Marlins Drop Astros, 5-1

The Houston Astros were topped by the Miami Marlins at home on Saturday afternoon.

Even though they outhit the Marlins 8-to-6, they only managed to bring one home, dropping a 5-1 decision with 31,379 in attendance at Minute Maid Park.

After both Marlins starter Braxton Garrett and Astros starter Framber Valdez opened with a scoreless first, Miami got on the board with three runs in the second. Bryan De La Cruz opened the scoring with a bases loaded walk, followed by a Luke Williams RBI-single and a Jon Berti RBI-groundout. The Marlins added a run in the third on a Miguel Rojas fieder’s choice ball to make it 4-0.

Through the specific circumstances surrounding Miami’s run-scoring, only half of the four runs were earned. Quality Start still in place, Valdez continued pitching. Jose Altuve finally got through to Garrett in the fifth frame, driving home Jeremy Peña with his ninth double of the season to trim the lead to three.

Valdez showed shades of Jose Fernandez to close the sixth. With runners on the corners and two out, Williams smacked the 93 MPH sinker directly back at Valdez, who snared it out of the air like it was nothing. Maybe AstrosFan86 over on Twitter said it best:

A double, a walk, and a sacrifice put runners on second and third with two out in the sixth, precipitating a Marlins pitching change. Dylan Floro got Peña looking at strike three to end Houston’s threat.

The Astros loaded the bases with nobody out in the seventh inning, but accomplished the rare (but not rare enough) NOBLETIGER after a Michael Brantley strikeout and an unfortunate Alex Bregman 1-3 double play.

Even though it didn’t look like the Marlins would need it, they scored another run in the ninth on a Jon Berti single to right. With the score 5-1, Louis Head came in to pitch the bottom of the ninth. The Astros got a two-out double from Martin Maldonado, but that was all they could muster.

fangraphs.com

• For the second game in a row, the Astros outhit the Marlins, only to come up short where it counted.
• Valdez did end up with a Quality Start, for what it was worth, striking out six and allowing four runs (two earned) over six innings. He gave up four hits and three walks, getting 64-of-97 pitches in the black.
• Ryne Stanek struck out two in a razor sharp seventh.
• The only Astros player with multiple hits was Maldonado, arguably the worst hitter on the team. His multi-hit game raised his average to a blistering .153 for the season.
• The loss was the third straight for Houston, who are in danger of getting swept at home by Miami.
• Luckily for Houston, Justin Verlander (7-2, 2.13) takes the hill tomorrow against top Marlins prospect Edward Cabrera (2-0, 0.75), a righty.