Discount Sale On Homers In Chicago, Astros Win 11-9

Jose Altuve, J.D. Martinez, Justin Maxwell, Adam Dunn...the list goes on and on. But, the results were all the same, as home runs were in vogue Sunday in Chicago.

Brett Wallace hit his second home run since being recalled from OKC, going back-to-back with J.D. early in the game. That gave Houston a 2-0 lead, but the White Sox stormed back in a pretty bad inning for Lucas Harrell.

It wasn't that Harrell pitched badly in the inning in question, it's just that his defense let him down in key moments. That led to three quick White Sox runs, but that lead would not last for long.

No, Justin Maxwell saw to that, hitting another booming home run to left field that wrapped around the foul pole. The TV broadcast estimated it at something around 450 feet and it was certainly impressive. Maxwell should at least be part of a platoon with Schafer once he returns from injury and could probably stand to be in four or five games every week from here on out. His outfield defense is solid and he brings that power element that Houston could really use.

More importantly, Houston turned the momentum from a disastrous Saturday performance around and actually won a series on the road for the first time this season. Mind you, they had only won six games on the road all season before this series, when they took two of three from the first-place ChiSox.

Does that bode well for the Astros on the rest of the trip? Well, they're now averaging 5.4 runs per game in June and have scored a bit more than that in the past week. With this win, they're also 4-5 in the month of June and have almost scored half the runs they did in May in about a third of the games. So, yeah, the offense seems to be more locked in than it was earlier in the season.

We'll see if this continues against the Giants, who have allowed three or fewer runs in six of their nine games this month and are a sterling 7-2 in June. Houston will need to up the ante a bit if they want to score off a tough Giants staff. But, this is a great start to a road trip for a change.