:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/photo_images/7085818/145139926.jpg)
The Astros capped a great homestand with a sweep of the Cubs on a 5-1 victory tonight. The game was alot closer than that 5-1 final suggests though. The Astros trailed 1-0 until the 4th when they took a 2-1 lead, which is where things stayed until the Astros broke it open in the bottom of the 8th. The heroes of the day include Wandy who battled the whole night and ended with a gritty 1 run performance in 7 innings, and J.D. Martinez who provided the first 3 Astros RBI's, and is starting to show signs of busting out of his slump.
Pitching
Wandy did what Wandy does this year, and allowed just 1 run in his 7 innings. That is not to say that he cruised through his outing though, as he gave up 8 hits and did not have a single 1-2-3 inning during his outing. Wandy did not allow a walk, but he did have two hit batsmen, which were his first two of the season. Still he was able to get the tough outs when he needed to get out of jams, and other than a 1st inning homerun by Reed Johnson he was able to keep the Cubs off the board.
When Wandy exited the game it was a 2-1 nailbiter. Brandon Lyon was able to keep it that way working a scoreless 8th, and allowed 1 hit while recording 2 strikeouts. I would have never guessed that Lyon would have a 1.65 ERA at any point this season, but here he is with 17 appearances and 16.1 innings under his belt, and has emerged as a dependable late-inning reliever for the good guys.
After Lyon's outing that 2-1 nailbiter turned into a 5-1 cushion for the Astros, and ruled out a save opportunity for closer Brett Myers. Myers still pitched the ninth in a non-save opportunity allowing a single before putting the finishing touches on a nice homestand and a sweep of the Cubs.
Offense
Offensively their wasn't much happening for the Astros for most of the game. The Astros got on the board in the 4th when J.D. Martinez hit a fly to David DeJesus that could have been caught, but after a collision with Barney and DeJesus freed the ball, Martinez ended on third with a two-run triple. That was all of the scoring until the bottom of the 8th. Carlos Lee got things started with a single, and after Bogusevic struck out Chris Johnson followed with another single. J.D. Martinez then hit a sharp single to center to score Carlos Lee. Jason Castro then walked to load the bases for Matt Downs who responded with an RBI walk. Altuve followed that up with a hit by pitch to bring the score to 5-1.
The Astros ended up with 9 hits, and Carlos Lee and J.D. Martinez had 6 of them with 3 apiece. Chris Johnson had the other multihit performance with 2 singles, and Jason Castro added a single and 2 walks. Hopefully these last two games is enough to jumpstart Martinez again as he's a valuable piece to the Astros offensive puzzle when clicking.
The Astros enjoy an off day tomorrow before taking on the Dodgers and Clayton kershaw in LA on Friday. Opposing Kershaw will be Lucas Harrell.