Astros take back-and-forth battle; win 8-7

Six homers between the two teams leads to a back-and-forth game

In a back-and-forth matchup, the Houston Astros take the series from the Los Angeles Angels, winning the final game in Anaheim 8-7 in a dramatic game.

After two homers in yesterday’s game, Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe got the scoring started in today’s game in the same fashion, smacking a two-out bomb down the right field line to put the Angels up 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth.

After putting at least one runner on in three of the first four innings and with no runs to show for it, the Astros finally got on the board in the top of the fifth when Mauricio Dubón and Jeremy Peña both hit solo-homers, the first to lead off the inning and the next coming with one out, to tie the game at two.

They took their first lead in the game just a few batters later when Jake Meyers singled and stole second, allowing him to score on an error off the bat of Cam Smith, who went first-to-home on a Christian Walker double, putting Houston up 4-2.

After Houston came back though, the Angels jumped right back in front again, this time with a three-run bomb, putting them in from 5-4.

But, yet again, Houston jumped back in front for their second lead of the day, this time with a two-run bomb off the bat of Dubón for his second of the day and his second in two innings, to go ahead 6-5.

They added another two after that home run, all starting with a Luis Guillorme single. He came around to score on a Peña double, advancing to third on the throw, before Peña himself scored on a sac fly to extend the lead to 8-5 and give them back-to-back four-run innings.

The Angles got one more run across in the seventh and one more in the ninth, but the Astros managed to stay in front despite the Angels making it a one-run game, winning 8-7.

Astros starter Ryan Gusto was cruising to start the game, allowing one hit through the first three innings. It wasn’t till a two-out double in the fourth that the Angels were able to do any sort of damage off him.

They did though, allowing five earned runs with all of them coming courtesy of the home run. Despite this, his offence was still able to come alive for him, leaving the game after six innings and with the lead.

Ryan Gusto’s final line:

6 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 0 BB, 7 K, 79-57 TP-S

In spite of the hits and runs he gave up, Gusto showed some great command on the mound in today’s game. This outing is the first time he has gone more than five innings without walking a batter and his third outing in a row with 7+ strikeouts.

After the usually surehanded Bryan King came in for Gusto and allowed a run on two hits and a single, he was taken out for Bryan Abreu, who got the Astros out of the seventh, leaving two runners on.

Josh Hader came on to close and, after allowing a solo-shot to bring the game to within one run, Hader finished the game with a strikeout to Mike Trout to hand the Astros the 8-7 win.

This was a great offensive day for almost every Astros starter, with all nine of the starters reaching base and eight of the nine recording a hit. Even the pinch-hitter Isaac Parades got on with a hit. Not only that, but six of the nine starters reached base twice, either with multi-hit games or a mix of hits and walks.

Prior to this current road trip, Dubón had just one home run through the first 48 games of the year. In the last seven games, he has four; two in Sacramento and another two bombs today.

The Astros return home for the first time in over a week to kick off a six-game, National League home-stand, starting with a three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies starting on Tuesday at 7:10.