Jose Altuve homered and had five RBIs, and the Houston Astros beat the Baltimore Orioles 15-8 on Friday night despite allowing four home runs in the first inning.
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Jonathan Schoop got his 19th homer for the Orioles, who trail first-place Toronto by 2 1/2 games in the AL East.
Gurriel went 4-for-18 with a home run at Triple-A as he had 56 at-bats at four levels of Houston’s minor league system as he quickly got ready for the majors after the Cuban defector signed in July.
“It’s pretty tough to cover that many runs the last two nights, ” manager Buck Showalter said.
The Orioles became the first team in the modern era (since 1900) to open a game with four home runs before making an out, according to STATS. “We’ve gone down the road with playing on off days and stuff and that’s a challenge”.
Keuchel (8-12), last year’s AL Cy Young Award victor, allowed two runs and five hits with seven strikeouts. “That really jump-started a lot of things for me”. “That’s the big positive coming out of this – probably the only positive you can find”.
After Baltimore scored five runs in the bottom half, Houston answered with a five-run second.
1B Tyler White was optioned to Triple-A Fresno following Saturday’s game against the Orioles.
RHP Mike Fiers put together an effective outing after struggling over his past two starts when he allowed nine runs, including five homers, over just 9 2/3 innings.
Up 3-1 in the count against the Orioles’ Yovani Gallardo, Gurriel sent a line drive to center fielder Adam Jones and safely reached first base, keeping the inning alive for Houston.
He will take the roster spot of third baseman Luis Valbuena, who is on the 15-day disabled list with a hamstring injury.
Said Hinch: “It’s going to threaten his season, just based on where we are”.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to leave her winning three out of four on one of the toughest days to play in awhile”, Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. OF Jake Marisnick missed a second straight game with a sore groin.
For Sunday’s game, the Astros will be bringing out lefty Dallas Keuchel.
Orioles pitching continued to get rocked Saturday as Chris Tillman fell victim to the hot-hitting Astros.
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George Springer went 4 for 5 with a homer for the Astros, who also got long balls from Evan Gattis and Teoscar Hernandez in ending a five-game losing streak.
