Game Recap: It Got Late Early in Oakland as the Astros Jumped Out to 10-0 Lead, Won 13-5

Yeah, I’m really not sure there’s much to say about this game except for the classic Yogi Berra quote in the headline. After all the noise and frustration about the Houston Astros offense, they just have absolutely been tearing the cover off the baseball during the first six games of this road trip.

Evan Gattis, who some people wanted demoted or even DFA’d in April (a bit extreme but I understand the frustration), has figured something out because all El Oso Blanco does now is hit home runs and drive in more than one of his teammates every night now it seems.

Carlos Correa is back from his right side injury with a vengeance, hitting a home run in each of his first two games back from that time off and also displaying patience at the plate with two walks tonight. After setting a goal of winning an MVP before the season, Correa has certainly been disappointed with his performance thus far in 2018 and now wants to hit that next gear and start to show his true potential.

La Piña kept doing Piña things tonight, as Yuli Gurriel collected three hits, drove in three runs, and set the tone for the Astros with two runs batted in during the first inning tonight. Although the power is coming back very slowly, Gurriel’s batting average still sits at .304 and his K% rests at 10.8%, which is good for the 8th lowest K% in all of baseball.

On the mound, Gerrit Cole did not have much to worry about pretty much from the start of the game. The Astros had a 10-0 lead by the top of the 2nd inning, but Cole remained aggressive and did not get comfortable or veer at all from his original game plan.

Cole was roughed up a bit by Stephen Piscotty when he allowed a three-run blast, but other than that the newest Astros starter finished his outing with six strikeouts and a respectable whiff rate of 11.11%.

Out of the bullpen, it was nice to see Reymin Guduan enter the game and get in some quality work. In two innings, the young left-hander allowed a solo home run but struck out 3 and did not surrender a single free pass. Basically, the home run was the only blemish on Guduan’s outing tonight.

Tomorrow, the Houston Astros will have a quick turnaround as they’ll play a day game that starts at 2:35 PM CDT. The Astros will send out Justin Verlander as they look to stretch out their winning streak to eight games and collect two road series sweeps in a row.