Astros win fourth in a row as offense puts up 10 runs.
Bottom of the order records 7 RBIs in outburst at plate vs. division foe
The Astros offense can erupt or exhaust. It chases nothing and crushes mistakes. Pedestrian pitchers are doomed if they dance around the strike zone and expect to succeed. No major league lineup swings and misses less than Houston’s. Only eight chase pitches outside the strike zone at a lower rate. Opponents must challenge the Astros and hope to survive.
Wes Benjamin did not. He brought 28 innings of major league experience to Minute Maid Park on Friday. The Texas Rangers recalled Benjamin from Class AAA this week with hope he fixed issues with his command. Dusty Baker gave him a surprise reprieve atop the Astros’ order, batting Robel Garcia leadoff. Benjamin struck him out on three pitches to begin the game.
Little else ended well. The eight men behind Garcia erased any of his anemia in a 10-4 dismantling of the Rangers. Conquering a couple of Astros allows for no relaxation. Getting into a two-strike count is no cause for celebration. Benjamin finished the first unscathed before encountering Yuli Gurriel to start the second.
Gurriel got behind 1-2.
Correa fell to 0-2 after him. Each fouled off three twostrike offerings. Benjamin brought suspect command into the start, but few of his misses in these situations were massive. He stayed around the strike zone and hoped Houston would expand it.
“We were actually talking about it today with Yuli’s at-bat. He got his 20th walk and he has 19 strikeouts,” Kyle Tucker said. “That’s pretty impressive to have more walks than strikeouts.
“We kind of carry that throughout the whole lineup. We try to be selective at the plate, swing at good pitches to hit and not chase. If we do it up and down the lineup, it makes it tougher.”
Gurriel and Correa saw eight pitches apiece. Each worked a walk after being down in the count, beginning Benjamin’s end. Tucker and Myles Straw supplied singles that scored both runners, and the carousel never stopped. Houston drew a season-high eight walks and struck 10 hits.
Michael Brantley and Alex Bregman had no hits. Tucker, Straw and Martín Maldonado had two apiece from the bottom three spots in the order. Maldonado deposited a two-run home run into the Crawford Boxes during the fifth, increasing a lead that already felt comfortable.
“They’re coming on strong,” Baker said of the bottom of his order. “That’s something that we’d hoped for that the bottom of the lineup would come through, especially on certain days when the middle or the top isn’t doing their things. That’s big when you can depend on everybody and not just a few guys.”
Benjamin threw 31 pitches in the second before manager Chris Woodward took him out of his misery. Reliever Brett de Geus faced six batters after Benjamin exited, and five reached base. Houston worked six walks, struck six hits and built a six-run lead through three frames, turning the game into a farce.
The Rangers required three pitchers to procure their first nine outs. de Geus issued a bases-loaded walk to end his evening. HyeonJong Yang entered and immediately did the same, supplying Astros righthander Zack Greinke with more support than any starter could request.
Greinke gave the Astros seven so-so innings. Texas scored three times and struck seven hits against him. Sixty-seven of Greinke’s 103 pitches were strikes, affording some hope he’s solved whatever led him astray in his last three starts. Greinke had an 8.25 ERA in his last 12 innings. He walked six in that span. On Friday, he issued only one free pass.
His opponent could only dream of such efficiency. Benjamin walked three batters in 11⁄3 innings. He collected five outs. Two came against Garcia, a sparingly used utilityman making a rare start. Baker gave Jose Altuve the evening off. Garcia is a reasonable fill-in. For reasons that defy logic, the skipper slotted him in the leadoff spot.
Maintaining continuity with locked-in hitters is vital. Moving Alvarez from the cleanup spot or Gurriel from the five-hole is an unnecessary risk. Baker not taking it is understandable. Hitting Garcia leadoff is not. The 28-year-old waiver claim awoke on Friday with five plate appearances in May.
Benjamin is lefthanded. García mustered a .095/ .174/.333 slash line against southpaws in 23 major league plate appearances. Putting him atop the order against a lefthanded starter is perplexing. Baker did it anyhow.
Aledmys Díaz, a veteran who is thriving this season in a utility role, sat on the bench while Myles Straw started the game. For so long in spring training, Baker fancied Straw as a prototypical leadoff hitter. Friday, he hit eighth.
Straw’s single in the second inning kept Houston’s merry-go-round offense rolling. Maldonado followed with another from the nine-hole, bringing Garcia to bat. The bases were full with no outs. Teammates battered Benjamin and threatened to blow the game open. The crowd rose to its feet at a chance to put the game out of reach.
Garcia saw three pitches. He took one for a strike and whiffed against the other two. He trudged back into the dugout while Brantlety stepped in.
Benjamin hung a firstpitch curveball. Brantley barreled it to the deepest part of the ballpark. Tucker raced home for a run. The carousel continued.
“This lineup has good vision,” Baker said. “Very rarely do they swing at balls out of the zone. When you do that you can get back in the count. Most pitchers depend on you swinging the ball out of the zone. This is an in-zone swinging team most of the time.”