Valbuena finds bases to his liking

Luis Valbuena’s Saturday was something the Astros hadn’t seen in more than two years.

The third baseman reached base four times, walking twice to go with two doubles. The last Astro to have multiple doubles and multiple walks in a game was Chris Carter on Sept. 10, 2013.

“That’s what I try to do every game — get on base and try to score,” said Valbuena, who scored in the eighth inning and also drove in a run.

Valbuena tied a career high, last reaching four times Oct. 2, 2015 against Arizona.

He highlighted a productive day for the bottom third of the batting order, which has been struggling.

Marwin Gonzalez, who started at first base in place of rookie Tyler White, hit seventh and went 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Jason Castro didn’t get a hit from the ninth spot, but he drove in the tying run in the second inning.

“We have a long lineup when we’re good, and when we start clicking it’s a fun lineup that there’s really no holes in,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “We haven’t seen that type of consistency yet.”

With White a regular in the fifth spot, no Astros batter regularly in the final three spots entered Saturday hitting better than .215.

“I think today was one of our best days of just putting up good at-bats and taking what the game gave us,” Hinch said.