After getting no-hit for five innings the day before the Astros broke out the bats and threw a bit of no-hit baseball themselves by keeping the Nationals hit-less through 6.2 innings.
I may be whamming the team here, and I take full responsibility if they go on a losing streak, but the Astros have been at or above .500 all of March. While that might not mean anything, because it is Spring Training I think it does provide us all a little hope for this upcoming season. They have a little over a week of games left and it would be fantastic if they could keep this kind of play going.
Offense
12 hits and one walk overall for the offense. Brian Bixler and Carlos Lee were the only two players who reached base more than once. Bixler and Chris Johnson each had a solo homerun in the game and Jed Lowrie and Travis Buck each collected a double. Justin Ruggiano and Brian Bogusevic each had a stolen base. A nice offensive performance all around.
Pitching
Bud Norris and Lucas Harrell each through three innings of no-hit ball. Norris actually left early and according to Brian McTaggart on twitter:
Bud Norris had some triceps tightness but it's not major. Threw 3 innings as precaution
Do with that what you will. Brett Myers relieved Harrell and pitched an inning of shutout ball, unfortunately he also gave up the no-hit bid. Fernando Abad came in and served up a solo shot to Jason Michaels, but limited the damage to that one run. Brandon Lyon finished off the game with a shutout inning. Myers, Abad and Lyon might be a combination we see a lot this Summer.
Defense
Nothing noteworthy to speak of.
Saturday
12:05 p.m. CST vs Pittsburgh Pirates. On MLB.TV and Radio KTRH 740 live. There will also be a delayed broadcast on MLB Network at 7 p.m. CST.