Machado recorded the lone hit among the top three batters in the Baltimore order, with that trio finishing 1-for-11 with four walks and six strikeouts.The Orioles (26-19) suffered their first sweep on the season.McCullers set the stage for his interesting outing nearly immediately, walking the first two batters he faced before stranding both Joey Rickard and Manny Machado in scoring position to close the first inning.McCullers opened the second by allowing his lone hit of the night, a towering home run to left by Mark Trumbo that pulled the Orioles even at 1-1.
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Gausman (0-2) allowed four runs and five hits – including three homers – in five innings after having previously allowed three home runs in 36 2/3 innings this season. Gausman will look for his first win of the season tonight as he is 0-1 with a 2.70 ERA while McCullers is 0-1 with a 5.90 mark in his very brief season thus far.
Fister allowed three hits and two runs in 5 2/3 innings. That’s three homers for Valbuena in the three-game series.
In the first inning, Adam Jones was the first strike out victim.
Evan Gattis is proving how valuable he is at catcher for the Houston Astros.
“W’s or L’s is why we take the field every night, and how you get to them one way or the other may not look aesthetically pleasing; it’s about do you score more runs than the other team after nine innings”, Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. However, things fell apart just as suddenly in the sixth.McHugh again allowing the first two batters of the frame to reach before a wild pitch and poor defense enabled the Orioles to pull even at 3-3 and chase the right-hander.McHugh posted 10 strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings, marking just the third time in his career that he recorded double-digit strikeouts in a game. “This is just one of those little ruts that we’re in”. That tied a franchise record for most strikeouts by the bullpen in a single game that was set on April 25, 1962 against St. Louis. Astros 2B Jose Altuve is 0-for-9 in the series and hitless in 17 at-bats over his last four games.3.
Chris Davis and Trumbo hit consecutive singles starting the sixth, and left fielder Tony Kemp allowed the ball to glance off his glove for an error that advanced the runners.
Pedro Alvarez and Manny Machado hit solo home runs for the Orioles.
Neshek allowed a two-out double by Hyun Soo Kim and intentionally walked Machado before retiring Schoop. But he should progress to that soon. “So I think that should happen shortly”.
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Gausman recorded seven strikeouts and walked just one batter, but his walk of Astros first baseman Tyler White preceded the Valbuena home run, which represented a bit of bad timing. Houston has a very solid roster and surprised a lot of people by getting to the playoffs last season but with so much expectation coming into this season they have crumbled under the pressure and need to go on a serious run before they can get back in the conversation. Gausman lost his first game, but hasn’t factored in the decision in any of his five starts since then. The previous record was 47 recorded by the Nationals earlier this season versus Minnesota.
