San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Houston catches fire in one-sided victory
HOUSTON — The Astros appeared to begin Saturday’s game on shaky ground when starter Jake Odorizzi left after just one out with a tight right forearm, but it was the Angels who wound up needing mercy.
The Astros exploded for a season-high run total in a 16-2 rout of the Angels at Minute Maid Park, providing ample support to lefthander Kent Emanuel in his big league debut.
The Astros produced a season-high 11 extra-base hits, including three doubles by Michael Brantley and home runs by Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker.
Emanuel lasted 82⁄3 innings, the longest outing by an Astros pitcher this season, yielding five hits and two runs with five strikeouts.
Meanwhile, Astros hitters torched Angels starter Griffin Canning for six runs through the first 2⅓ innings.
Correa drew first blood in the opening inning when he crushed a 95-mph fastball onto the train tracks for a solo home run with an exit velocity of 103.2 mph. Yordan Alvarez drove in another run, and Bregman scored to make it a 3-0 game.
The Angels got two runs back in the second and third innings when Albert Pujols and Shohei Ohtani pounced on pitches up the middle to homer off of Emanuel, cutting the lead to 3-2. But Bregman retaliated with a three-run blast, his first home run since the second game of the season.
The Angels reached into their bullpen while trying to staunch the bleeding, but relievers Junior Guerra, Steve Cishek and Ben Rowen fared no better than Canning.
The Astros kept pouring it on in the fourth with a four-run inning thanks to hits by Myles Straw, Jason Castro, Bregman, Brantley and Yuli Gurriel. The Angels didn’t help themselves by allowing Castro to score on an errant throw home and intentionally walking Alvarez to load the bases for Gurriel, who smacked a two-run single for a 10-2 lead.
Alvarez got his opportunity in the next inning. Castro and Bregman drew walks and Brantley hit a two-out double to load the bases for Alvarez. Facing newly inserted reliever Rowen, Alvarez slugged a line drive to right field for his first career triple, clearing the bases and ballooning the score to 13-2.
By the eighth inning, the Angels already had allowed season highs in runs and hits. The extent of their desperation was evident when they put a position player on the mound: catcher Anthony Bemboom.
On Bemboom’s second pitch, Tucker latched onto an outside curveball for a two-run home run — his first extra-base hit in nine games and fifth long ball of the season. Castro added an RBI double in what would be, somewhat mercifully for the Angels, the final scoring play of the day.