Javier’s good outing, Bregman’s slam propel Astros over Angels

En route to their 35th win, the Astros had Cristian Javier and Alex Bregman’s support to beat the Angels for the third straight time, this afternoon 9-6. Javier was outstanding for one more start and took his fifth consecutive win on the mound while Bregman extended his 10-game hitting streak with a huge grand slam.

Even though the score might not tell you that, Javier was stellar once again. He worked six innings of six-hit, one-run ball with no walks and five strikeouts. That was enough to get his seventh win overall and leave his record at 7-1 with a 2.84 ERA.

Javier’s been as dominant as anyone in baseball since May. In six starts since the 5th, the young righty has pitched 36 innings and allowed 22 hits and nine earned runs along with nine walks and 37 punchouts. His ERA across that span? You got it… 2.25.

José Abreu got an RBI single to put the Astros ahead in the first inning but the Shohei Ohtani triple tied the game up in the third. The Astros reacted quickly thanks to a one-run double by Chas McCormick in the third inning to make it 2-1.

In the fourth, the big inning came on for the Astros. Yordan Álvarez brought in a run with an RBI single and immediately Alex Bregman swatted his fifth career grand slam over the left field fence to extend the Astros’ lead 7-1.

Bregman was perfect as he recorded four bases on balls plus his grand slam, four runs batted in, and a run scored. Over his 10-game hitting streak, Bregs is batting .417 with two doubles, two homers, 13 ribbies, and five runs.

According to Stathead, Bregman became the fourth player in regular-season history to hit a grand slam and get four walks in a game. The other three are Ted Williams (May 18, 1946), Bobby Bonds (September 9, 1979), and JD Martínez (May 16, 2017).

After that, Javier kept his dominance rolling until Ryne Stanek took charge of things in the seventh and the Angels scored four times off him. The veteran reliever was charged with three hits and four earned runs over a third of an inning.

However, Héctor Neris, Rafael Montero, and Ryan Pressly were able to shut the door against the Angels to secure the four-game series. Pressly did allow one run in the ninth but that was it.

On Sunday, at 1:10 pm CT, the Astros will go for the sweep with JP France on the mound facing righty Griffin Canning. It’s MLB’s free game of the day for tomorrow, just saying!

VIDEOS AND BOX SCORE HERE.