Appel strong in Astros' win over Rojos del Águila de Veracruz

It was a beautiful at the Juice Box to see the first game with Springer, Correa, and Appel in the lineup. As I said on twitter - it feels damn good to put those names in lineup card. After nine innings, I had two takeaways. One, Appel looks sharp in his first outing in Houston. Two, the majority of  Red Eagles do their best Carlos Lee impression running down to first base.

Mark Appel pitched three innings, allowing two hits, and striking out three on 36 pitches. All five outs recorded in the field (including a double play) came by way of ground ball. He did allow a double to Refugio Cervantes, but worked around striking out two of the next three batters. Pat Urckfitz and Bobby Doran closed out the final six innings of the baseball game. Urchfitz allowed only one hit over three innings, and Doran picked up the win after allowing one run over the final three.

Adron Chambers played quality centerfield, and the Astros are in good hands if his services are needed later on in the season. Correa and Springer each had a quiet day at the plate. Correa drove in a run on sac fly. Springer was able to score on short double to left field (and an overthrow) from first. Japhet Amador, the Mexican League  player on "loan" to the Astros, broke the game open with a bases clearing double in the seventh. Erik Castro also added a nice double to score the Astros first run of the game.

Jonathan Meyer had a beautiful, Brooks Robinson like, play at third in the fourth - diving to make the stop and gunning down the runner.