After falling behind the Astros tried to comeback but the Blue Jays would have nothing of it, beating the ‘Stros 7-3
W: Morrow (1-1)
L: Harrell (0-2)
contributed by Sphinx Drummond
The Astros got off to a rough start Wednesday night, allowing Morrow to strike out the side in the top of the fist inning, then having Harrell take the mound in the bottom half and giving up two runs on three hits.
The Astros improved in the second inning, allowing Morrow only two strikeouts. Harrell also improved, he surrendered no runs and just gave up a meaningless double to Rasmus.
Continuing to get better one inning at a time, only one Houston batter struck out in their half of the inning and in the bottom of the third, Harrell got the Blue Jays three up, three down.
The Astros were able to get runners on the corners with one out in the fourth inning only to leave them stranded after following up with two strike outs. The score remained Toronto 2, Houston 0. The Blue Jays were able to add three runs in the bottom of the fifth, thanks in part to Matt Dominguez’s throwing the ball to the right fielder instead of the second baseman. Harrell was done, relieved by Jerome Williams, who put out the fire.
The Good Guys attempted a comeback and scored three runs of their own in the sixth. Dexter Fowler led off with a single and Alex Presley smashed a two run bomb, his second of the season. Jose Altuve tripled after Jason Castro’s fly out, and scored the third run after Chris Carter grounded out to third, followed by a Krauss ground out, leaving the score at 5 to 3 in favor of the Blue Jays.
Williams was doing a fair job in relief, after walking Goins, Williams picked off of first in a close play that might have been overturned if challenged but no challenge was issued. Williams appearance later came to a halt when he strained his groin while delivering a pitch to Edwin Encarnacion. Josh Zeid took over for Williams and got Encarnacion on a strike out to end the inning.
Toronto added two more runs in the seventh inning with a two run homer by Brett Lawrie, which was basically the final nail in the coffin. The Astros have a hard time getting men on base and when they do, they have a harder time driving them in. It’s unfortunate that they gave away two or three runs with sloppy play in the field, but it’s compounded by such an anemic offense.
Harrell took the loss but wasn’t his usual awful self, not saying he was good. He threw 107 pitches only 59 were strikes. However, he pitched well enough to stay in the rotation for now or at least probably hasn’t pitched himself out of the rotation yet, but mostly because the Astros are the worst.
Only 13,569 at the game, the Astros can’t draw on the road. They are so shitty in the minds of Blue Jay baseball game attendees people choose to sit out and wait for the next good team to come to town.
Game Time: 3:09.
Umpires: HP–Jerry Layne. 1B–Hunter Wendelstedt. 2B–Gabe Morales. 3B–Mike Estabrook.
Weather: INDOORS
Wind: 0 mph, dome or roof closed.