Gonzalez’s shot salvages McHugh’s debut
Righthander’s promising start marred by pair of two-run homers
BALTIMORE — Marwin Gonzalez provided another signature moment Saturday night in an Astros season full of them.
Pinch-hitting in the middle of an at-bat after a scary incident in which Colin Moran fouled a pitch off his face, Gonzalez lifted a go-ahead, three-run home. The majestic, towering shot landed in Eutaw Street beyond right field, an area reached only 92 previous times since Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992.
Gonzalez’s homer, his career-high 18th of the season, highlighted a five-run sixth inning that propelled the Astros to an 8-4 win over the Orioles. Moran, who bled from a cut below his left eye, required the assistance of a cart to leave the field.
He was sent to a local hospital to undergo an array of tests. The Astros will provide an update Sunday morning.
The injury occurred in the sixth on the first pitch of Moran’s at-bat against sidearming righthander Darren O’Day.
O’Day threw a slider that kept running on the lefthanded-hitting Moran, who swung and deflected it straight up at his left cheek.
Holding the left side of his face, Moran fell to the grass to the left of the batter’s box, where he was tended to by two of the team’s athletic trainers and manager A.J. Hinch. After Moran tried to stand but was too nauseous to walk off the field, the group called for a cart.
Moran, who joined the team from Class AAA on Tuesday when Carlos Correa was placed on the disabled list, was 3-for-6 since his recall.
The nephew of former Orioles All-Star B.J. Surhoff, Moran hit his first major league homer and triple in Friday night’s series opener in Baltimore.
Gonzalez, the Astros’ invaluable super utility man, was in the clubhouse stretching when he saw Moran’s at-bat on one of the televisions. He had already swung in the batting cage to get loose.
Hinch was considering pinch-hitting Gonzalez for Jake Marisnick, who batted after Moran.
Gonzalez’s at-bat, in which he inherited an 0-and-1 count from Moran, was among the best by any Astro this season.
After falling into a 1-and-2 count against O’Day, Gonzalez watched a ball and then fouled off four consecutive pitches before connecting on a slider. The pinch-hit homer was the Astros’ first of the season. His was the first Eutaw Street homer by an Astro since Robbie Grossman’s on July 31, 2013.
“I just knew that it was gone and I started running,” Gonzalez said. “But I didn’t see where it landed.”
Francis Martes bridged the gap between starter Collin McHugh and the back end of the Astros’ bullpen with 21⁄3 scoreless innings in which the 21-year-old righthander didn’t allow a hit.
In his season debut, McHugh cruised through his first four innings, each scoreless, before unraveling in the fifth.
Adam Jones and Jonathan Schoop each tagged McHugh for two-run homers in a four-run frame for the O’s. After the latter, Hinch pulled McHugh. The 30-year-old righthander, who missed the first threeplus months of the season because of an elbow injury, allowed four hits in his 42⁄3 innings. He struck out four and walked two.
Through his four scoreless innings, McHugh had limited the O’s to just one hit, a Chris Davis single in the first inning that should have been caught by center fielder Marisnick. His fastball averaged between 91 and 92 mph. He induced eight swings and misses, five on his curveball.
The start of the game was delayed 58 minutes because of rain. In the fifth inning, the rain returned, just moments before Jones smoked a 2-and-0 fastball into the left field seats.
After Manny Machado singled, Schoop launched a first-pitch fastball out to leftcenter field.
Saturday’s outing was a long time coming for McHugh, who last started a regular-season game Oct. 1.
He reported to spring training in West Palm Beach, Fla., with a “dead arm,” which delayed the start to his throwing program. By the time he got into a Grapefruit League game, the Astros were merely a few days from breaking camp.
After he stayed behind in Florida to pitch a simulated game, the Astros planned for McHugh to make just one rehab start with Class AAA in Fresno’s season opener April 6.
He pitched only one inning of that game before complaining of tightness. A return to Houston to visit the team’s doctors yielded the diagnosis of an impingement in his elbow.
Shut down from throwing for about six weeks, McHugh gradually built up his arm through playing catch and sessions off a mound in the bullpen.
His outing Saturday consisted of 77 pitches.
“When I got the first guy out, it was kind of a nice little sigh of relief,” McHugh said. “It was good. It was good to be back out there. I felt like we did some really good things today.
“I missed too many spots with my fastball. My command was a little spotty all day with my heater and it came back to bite us there in the fifth.”
The Astros tacked on two runs in the ninth, prompting Hinch to use long reliever Joe Musgrove to finish the