Astros 6, A's 4: Astros Win With Great Defense And More Homers

What Happened

Roberto Hernandez had a solid outing tonight only giving up 2 runs in the 6 innings he pitched.  It could have been much worse if not for some really good defense behind him.  In the third inning Max Muncy was thrown out at the plate on a double by Brett Lawrie.  Sam Fuld hit an infield single on the next at-bat, and Lawrie was thrown out at the plate also.  Colby Rasmus also saved a run with a great running catch on a sinking liner to end the top of the 5th inning.

At the plate the Astros did what they do best...hit home runs.  Chris Carter started the scoring with a 2-run monster shot to left field.  They had the bases loaded in the 5th but were only able to get one run across on an Evan Gattis single.  In the 8th inning some very important insurance runs were added.  With Jake Marisnick on first after a walk, Rasmus launched a home run off of Fernando Abad into the right field seats.  One batter later Jason Castro hit another homer to left to make the score 6-2 heading to the ninth.

Luke Gregerson came in to close out the game and was hit pretty good.  Compared to earlier in the season he has not been as effective his last few outings.  He allowed a walk, a double and a single to allow the A's to score and get within three.  He induced a double play grounder from the next batter and another run came in.  After another walk, A.J. Hinch pulled him in favor of Pat Neshek who recorded a strikeout to end the game and earn his first save.

So I guess we now have a winning streak of one?  Let's see if they can make it two tomorrow afternoon as Dallas Keuchel goes up against Jesse Hahn at 1 pm.

Fun Facts (Long Ball Edition)

Astros are now 17-0 in multi-homer games.

Castro's home run was the 60th of the season for the team, tops in the MLB.

Castro also moved into 3rd place all time for homers by an Astros catcher, passing the mighty Brad Ausmus.

This was the 13th game where they have hit 3 or more home runs.  They had 17 all last season.

Tweets of the Night

I bet this was all Feldman's doing...

Astros clubhouse is Club Minute Maid. There is bass pumping, fog machine and lasers.

— Brian McTaggart ⚾️ (@brianmctaggart) May 20, 2015

The best.  Ever.  Yes even that season.

The #Astros are 26-14. It's the team's best record after 40 games in franchise history. #Represent

— #VoteAstros (@astros) May 20, 2015

UNBELIEVER!  HERESY!

@OrtizKicks Worry is that they can't keep that pace and will need more singles and doubles to win games down the line. Avgs. still quite low

— Greg Lucas (@GREGCLUCAS) May 20, 2015