Upcoming rough road could be bumpier
Diaz, Brantley shine in homestand finale, but Altuve hurt
The Astros departed Houston on Thursday night with an expanded traveling party, setting out on an expanded West Coast road trip that could have significant bearing on hopes for another American League West title.
They prepped for departure with an 8-4 afternoon win over the Rangers at Minute Maid Park, fueled by three RBIs each from Aledas mys Diaz and Michael Brantley, but with more potentially troublesome news on the injury front, this time involving Jose Altuve.
Manager Dusty Baker said Altuve snagged the spikes on his right foot while sliding into third base in the first inning. He was lifted after two innings with what was described as right knee discomfort and underwent an MRI exam, the results of which were not immediately available.
Altuve’s departure came
the Astros continued to reap benefits from the return from injury of Diaz, who joined the active roster after being out since the season opener in July, and Brantley, who had an injured list stint with an injury to his right quadriceps.
Brantley, who was 6for-12 with nine RBIs in the three-game series against the Rangers, drove in one of the Astros’ four runs in the first and added a two-run double in the eighth.
Diaz followed Brantley’s first-inning RBI with a threerun homer to cap a four-run first inning off Rangers starter Lance Lynn (4-2) in support of Zack Greinke (3-0), who allowed three runs on six hits in six innings with nine strikeouts and a walk.
“You know (Lynn) is going to come at you, so there’s no sense waiting around to let him get ahead of you,” Baker said. “He’s a workhorse, and if you don’t get to those guys early, it’s tough. So that was a big home run that Diaz hit.”
Brantley, Baker added, “had a huge series (against the Rangers). I enjoy watching him hit.”
The Astros won six of eight at home to pull within two games of the A’s for the division lead, and they will be joined on the road by Alex Bregman, who said Thursday he has recovered from a hamstring injury that landed him on the injured list, and pitchers Jose Urquidy, Chris Devenski and Brad Peacock, who may be within range of coming off the injured list.
The Astros now face four games against the Angels, including a Saturday doubleheader, five with the division-leading A’s, including a Tuesday twin bill, plus two against the Dodgers before returning home.
A successful road trip, particularly in the wake of a 3-6 West Coast swing in August, could solidify their hold on a playoff berth and give them a chance at catching Oakland.
“It’s a huge road trip,” Baker said. “This time, we know how to deal with the isolation and the confinement that we went through the first time.”
The Astros struck quickly against Lynn. George Springer led off with a single, Altuve followed with an opposite-field base hit and Springer scored on Brantley’s opposite-field single.
Lynn retired Yuli Gurriel and Kyle Tucker on flyouts and got two strikes against Diaz before the veteran deposited a 2-2 fastball off the façade above the Crawford Boxes.
“We knew we had to be aggressive on the fastball,” Diaz said. “That is the one thing we wanted to do was to get to the fastball early in the count and make damage.”
The Rangers kept within reach in large part because of second baseman Nick Solak, who had three hits, narrowly missed a fourth on a fine fielding play by Diaz in the eighth inning and scored three runs.
Solak led off the second with a double and scored one out later on a Jose Trevino double. He led off the fourth with a base hit and scored on an RBI single by Elvis Andrus, then delivered another leadoff double in the sixth, moving to third on a Joey Gallo groundout and scoring on a Trevino groundout.
Leading 4-2 after four innings, the Astros got a run back in the fifth when Abraham Toro was hit by a pitch, stole second, reached third on a Gurriel base hit and scored on an opposite-field single by Tucker.
Texas cut the lead back to two runs in the top of the sixth, and catcher Martin Maldonado led off the bottom of the inning with an opposite-field home run just to the right of the Astros’ bullpen.
In the eighth, with the Rangers again having closed within two, Maldonado led off with a double on a sinking line drive that got past center fielder Leody Taveras. One out later, he moved to third on a Springer base hit, and both scored on Brantley’s opposite-field double to left.
Greinke, meanwhile, had 65 strikes in 104 pitches and “struggled some,” Baker said. “But he finds his way to keep his team in the game until you score some runs.”
The early run support, Greinke said, “was really nice. Lance Lynn is one of the top five pitchers in baseball, and I didn’t know what to expect. Getting four runs was really nice.”
Cy Sneed pitched a scoreless seventh with two strikeouts and allowed a solo homer by Shin Soo-Choo in the eighth to cut the Houston lead to two runs. Cionel Perez got two outs in the eighth, and lefthander Blake Taylor allowed a walk in a scoreless ninth inning.
Now comes the road trip, beginning Friday night in Anaheim, and the challenge of getting familiar faces like Bregman, Urquidy and others back up to speed over the balance of the month leading into the playoffs.
“For us to play well the last couple of days is obviously big, especially before a long trip,” Springer said. “This is a big stretch for us, a long stretch. Between L.A. to Oakland to L.A., it’s going to be a grind.”