Christian Walker puts the team on his back for his best game as an Astro
Coming off a loss yesterday to the Chicago White Sox, there was only one thing to do for the Houston Astros, and that was dominate.
The Astros got on the board right away in this one and didn’t look back the rest of the game. After Peña started off the bottom of the first with a lineout, back-to-back doubles from Jose Altuve and Isaac Paredes got them on the board quickly.
Christian Walker added on to the early lead just two batters later, sending a ball over the train tracks in left for his ninth home run of the season, putting the Astros up 3-0 after just one inning. Prior to today, in the 65 games so far this season, the Astros had only recorded eight first inning extra-base hits. Today, they almost doubled that total with three.
Walker further extended the lead yet again in his next at-bat, this time sending a two-out two-RBI double into left center gap, extending the lead to 5-0 in the bottom of the third and marking a new season high in RBI with four.
They kept the runs up when Astros GM Dana Brown was in the play-by-play booth for the bottom of the fourth, adding two more runs after a Cam Smith one-out double and back-to-back two-out doubles from Peña and Paredes, jumping ahead 7-0.
The White Sox finally got on the board for themselves with two runs in the top of the fifth, but the Astros kept on going. After Victor Caratini added one run on an RBI-groundout in the bottom of the fifth, they added their final two runs in the eighth on RBI-singles from Jacob Melton and Parades, bringing the Astros into double-digits and giving them a 10-2 lead
All these runs backed up some excellent pitching for the Astros, all starting with rookie Ryan Gusto in his best start of the year. After throwing over three innings of shutout ball for the first time in his career, Gusto finished his day after reaching new career marks in strikeouts, pitch count and innings.
Ryan Gusto’s final line:
6 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 91-60 (TP-S)
Leaving with a six run lead, Gusto was relieved by Bryan King and Steven Okert, each giving the Astros a clean inning to give Gusto his fourth win of the season and his first since April.
Altuve’s second hit of the night marked his 2,300 hit of his career, still third all-time on the Astros leaderboard, now just 14 away from Jeff Bagwell. He is now just the second active player with at least 2,300 hits, joining Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman.
Walker not only topped his previous season high in RBI during the game, but he also recorded three hits for just his third time as an Astro. The third hit was the strangest, accidentally tapping a check-swing single over the head of the first baseman.
This outing from White Sox starter Sean Burke was very out of the ordinary for him as of late. Before today, Burke had allowed just five earned runs over his last 19 innings of work across three outings with 17 strikeouts.
The Astros will go for the sweep against White Sox tomorrow with one last game at 7:10 before the Minnesota Twins come to Houston next.