Astros 5, Athletics 1: Colin McHugh quiets A's bats

The Astros came into the game looking for back-to-back wins for the first time in almost a month…

The last time the Astros managed to win consecutive games came on Aug. 25 and 26 in New York that is until today! The Astros won the rubber game taking the three game series and the season series against the A’s.

The past month has been quite a test for Astros fans as the divisional lead dwindled and eventual the Rangers came charging past with a painful four game sweep, but the Astros reminded us today of all the promise this young team has. Behind strong starting pitching, great defense and multiple homeruns the Astros showed exactly what we have all come to love about this team in securing the win and hopefully getting back on track for the final stretch.

How it happened:

After a lackluster first inning, the second inning had it all. For the A’s the inning started with Valencia jawing at McHugh for throwing up and in (luckily nothing really came of this and cooler heads prevailed), a play at the plate to get Billy Butler and hold the A’s to one run. In the Astros half of the inning, Colby Rasmus got the scoring started with a homerun off of the foul pole for his 20^th of the year and a double play turned by the A’s ended the inning tied at one.

McHugh settled down after giving up a run in the second, responding by only facing three more than the minimum over his final six innings. McHugh’s final line was 8 IP, 1 ER, 2 BB and 8Ks, as he picked up his 17^th win of the year.

The bats took a while, but finally broke through to take the lead in the fifth inning. Stassi lead off the inning with a single to left and George Springer would then give the Astros the 3-1 lead with a bomb to the Crawford Boxes!!! The home run was his first since returning form the DL…Springer’s last home run came on June 30^th against Kansas City.

With the way our bullpen has been operating over the last couple of weeks a two run lead is anything but safe. Fortunately, Rasmus felt the same way, as he took an eighth inning pitch from Barry Zito and put it over the right field wall for his second homerun of the day. Rasmus’s second homerun of the day was of the two run variety, scoring Lowrie who walked earlier in the inning.

Thanks to a clean ninth inning by Luke Gregerson that is exactly how the game would end with a comfortable 5-1 margin.