The Houston Astros couldn’t put enough together in tonight’s 6–3 loss to the New York Yankees.
Astros pitcher Doug Fister toed the mound tonight against CC Sabathia. After a smooth first inning, the wheels slowly started to fall off. Fister allowed two runs in the second and one run in the third inning before finally getting KO’d in the fifth. Fister went 4 2/3 innings allowing 6 runs on 9 hits before being replaced by Chris Devenski.
The Astros bats were the epitome of streaky tonight. After a Marwin Gonzalez solo shot in the bottom of the first, the Astros struggled to pick up another hit until the fifth inning, a Carlos Gomez single. Evan Gattis finally cut into the Yankees lead in the seventh inning, swinging the lumber like Paul Bunyan and launching a solo shot to left center field.
Marwin Gonzalez decided that he wanted to feast again in the eighth inning. Facing Anthony Swarzak, Gonzalez hit his second solo shot of the game, cutting the lead to 6-3. Not only did he hit a homer from both sides of the plate tonight, it was also his first multi-home run game of his career. Trivia: who was the last Astros player to hit a home run from both sides of the plate?
The Astros would continue the pressure later in the eighth inning. Alex Bregman took his first major league walk to load the bases for Jason Castro. Castro replaced Luis Valbuena in the second inning after Valbuena suffered an apparent hamstring injury. Sadly, Castro struck out looking on three straight pitches, ending the Astros threat.
Michael Feliz pitched a gem of a ninth inning, striking out all three batters he faced. After Gomez grounded out to start the bottom of the ninth, Preston Tucker followed up with a double off Yankees reliever Andrew Miller. Unfortunately, that was all the Astros would muster as the Yankees closed out game two, 6-3.
Tomorrow's game starts at 7:10 p.m. CT. Lance McCullers will face off against Masahiro Tanaka to close out the series.