Astros 4, O's 1: Feldman Keeps It Close Until The Late Inning Hits Show Up

What Happened

The Astros evened the series with the Orioles behind six strong innings from Scott Feldman.  Feldman gave up four hits (3 of which were to former Astro Jimmy Paredes) and 3 walks, but only allowed one run on a sacrifice fly.  He had good support from his fielders who turned inning-ending double plays to end each of the first three innings.

In the first four innings the Astros had the leadoff runner on base but were not able to do anything to get a run home.  Heading into the seventh they were trailing 1-0, and once again they started a comeback.  Evan Gattis started with a leadoff double.  He moved to third on a grounder to first base.  Then with 2 outs Chris Carter lined an RBI single to left to tie the score.  Jason Castro followed with a double which allowed Carter to show off his speed and score from first.

In the eighth George Springer doubled, followed by a Jose Altuve single to put runners on the corners with no outs.  Springer was put out in a rundown on a chopper by Preston Tucker.  He kept the fielders occupied long enough for Altuve and Tucker to move to 3rd and 2nd base.  Next Gattis hit a grounder to the drawn in SS, who caught Altuve coming home for the second out.  It looked like they were going to squander a good opportunity until Colby Rasmus walked to load the bases, followed by a 2-run single by Luis Valbuena made the score 4-1.

The bullpen once again shut down the opposition.  Tonight it was Pat Neshek, Chad Qualls and Luke Gregerson closing out the last three innings.  The only baserunner was a leadoff single surrendered by Neshek before they sat down the last nine batters.  Gregerson picked up his lucky 13th save of the year.

Tomorrow afternoon the rubber game of the series will feature Collin McHugh against Ubaldo Jimenez at 3:30.

Fun Facts

All four Astros runs were scored with 2 outs, which is much more exciting than scoring with no outs...I guess.

They have scored 85 runs from the 7th inning on.  This leads all of baseball.

It what could have been costly, the O's threw out 3 runners trying to score.

Astros are the first team to 30 wins...IT'S NOT EVEN JUNE!

Tweet of the Night

Money well spent...

Pat Neshek has 13 consecutive scoreless appearances since April 27.

— Brian McTaggart ⚾️ (@brianmctaggart) May 27, 2015

I wonder who is behind the mask.

@brianmctaggart In case you missed it...and Feldman didn't miss a beat. pic.twitter.com/jOJaLBJQnI

— Paul Letlow (@PaulLetlow) May 27, 2015