Game Recap: Astros Bats Break out. Homers by Escapees Springer, Brantley, Chirinos Bring 6-0 win over A’s

You can’t keep a good man down, they say. Or a good team either. Like storms breaking through a drought in the rain forest, eventually talent will assert itself.

We’ve been saying here that it was just a matter of time before the Astros bats would break out, and tonight, it seems, the break out began. The inmates are on the loose.

The Astros scored six runs tonight, their most all year, mostly on the strength of three home runs, a two run shot by George Springer, another two run homer by Michael Brantley, both in the fifth inning, and a solo shot by Robinson Chirinos in the sixth.

Yuli Gurriel got the scoring started for the Astros in the fourth with an RBI double, the first of his three for the game, and his only RBI all year. The team’s three hits in the fifth inning marks only the third time all year the Astros got as many as three hits in an inning.

Here are the homers.

The Astros’ 11 hits tonight were the most they have had all season, and 6 of those 11 were for extra bases.

Wade Miley pitched a crafty 5.2 innings of shutout ball, scattering four hits and two walks with four K’s. Will Harris punched out the last hitter in the sixth, followed by scoreless innings by Josh James, Chris Devenski, and Framber Valdez for a combined shutout, the first all year for the Astros staff.

The evolution of Wade Miley continues. According to data from Brooks Baseball, Miley only threw fastballs about 16% of the time tonight, cutters about 45 %, with change ups and curves accounting for the rest. This is even more breaking ball heavy than what he averaged last year when he first became a notorious, and successful, cutter ball pitcher.

Don’t look now, but after another terrible start to a season, Alex Bregman is now hitting .290, with 4 for 7 in the last two games. And with three hits tonight Gurriel is now over .300. Josh Reddick leads the team in BA with a .333, just ahead of George Springer’s .324, who hit his third homer of the season tonight. Springer leads the team in OPS at .973.

The Astros hope their broomsticks can bash their way to a sweep tomorrow to end the series with the A’s. Brad Peacock goes against former Astro and current A’s ace Mike Fiers. Game time 1:10 CDT.

Box score and videos HERE.