Astros Dominate Denver Way Above Mile-High in Mexico City, 8-2

Sweep the Rox in convincing fashion

A ray of hope for the Astros at last.

Two dominant wins and quality baseball in all aspects of the game. Finally.

The Astros have now had three straight starts by real major league pitchers. The two not named Verlander have launched the Astros into their first winning streak in a long time after having lost five straight games.

With consistent hitting and bullpen pitching to boot, the situation for the Astros may be stabilizing. Is the trip to Mexico the launching pad for the long-awaited Astros turnaround?

The Astros offense took off today where it left off yesterday. It started with a beautiful display of old-school small-ball and ended with a titanic blast.

Jose Altuve led off against Austin Gomber with a perfect drag bunt single down the third base line and moved to second on an Alex Bregman groundout. Altuve stole third easily and scored on a Yordan Alvarez sac fly.

Kyle Tucker then smashed this no-doubt bomb to the right field stands.

Meanwhile, Framber Valdez, just back from IL, cruised until the third inning, when two singles and a double by Nolan Jones resulted in the Rockies tying the score at two.

From there on, it was all Astros. Jose Altuve crushed his seventh homer to deep left field in the third inning.

Jeremy Pena added another run in the fourth with a solo shot of his own.

Meanwhile, Valdez held the Rockies to two runs after five innings pitched, allowing five hits with seven Ks and no walks. Welcome back, Framber.

The Astros piled on in the eighth inning with another four runs, highlighted by a well-struck RBI single by Alex Bregman and a two-RBI double by Yainer Diaz.

And despite the Sierra Madre air, the Astros bullpen held the Rockies scoreless. This was what we expected from Rafael Montero, Bryan Abreu, Ryan Pressly, and Josh Hader all year.

The Astros have a winning streak. After scoring only 22 runs in their last nine games, they scored 20 runs in the last two. Are things looking up? Or are the Astros only good when they play in Mexico?

Stay tuned. The Astros take on the red-hot Guardians on Tuesday at Minute Maid.

Box Score HERE.