The 24-year-old displayed that he still has plenty of spring in his step, mostly foiling the Astros over seven strong innings to help pace the Blue Jays (66-51) to a 4-2 comeback victory over the Astros before another soldout crowd of over 47,000.
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Astros: RHP Mike Fiers (8-5, 4.46) has struck out 18 batters while walking four over his past three starts.
Toronto Blue Jays’ Russell Martin high-fives with teammate Michael Saunders after hitting a thre …
Troy Tulowitzki and Martin hit back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning to blow the game open for the Blue Jays, who have now won nine of their last 13 in Toronto.
Collin McHugh (7-10) lost his fourth straight start. “I wasn’t sure I got enough of it”. He puts up good at bats.
This was all after Stroman, erratic early, had settled into one of his best starts of the year, the latest solid turn by a member of the starting staff.
Altuve’s 43-game streak matched Jeff Bagwell (1998) for second-longest in team history.
Astros first baseman Marwin Gonzalez was hit on the left knee by a pitch from Stroman in the second.
Edwin Encarnacion gave the Blue Jays a 6-2 lead, hitting a solo home run off of Luke Gregerson in the seventh.
Toronto has some pretty big hitters at their disposal as well.
Toronto has 166 home runs this season, second to Baltimore. He took Francisco Liriano deep in the sixth inning for his first major league home run and then later reached on an infield single in the eighth.
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetDSI, the Blue Jays are -153 money line favorites versus the Astros, who have odds of +138 to pull off the upset. “We kind of had to mix it up a little bit, throw some more breaking balls and some off-speed”.
The Jays had actually played some small-ball early on on Sunday, with Donaldson executing a fine sacrifice to send Devon Travis to third after Travis had laced the first Houston pitch of the game to left for a standup double.
Making his second career start, and facing the team that drafted him in 2011, Musgrove (1-0) allowed two runs and six hits.
Tulowitzki went 3-for-4 with three RBIs.
The score remained locked at 1 until the bottom of the fourth when Tulowitzki reached again on an infield single.
“(Fiers) went with the fastball, it leaked over the plate and Tulo did some damage with it”, Hinch said.
PHILLIES 7, ROCKIES 6: Jimmy Paredes singled, doubled, homered and drove in three runs and Philadelphia held on at home to complete a three-game sweep. Bregman offered at the first pitch he saw from Joaquin Benoit, hitting a foul that seemed destined for the first-base dugout.
“They made me pay in that one inning”, Fiers said. “A couple of swings and the game is changed”.
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“For a catcher, that’s as good an opportunity you’re going to get to make a nice play”, Martin said. Corey Koskie (25) and Justin Morneau (19) did it in 2004 for the Minnesota Twins. The Astros (61-57) have dropped consecutive games after winning four straight on the road. The Astros have Monday off before playing two games against the St. Louis Cardinals at Minute Maid Park before embarking on a seven-game trip. RHP Ken Giles is expected to come off the paternity list Tuesday.
