Skid hits 3 after bad start leads to worse finish
TORONTO—Brett Ober holtzer peaked at the Rogers Centre scoreboard often in the second inning to see the number of outs Saturday. Much to the Astros lefthander’s chagrin, he had plenty of time to check on the outs as the Blue Jays batted around.
By the time he finally secured the third out of the second inning, Toronto was well on its way to a 7-2 victory before 31,809 at Rogers Centre.
For the second consecutive game, one rough inning cost the Astros dearly.
The Blue Jays took control with a three--
run rally in the second to take a 4-0 lead that was more than enough to hand the Astros their third consecutive loss, matching their season-worst losing streak.
“I looked up and I kept seeing no outs and one out batter after batter,” Oberholtzer (0-1) said after giving up six hits and four runs ( two earned) with three walks and two strikeouts in 32⁄ innings. “Like you said, ‘What do I got to do?’ I got to slow the game down, take one pitch at a time and try to execute that pitch.”
One day after pulling away with a five-run third inning against Roberto Hernandez, Toronto capitalized on Marwin Gonzalez’s error to pounce on Oberholtzer in the second.
Righthander Collin McHugh will try to avoid the three-game sweep when he takes the mound for the Astros on Sunday against knuckleballer R.A. Dickey.
The Astros, who had not dropped a series since May 6 against Texas, have lost consecutive games on the road for the first time this year.
“It’s a couple of games where we’ve gotten punched and we’ve had a difficult time getting back up and getting on top,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “We haven’t played with a lead, so it’s hard to put a finger on it other than just getting into the games … a little bit cleaner.
“Our at-bats have got to get better. Certainly (it would help) not having four- and five-run deficits against a good offensive club that’s going to continue to tack on. Those are big mountains to climb.”
Blue Jays righthander Drew Hutchison (5-1) held the Astros to six hits and one run with one walk and five strikeouts over 61⁄ innings for the victory. No rally in offing
Jake Buchanan held Toronto to one run on two hits with one walk and two strikeouts in 22⁄ innings of relief to give the Astros a chance to mount a comeback that never materialized.
The Blue Jays didn’t waste any time taking the lead in the first inning. Jose Bautista drew a two-out walk and stole second base. Edwin Encarnacion followed with an RBI single to right-center field.
Toronto jumped on Oberholtzer again in the second. Danny Valencia led off with a double to center. Dioner Navarro then reached base on an error when Gonzalez, who started at first in place of Chris Carter, couldn’t find the base as he attempted to step back on it after Jonathan Villar’s throw from short.
Kevin Pillar followed with an RBI single to center. After Ryan Goins sacrificed, Jose Reyes gave the Blue Jays a 3-0 lead with a run-scoring single through the left side. Josh Donaldson made it 4-0 with a sacrifice fly to right. Bautista added a single through the right side, and Bautista walked to load the bases.
Oberholtzer got Chris Colabello to fly out to left to strand the bases loaded.
“They got a good lineup, and I knew I wasn’t going to be perfect,” Oberholtzer said. “But I wanted to go a little deeper in the game than I did.”
Gonzalez led off the third with a single through the left side. Villar followed with a single to left. After Hutchison got a doubleplay grounder to short from George Springer, Jose Altuve cut the deficit to 4-1 with an RBI single to center.
Pillar gave the Blue Jays a 5-1 lead with a run-scoring RBI double to left in the fifth.
Villar cut the Astros’ deficit to 5-2 with a solo home run to right in the eighth inning off reliever Steve Delabar. Altuve hit a two-out infield single to third to prompt another call to the bullpen.
“This is a team that’s come back from behind,” Altuve said of the Astros. “This is baseball. Sometimes we’ll get down early; sometimes we’ll get up early. But I think we’re playing well. There are a couple of things that have happened, but everybody is playing hard and playing 100 percent. That’s what is most important.”
Righthander Roberto Osuna struck out Preston Tucker to end the top of the eighth. Pinch hitter Justin Smoak hit a two-run double to right to cap the scoring for the Blue Jays in the bottom of the inning. ‘Start in a hole’
“The game didn’t start off well, and it didn’t finish well,” Hinch said. “It’s tough. We put ourselves in a hole a couple games in a row now. And these are tough holes to dig out of.
“Their guy did a good job of keeping us down, but when you start in a hole it’s tough to get back the momentum and the rhythm that you want.
“It was a disappointing day.”