Houston take the series with dominance; crush Nationals 9-1

A 4-hit game from Altuve help sparked the Astros second-straight win

After their five-game skid, the Houston Astros have started to come back to Earth and play like we know they can, beating the Washington Nationals 9-1 to make it back-to-back wins and a series win.

The Astros got to work early, scoring in the bottom of the first thanks to back-to-back singles and a sac-fly from Cam Smith, but the lead didn’t even last an inning before the Nats tied it right back up at one off Astros starter Ryan Gusto.

This tie didn’t last though after a Dubón walk and Short single put runners at the corners for Altuve and, excited about the return of teammate Jeremy Peña, spanked a three-run shot into the Crawford Boxes, giving Houston a 4-1 lead early.

The offense kept it going just a few innings later when Cooper Hummel left the yard for the third time this year, this one with Dubón on first, bringing in another two runs for Houston and extending their lead even further.

He was one-upped though just a few batters later when Yeiner Diaz hit his second homer in as many days, this one a three run shot scoring Zach Short and Altuve, giving Houston a 9-1 lead.

All of this was for the Astros pitching staff, starting with Ryan Gusto, but he really didn’t need all the runs. After starting the game with a four-pitch walk and allowing two hits and a run in the second, he settled down and only allowed two more hits over the next four innings of work.

Ryan Gusto’s final line:

6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 5 K, 102-70 TP-S

After Gusto’s day was done, Espada went to his bullpen and got three no-run innings from Hector Naris, Steven Okert and Luis Contreras, shutting down the Nat’s for the final three innings and leading to a 9-1 Houston win.

Altuve can’t stop hitting as of late, hitting over .320 in his last 30 games. He added on to that today, leading the team in hits with four and tied for the team lead in RBI with three. This is his 41st four-hit game of his career, the most among active players (from brianmctaggart on X)

Currently the Astros lead the AL West by 4.5 games with a 62-47 record. Jeremy Peña and Spencer Arrighetti are both scheduled to play in Sugar Land on Thursday night, with Peña hoping to be returned to the lineup on Friday in the opener against the Red Sox.