Potent bats churn out another rout
White, Gonzalez handle RBI chores; 15 hitters go to plate for nine-run surge in fourth inning
For the first time in his three seasons as Astros manager, A.J. Hinch wrote out his lineup card Friday without at least one of Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa or George Springer.
The injuries to Correa and Springer haven’t altered Hinch’s commitment to mixing in more rest days for his players. So even with the Astros mired in a threegame losing streak, Altuve was given a scheduled day off in the team’s series opener against the Toronto Blue Jays.
The offensive clinic that ensued was a testament to the team’s immense position player depth. In the fourth inning of a 16-7 rout, the Astros (70-39) sent 15 players to the plate and scored nine runs. Each of their starting nine reached base in the inning, prompting a standing ovation from the 39,287 fans at Minute Maid Park.
The victory allowed the Astros to maintain their status as the only American League team to have not lost four consecutive games at any point this season. Their bats forced Toronto (51-58) to cycle through six pitchers in eight innings, including three in the fourth. Each of the six allowed at least a run.
The 15 batters the Astros sent to the plate in the fourth were their
season high for an inning, which matched their second biggest of the season behind only their 11-run eighth on Memorial Day in Minnesota.
Alex Bregman and Marwin Gonzalez homered in Friday’s fourth inning. Carlos Beltran and Tyler White each recorded a single and a double. Yuli Gurriel even drew a walk, only his 10th of the season and his first of a career-high two on the night.
“It’s fun to be a part of this offense,” said Bregman, whose OPS climbed to .820 in his sixth consecutive game with an extra-base hit. “We’ve had a lot of innings like that this year. They’re just fun. Everybody’s battling, putting together good at-bats and squaring the ball up. It was another example of that tonight.”
The Astros cranked five home runs in the game. White clubbed two and drove in five runs. Gonzalez drove in four. Gurriel, the Astros’ 33-year-old “rookie,” homered, doubled and drove in three. He opened the scoring with a two-run blast out to left-center field in the first inning against Blue Jays starter Cesar Valdez.
Valdez roughed up
Valdez, a journeyman righthander who spent last season with the Astros’ Class AAA affiliate, didn’t last more than four batters into the fourth. Two batters after his exit, Bregman took Matt Dermody deep to the opposite field in right. After two more Astros reached, Gonzalez went yard off Mike Bolsinger.
Bregman’s turn to bat came around again later in the fourth, with the bases loaded and two outs against Bolsinger. He gave a firstpitch curveball a long ride before Steve Pearce caught it at the wall in left-center field to end the inning.
“I hit it too high,” Bregman said. “I hit it right on the barrel, squared it up as best I could but just kind of hit it straight up.”
The offensive onslaught bailed out Astros starter Brad Peacock, who allowed seven runs on nine hits in six innings. Kendrys Morales, Russell Martin and Ryan Goins each went deep against Peacock, who had allowed only two homers in 752/3 innings before Friday’s start.
“I felt great overall,” Peacock said. “It didn’t go well but luckily the guys came out swinging today and helped me out big time for sure.”
Friday’s lineup was significant in that it was the Astros’ first without at least one of Altuve, Correa or Springer since Aug. 9, 2014, a game in which Robbie Grossman, Jason Castro and Chris Carter made up the top three in their batting order.
Hinch had pinpointed this game as a day off for Altuve, who had three hits Thursday to improve his major league-leading batting average to .365. The manager told his second baseman in advance and committed to the decision publicly in his postgame news conference Thursday night.
Hinch’s rest policy
“For the most part, I’ve got a pretty good pulse on when these guys are having fatigue, whether it’s mentally, physically or behindthe-scenes stuff,” Hinch said. “For Jose, he’s always full of energy. He always wants to play and, believe it or not, he’s always thankful when you look out for him and give him a day off.
“It’s a difficult decision because no matter what you target as an off day, he’s going to do something positive the day before. I try to stay in front of it, especially with him, and make sure that I give him a day off a day too early rather than have something creep up on him.”
In retrospect, Hinch picked the perfect day to rest the AL MVP candidate.
“He’ll be back in there (Saturday), but he’s going to need to pick it up to join the fun,” Hinch said jokingly.