For the Astros, this last week could not have gone much worse on the field (or off, for that matter). After dropping five games in a row, including putting up only five total runs in the weekend series with the Marlins, the thing they were looking forward to was facing the Oakland A's, and their MLB-leading record. What better way for a struggling team to get well, right? With the team a little bit beat up physically and mentally, the outlook was not good to start this series.
Don't tell Brett Oberholtzer about negative outlooks! Less than a week after pitching seven innings and only giving up two runs against this same A's team, Obie came out tonight and finished with a solid line of 6.2 IP, 8 H, 3 R, and only one walk. He threw a lot of strikes, and did not give up a big inning, allowing only one run each in the 2nd, 3rd and 5th innings. He looks like he is making the most of his latest chance to stick in the rotation.
The other story in this game was the offense, especially after the recent streak of poor showings. In the third inning, Kike Hernandez and Jose Altuve both singled, and with 2 outs, Chris Carter hit a bomb just to the left of Tal's Hill for a three run homer, and a 3-2 Astros lead. Carter has had a great July, and the team can only hope his new approach will continue to pay off going forward.
The A's tied the game in the 5th inning, but in the 6th the Astros took control behind a 2-run HR from Jason Castro. Following that, a solo homer into the right field upper deck by Mark Krauss, and another solo shot by Matt Dominguez onto the tracks above the Crawford Boxes made the score 7-3, Astros. Obviously the way to avoid a series where you go 1-26 with runners in scoring position is to just score all your runs by hitting it out of the park. That plan worked very well tonight.
Josh Fields took over for Oberholtzer with two outs in the 7th, and he along with Tony Sipp finished out the game, allowing no runs. The 9th did get a bit dicey, but Sipp battled and got the job done.
Now let's see if the bats can use tonight as a turning point to start putting some more runs on the board. Houston takes on Oakland in game two of this series tomorrow night.