Houston Astros' Offense Held Silent in First Meeting With Baltimore Orioles
Lance McCullers Jr. started his third game of the season for the Houston Astros on Friday night. The Tampa native threw five shutout innings, but one swing of the bat after his exit, coupled with a silent offense, landed the Astros on the wrong end of a 2-0 game.
McCullers Jr. came into the series opener with the Baltimore Orioles on seven days rest, and it showed. The right hander allowed no runs on four hits and struck out two. McCullers Jr.'s stuff was working well tonight, as nine of his 18 outs came via ground ball.
Houston Astros starting pitcher Lance McCullers Jr.
© Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Houston's starter was done for the night after the fifth inning and was relieved by Cristian Javier.
Javier, who is normally seen in the starting rotation, threw three innings in relief and allowed two runs on three hits with four strikeouts.
The dagger came in the top of the sixth inning when Baltimore's Ramon Urias connected on a two-out, two-run home run to give the visiting team the go ahead 2-0 lead.
The Astros were unable to answer, producing just three singles in the final four innings.
The home team's best chance of the game came earlier in the game after Yordan Alvarez walked and advanced to third on a Kyle Tucker single in the fourth inning. That is as far as Alvarez would get, however, as a strikeout ended the threat.
Two bright spots of the night for Houston were Alex Bregman and Will Smith. Bregman continued his hot streak at the plate, recording two of the Astros four hits. Smith came into the game in the ninth inning in relief of Javier and needed just eight pitches to shut down the Orioles.
The Bayou City team will look to even the score against Baltimore tomorrow night at 6:10 p.m. CST. Jose Urquidy will toe the rubber for the Astros and Dean Kremer will get the start for the Orioles.
More importantly, Houston will be looking to get back in win column to keep some distance between themselves and the New York Yankees.
With a win last night, the team from the Bronx is now 2.5 games behind the Astros.
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