HOUSTON (AP) — After the Houston Astros erupted for 10 runs in the sixth inning Friday night in a victory over the Chicago White Sox, manager Dusty Baker was asked to sum up the big frame.
“Boy,” he said before taking in a deep breath, “that’s as good of an inning as I’ve seen in a long time.”
Michael Brantley, whose grand slam was one of three homers in the inning that propelled the Astros to the 13-3 win, later added his take on the sixth.
“It was electric,” he said.
Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker also homered in the sixth on a night when the Astros hit five homers and tied a season high for runs.
“Hitting is contagious and nobody likes to be left out,” Baker said. “There are some guys that are behind schedule for their normal years. As you can see across the board with other games as well as ours, the offense is catching up and the scores are going up almost daily. This is the time when the hitters should start hitting.”
The game was tied at 3 in the sixth when Alex Bregman drew a leadoff walk, and he scored as Alvarez singled and right fielder Andrew Vaughn overthrew third base.
The Astros pushed the lead to 5-3 on an RBI double by Tucker that extended his hitting streak to a career-long 15 games, the longest active streak in the majors.
White Sox starter Lucas Giolito (4-3) plunked Yuli Gurriel before he was chased by a single from Aledmys Díaz. Matt Foster took over and was greeted by an RBI single from Chas McCormick that loaded the bases.
There were two outs when Brantley hit the third grand slam of his career to make it 10-3.
“At that point it came down to, he’d made so many good pitches, make one more good pitch to get out of the inning with three runs,” manager Tony La Russa said. “But once it got away, it…
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