Astros’ offense makes Angels’ pitching bleed. Begin season 2-0!

What began as a low-scoring game finished being exactly the opposite. On Friday night, the Astros unleashed all their offense and smashed the Angels 13-6 to get their second win in a row, capped by an eight-run seventh inning. It was all because of a great night from prospect Jeremy Peña, Kyle Tucker Aledmys Díaz, Alex Bregman, and the Astros’ bullpen.

The night began with Jake Odorizzi on the mound challenging Angels’ No. 1 prospect Reid Detmers. Odorizzi didn’t have his best night, but survived against the trio formed by Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout, and Anthony Rendon and managed to keep the Astros in the game. The veteran righty was done after four innings of six hits, two earned runs, and two strikeouts (including one to Trout).

In the first inning, José Altuve hit a leadoff home run to give the Astros the early lead and immediately the Angels answered back with two runs against Odorizzi. But it was almost it for them while the ‘Stros ambushed the Halos’ pitching since the fourth episode, where Aledmys hit his first home run of the season to tie the scoreboard.

Then, it was an Astros game. Bregman hit his second four-bagger of the young campaign, Peña got his first MLB hit and first MLB home run, and all of a sudden, the Astros scored eight runs in the top seventh to make it 12-2. Peña fell a triple shy of the cycle as he was 3-for-5 with a single, a double, and a dinger in his second MLB game.

Another man responsible of the big W was Kyle Tucker, who registered two of the six home runs by the Astros this Friday. The young outfielder got the two long balls and drove in four runs to give Houston a helping hand.

In general, everything clicked for Houston on Friday night. Their pitching did its job, their offense was great, and their defense showed a couple of great plays by Bregman at third base and José Sirí in center field to save a run in the fourth inning. Among the good news:

· Rafael Montero completed his comeback with a scoreless inning

· Bryan Abreu got out of a huge jam with a punchout to Tyler Wade in the sixth

· Alex Bregman is officially off to a hot start at the plate

· In only his second career game, Jeremy Peña had his first big performance in the MLB

· Reliever Ronel Blanco and infielder Joe Pérez made their MLB debuts.

In general, it was a 14-hit effort by the Astros, who began the season with a 2-0 record and in first place in the American League West. On Saturday (8:07 PM CDT), they will try to win their first series of 2022 when they and the Angels collide again in Angel Stadium. Justin Verlander will make his season debut against Noah Syndergaard. Electric matchup!

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