Blue Jays 6 Astros 2: Astros bats quiet as Hernandez struggles

Roberto Hernandez may not be long of this world as a starting pitcher. He hasn't been able to get out of the sixth inning in three straight starts and Hernandez has needed close to a 100 pitches to get through each of his outings. More importantly, he's has given up 18 runs during that stretch.

Hernandez labored through much of Friday's game in great, white north. He didn't have the snap on his breaking stuff and couldn't locate his fastball. It hadn't become a problem till the second time through the Blue Jays order.

Kevin Pillar got the Jays rolling with a leadoff single in the third. Jose Reyes squeaked his first home run over the right field wall to put the Jays up two. Josh Donaldson followed with a single. Jose Bautista allowed him to trot home with a titanic blast to left field upper deck, the Jays lead 4-0.

Edwin Encarnacion got a friendly bounce for a double. Encarnacion hit a ball in front of Colby Rasmus that took a hard bounce of the AstroTurf and rolled away from Ramus. The Blue Jays fans razed the former Blue Jays with a droning chant of his name "Colby, Colby, Colby."

Chris Colabello picked up his second hit of the game and drove home Encarnacion with a single.

Hernandez gave up five runs on six hits (three extra-base hits) through seven batters. The Astros only escaped the inning after Russell Martin grounded into a force and was caught stealing second.

To his credit Hernandez saved the bullpen and settled down, getting to the sixth inning. The Blue Jays added a sixth run on two singles and ground out by Pillar. The call was originally ruled a fielder's choice and an RBI, but changed to an error by Altuve. Altuve's throw took Chris Carter into foul territory were PIllar was running through the bag. Pillar knocked the ball out of Carter's glove, allowing the run to score.

The Astros bats didn't help Hernandez out much, the Blue Jays starter Aaron Sanchez was able to pitch into the ninth inning with ease. Sanchez faced the minimum number of batters through six innings.

Jason Castro was able to break the seal on the Astros scoring, hitting a home run to lead off the ninth inning. The Astros threaded with back-to-back singles from Jonathan Villar and George Springer. With the runners on the corners, Springer attempted to steal second. Russell Martin throw down was wide of the bag and sailed into center field. Villar walked home to make the score 6-2.

Sanchez was lifted for Roberto Osuna, who struck out all three batters he faced to end the game.