Five years later, Musgrove is doing just that, only against the Jays on behalf of the Houston Astros.
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Josh Donaldson hit a solo home run in the first inning and Russell Martin added a three-run shot in the sixth as the Blue Jays (66-51) avoided a second consecutive loss and have now won four of six meetings with the Astros this season.
SANCHEZ TO BE SKIPPED: Even with the Jays moving to an unconventional six-man rotation to preserve Aaron Sanchez’s innings, Gibbons said they will also look to occasionally skip the 24-year-old right-hander’s turn down the stretch.
The Astros have been held to two runs or fewer in three of McHugh’s streak of four losses.
For Osuna, it was his 26th save of the year and the 46th of his career, tying the Major League Baseball record for most saves before a player’s 22nd birthday, matching Terry Forster’s mark. Liriano, acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates on August 1, struck out four.
Encarnacion became the 11th ever player Dominican Republic-born player to hit 300 home runs, while Jose Bautista accomplished the feat earlier this season. “Thank God for 300”.
I like Fiers in the pitching matchup here, so I’m going to stick with the Astros to get a game three victory in this one.
Carrera, who has served as the Jays’ backup outfielder this season, is scheduled to begin a minor-league rehab assignment with Triple-A Buffalo on Friday.
The Blue Jays are now tied fifth in the league in runs scored, and are trailing the league-leading Boston Red Sox by 56.
Musgrove, who was traded to Houston in July 2012 in a deal that sent J.A. Happ to Toronto, had given the present-day Jays a taste of his talents on August 2 when he allowed just one hit and one walk against them, while striking out eight, in 4.1 innings of relief.
“He probably had the best curveball I’ve seen him have consistently, ” manager John Gibbons said. He (Sanchez) did that, threw some strikes with it.
The second, by Carlos Correa into right field, gave the Astros a 2-0 lead.
Teoscar Hernandez, in his major-league debut, led off with a walk. The former Pirate walked a pair and then surrendered a single to Alex Bregman to load the bases with only one out.
The Houston Astros hope to build off a special series with the bats and set sail again in their quest for a second straight playoff spot when they visit the first-place Toronto Blue Jays on Friday in the first of three contests.
Astros: Altuve started at DH with Marwin Gonzalez at 2B.
The Jays clawed back with a run in each of the third and fourth innings tie the game 2-2. Saunders had hit 19 with the Seattle Mariners in 2012.
Gattis followed with a 367 ft. fly ball to right that was nothing but a loud out, and A.J. Reed hit a 390 ft. ball to left for his second double of the game.
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Houston regained a two-run lead in the fifth. Springer singled to lead off and the next batter, Bregman, doubled. Altuve scored both with a double.After Correa lined out to right, Altuve blunted the rally when he was caught trying to steal third. It was his first hit in the big leagues.
