Still, with Houston’s offense still sputtering, the season-high three home runs McHugh surrendered doomed the Astros.
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The Jays complete a four-game set with the Houston Astros on Thursday night, sending JA Happ to the hill.
Meanwhile, after giving up a leadoff double to George Springer on his first pitch of the game, Estrada retired 10 men in a row before allowing his second hit, a single to Carlos Correa with two out in the fourth. “We have a pretty good connection”. “He had a ton of conviction early in his pitches”.
BALTIMORE (AP) _ Jonathan Lucroy hit his first homer with Texas, Ian Desmond drove in two runs and the Rangers beat Wade Miley and the Baltimore Orioles 5-3 Thursday night to avoid a three-game sweep.
Donaldson led off the fourth with a home run to right field before hitting his 27th home run of the season in the sixth. Each and every one of them has come on a solo home run. “Two-strike situations presented themselves a lot more tonight than usual, but with a defense like this behind me, it was easy to just trust the guys behind you and let them work”.
Wednesday, the Jays hit three of them – two by Josh Donaldson and the other by Jose Bautista – and Marco Estrada made them stand up for a 3-1 victory at Minute Maid Park. He then got five more outs before Marwin Gonzalez and Jose Altuve hit back-to-back doubles to cut Torontos lead to 3-1.
Houston has lost five of its past six games.
The Blue Jays have scored six runs in the three games – all on solo homers.
The Blue Jay bats have gone about as cold as one could imagine, racking up historic strikeout totals, an anemic batting average and a paltry 10 runs over four games. Estrada has allowed four runs or fewer in each of his past 12 starts. Liriano also has to contend with possibly being shifted to the bullpen if he struggles as the team has reneged on their decision for the time being to move Aaron Sanchez to the bullpen so that should motivate Liriano to pitch a solid game here against a struggling Royals side. “Human element of the game sometimes you know hurts you and in that regard it was a borderline pitch that didn’t go our way”.
Joe Biagini escaped a one-out jam in the eighth, inducing a flyout from Jose Altuve and striking out Carlos Correa to strand runners on second and third. Joaquin Benoit, Jason Grilli and Roberto Osuna followed him to the mound without absorbing any serious wounds.
“Altuve was aggressive knowing he was going to get a strike”, Hinch said. Blue Jays SS Troy Tulowitzki was back in the starting lineup after missing the first three games of the series with a chip fracture in his right thumb. This news came on the heels of manager John Gibbons saying that the team is still debating on what to do with Sanchez.
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Astros: RHP Luke Gregerson was placed on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to July 28 with a left oblique strain. RHP Brad Peacock was recalled from Triple-A Fresno to take McCullers’ roster spot.
