Astros 13, Angels 3: Long balls back rebounding McHugh in rout of Halos

This wasn't an exciting game. The result was exciting, and home runs always provide a brief moment of excitement, but there was little to be engaged with for those who love and crave the slow burn and the steady adrenaline drip of a tight baseball game.

And that's okay. Those nights will come, but losses sometimes come along with those nights. The Astros won this one, handily, and that's what matters.

The formula was familiar; home runs and pitching. Though the final score was uncommon, this recap will sound similar to many this year before, and likely many this year to come. After this night's barrage, the Astros have 107 home runs as a team, the only team with triple digits so far. They may be near the bottom of the league in batting average, and clearly in the lead for strike outs, but the long ball conquers all, it seems.

Carlos Correa finished with three hits; a single, a double, and a massive three-run jack that provided the first big blow against the Halos. Yet on a night when the phenom finished just a triple short of the cycle, he was outclassed by third baseman Luis Valbuena, who hit home runs number 18 and 19 on the season. Only four players in the Majors have more. Correa and Valbuena drove in seven of the 13 runs. Evan Gattis, Domingo Santana, and Hank Conger (the latter with a big three-hit night) added four more RBI.

The Astros could still have easily won the game without all the fireworks, though, thanks to Collin McHugh at last looking more like himself. He allowed just two runs in eight strong innings of work, striking out six batters and walking just one.

He did allow nine hits, but those runs scored after an odd play where a high chopped ground ricocheted off his glove and away from him and Correa; had the play been made, it would have been the final out, and McHugh could well have been inline for a shutout. As it stands, he shaved a quarter of a run off his ERA in just one night.

So the game went the Astros way, on both sides of the ball. It didn't make for heart-pounding baseball, but it did make for great baseball. Sometimes boring baseball is the best kind, especially with your division rivals nipping at your heels.

The Astros and Angels will finish up their three-game set in today's rubber game. Rookie fireballer Lance McCullers will oppose the solid Matt Shoemaker.