15 runs scored and a .548 OPS in the first inning, both marks worst in the majors. They totaled eight extra-base hits in the first inning in their first 66 games.
Against Burke, they struck three. Isaac Paredes lined a 2-0 fastball into the left-field corner for a double. Jose Altuve drove an elevated fastball to left-center for a double. Two batters later, Walker hammered a hanging slider 412 feet over the Crawford Boxes.
Paredes has been one of Houston’s most productive hitters. But he entered Wednesday with a .492 OPS his first time facing a starter in a game and a .917 in his second. Altuve owned a .586 OPS in his first time facing a starter and an .811 OPS in his second.
Early leads are a luxury of late. Houston went scoreless until at least the fourth inning in all six games on its last road trip to Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Just once did it score before the fifth. An early lead allowed Gusto to attack the zone with a more forgiving margin for error.
Hitting it hard
Before Wednesday, four of the past five balls Walker had put in play with an exit velocity above 100 mph had gone for outs. The exception was a single off Chicago starter Shane Smith on Tuesday. Walker’s first two at-bats saw him rewarded more for sharp contact.
Walker’s home run off Burke left his bat at 107.6 mph. He came up again with two on and two out in the third after Burke allowed a single to Altuve and walked Yainer Diaz. Walker got a 1-1 fastball up and hit it into the left-center field gap. The two-run double left his bat at 106 mph.
His third hit of the night deviated from the trend. Walker’s check-swing on a sweeper from Owen White in the fifth inning produced a flare over the head of first baseman Tim Elko for a single. The baseball left his bat with a 53.1 mph exit velocity.
Climbing the ranks
Altuve struck hits in his first two at-bats, with his third-inning single marking the 2,300
th
hit of his major-league career. Altuve became the 158
th
player to amass 2,300 hits in the majors. He is the second active player to reach that mark, joining Freddie Freeman.
It moved Altuve closer to passing Jeff Bagwell for the second-most hits in franchise history. Bagwell had 2,314 hits in his 15 seasons with the Astros. Craig Biggio is the franchise leader with 3,060 hits. Altuve’s number was announced after the third inning, drawing a round of applause at Daikin Park.
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