Pen keeps it close until bats take over
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Even on the days relief ace Chris Devenski isn’t available, the Astros have plenty of weapons in their bullpen.
Their relief depth was on display in a 6-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night at Tropicana Field. Four bullpen arms threw a scoreless inning each to pick up the slack for starter Mike Fiers, who was done after five innings.
The relentless Astros lineup took care of the rest. Brian McCann and Yuli Gurriel had three hits each, and the soon-to-be 40-year-old Carlos Beltran launched his second solo home run in as many days.
The relief foursome of
Michael Feliz, Will Harris, Luke Gregerson and Ken Giles faced one more than the minimum over their combined four innings. Giles converted the save, his fourth; Gregerson dispatched the heart of the Rays’ order in the eighth.
“These guys are really good, and we’ve got a lot of them, which is a good feeling,” said manager A.J. Hinch, who steered clear of using Devenski a day after his seven-out, 39-pitch save Thursday against the Los Angeles Angels.
Gregerson’s spotless eighth was the most crucial, as he preserved what at the time was a one-run lead. The veteran righthander handled Evan Longoria, Brad Miller and Steven Souza Jr. on seven pitches, each sinker registering 89 or 90 mph.
Gregerson’s go-to pitch
Gregerson, who typically throws his slider more than 40 percent of the time, insisted this wasn’t the first time in his nineyear career he has thrown exclusively sinkers in an outing.
“It was moving a lot, and usually on nights like those, especially in a close game I feel like a lot of times you get guys antsy,” he said. “(They’re) getting ready to hit in a one-run game and they want to try and jump on a fastball quick.
“If it’s moving like that, I just throw it and hope for the best and today it worked out great.”
For the Astros (12-5) the victory was their eighth in nine games. They are the first team in the majors to 12 wins, a total they didn’t reach last year until May 8. In Friday’s series opener, they overcame a poor start by Fiers and two occasions on which Jose Altuve was picked off first base.
Fiers served up three solo home runs, one in each of the first three of his five innings and each on a different pitch. Corey Dickerson crushed an 89 mph fastball in the first, Logan Morrison smacked an 87 mph cutter in the second and Longoria gave an 84 mph changeup a ride in the third.
Fiers has allowed six home runs in 15 innings over his first three starts, in which he has a 5.40 ERA. He recovered Friday to get through five innings, the last two of which Hinch said he thought were the best Fiers has looked all season.
“I think I was more aggressive, throwing with more conviction,” Fiers said of his last two innings compared to his first three. “I think I was kind of walking into that game, per se, like throwing certain pitches harder than others. I felt like they picked up on that and they saw pitches that I was being aggressive on … more so the fastball and cutter — and kind of taking back on my offspeed pitches.
“So I think I kind of tipped (my pitches) a little bit early and then in the fourth and fifth I started just throwing everything pretty much as hard as I could and being really aggressive with every pitch, and that made a big difference. I’ve just got to take it into my next game and learn from that and start that from pitch one.”
The Astros’ bats ensured Fiers exited in line for no worse than a no-decision. After taking Rays starter Alex Cobb deep in the second inning, Beltran, who turns 40 on Monday, started a twoout, fourth-inning rally in which the Astros strung together four consecutive singles to tie the game at 3.
Lucky break in 4th
The Astros caught a break in the two-run fourth. During Beltran’s at-bat, Rays catcher Derek Norris briefly lost a weak pop fly foul ball against the white stadium roof and it dropped before he could get to it. Not only did the sequence extend the inning, but it cost Cobb 18 pitches before he recorded the third out.
The tie was broken in the seventh. Behind two hits and a walk, the Astros loaded the bases with no outs and chased Cobb from the game. Facing righthander Jumbo Diaz, George Springer hit a ground ball to the third baseman Longoria, who bobbled a potential double play that permitted Springer to reach base and McCann to score.
Josh Reddick and Altuve each squandered chances to break open the game in the seventh, but the Astros built on their lead two innings later against Danny Farquhar. Reddick lifted a basesloaded sacrifice fly to deep center field and Gurriel scored on a wild pitch.
Gurriel has heated up after a slow start to the season. He doubled in the seventh and ninth innings Friday and is 12-for-23 in his last seven games.
“I’m working in the strike zone,” he said through a translator. “I was swinging at a lot of bad pitches and now I’m seeing the ball better.”