Astros take first away series since April; win 8-2

A season high in strikeouts for Framber and a career day for Melton

After a near 3.5 hour delay, the Houston Astros and Pittsburgh Pirates finally played their game in PNC Park for the roughly 2,000 fans that stuck around and the Astros fans left happy.

On the mound for Houston, Framber was his usual self, raking up 11 strikeouts (a new season high) in just seven innings of work. This moves his streak up to eight games with at least five strikeouts and moved well past Bob Knepper for second all-time in strikeouts by a left-handed pitcher, trailing only Wandy Rodriguez.

The Pirates did get to him a couple of times, with their first run putting them on the board first in the game with an RBI-groundout giving them their only lead of the game. The only other run off Framber came in the seventh after three two-out hits resulted in their second, and final, run of the day.

Framber Valdez’s final line:

7 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 11 K, 99-66 (TP-S)

Bryan Abreu and Kaleb Ort came in to finish the game after Framber’s night was finished and they did just that, with Abreu striking out two in the eighth, to help finish a 8-2 win. Ort did get in a little bit of trouble in the bottom of the ninth, allowing two runners, but he came back with two strikeouts and a groundout to end the game.

After Framber allowed his run in the bottom of the third, the Astros answered right back in the top of the fourth with four runs of their own. Isaac Parades got things started by tying the game with the first homer that Pirates starter had allowed all year.

After a single and a two-out walk put men on first and second, Cam Smith and Jacob Melton both singled in runs to put the Astros up 4-1 quickly. For Melton, the hit was his second of his career and the first RBI of his career, and for Cam, that single broke an 0-15 streak.

They added on in the seventh after Melton’s second hit of the game put him on second for Jeremy Peña, who roped his second hit of the game into right-center for an RBI-double. After a stolen base put Peña on third, a Jose Altuve sac-fly extended their lead and they capped off the scoring with a two-out two-run shot from Paredes, his second of the game, to bring the score to its final; 8-2.

This win marks the Astros first series win on the road since their first road series this season against the Minnesota Twins in the beginning of April.

Coming in as someone who was going to love the Crawford Boxes, Paredes is getting it done on the road. That is his second muti-home run game, with the other being on the road, and his sixth and seventh of his 14 total bombs.

Peña’s double to start the game moved his hit-streak up to 11 games (a team lead), with 19 hits over that 11 game span. Since moving into the leadoff spot, he is hitting .360 (50-139) and has become a massive presence in the lineup.

With their win and the Seattle Mariners loss, the Astros now lead the AL West by 1.5 games. Before today, they had not led the division by more than 0.5 games.

With the game finishing at 12:27 in Pittsburgh, this is the latest game the Astros have played all year and they will immediately get on a plane and head to Cleveland to face the Guardians in a three-game series.