Astros 8, Orioles 7: Astros hold on for win late

The Houston Astros appeared to be cruising to an easy victory on Friday night in Baltimore. The Astros punched Ubaldo Jiménez in the mouth for five runs in the first two innings, Mike Fiers threw another gem, and Houston led 7-1 entering the eighth inning.

Little did the Astros know an insurance run in the eighth inning would be the key to an 8-7 win.

The bullpen gave up five runs in the bottom of the ninth before closing out the game.

Jose Altuve got the offence started in the first inning, he drew a walk and stole second base. He would score on a Carlos Beltran singe. Rookie Yuli Gurriel launched his 12th home run of the season to put the Astros up 3-0 before Mike Fiers even threw a pitch.

The youngest members of the Astros lineup combined for two runs in the top of the second. Alex Bregman led off with a single and scored on a Colin Moran triple that got away from O's centerfielder Adam Jones. Moran would score on an Altuve groundout.

While the offence was working, Fiers was dealing. He only one batter to reach through the first two innings and struck out four.

Both teams would get two singles in the third inning with one out. But the O's would get a third to score a run against Fiers and the Astros would strand both runners.

Brian McCann led off the sixth with a solo home run. George Springer, Altuve, and Reddick followed with singles — scoring one run. Houston appeared to have another bloop hit when Chris Davis made a Willie Mays over the shoulder catch to rob Carlos Beltran in short right field.

Fiers put an exclamation point on in his outing by striking out Joey Richard and Adam Jones with two runners on to end the seventh inning.

Each team would get a run in the eighth inning, Houston's won could on Moran's first career home run — an easy fly ball to right-center field.

The wheels came off for James Hoyt in the ninth inning. He gave up three hits and a walk for four runs—two of which scored on a Devinski home run to Jonathan Schoop.

Ken Giles came in to get the final out, striking out Mark Trumbo.