The Houston Astros Won A Baseball Game!

Yes... That's the title.

Wins have been hard to come by for the Houston Astros in 2024. With the Mexico City Series going on right now, the Astros were able to pull out a 12-4 win against the Colorado Rockies.

Don’t expect game recaps after every game or every win, I just thought I’d bask in the win with other Astros fans and talk about their first convincing win in quite a while, and how they did it. 

Ronel Blanco was on the mound for the Houston Astros and he began this start similarly to how he began his last start, by giving up a long home run.

Unlike CJ Abrams’ lead-off home run last Saturday for Washington, it was a 2-Run Home Run for Ryan McMahon that put the Astros in an early 2-0 hole. 

The Astros were able to then score quite a bit and take advantage of the Mexico City elevation.

After Yainer Diaz recorded a two out single, (one of Yainer’s three hits on the day), the newest Astro, Trey Cabbage hit an RBI double in his first Houston at-bat, to score Diaz and cut the lead in half.

In the Top of the 3rd, Chas McCormick was hit by a pitch that went right off his elbow guard. After two outs made by Altuve and Bregman, Yordan Alvarez went yard with a 400+ foot home run to give the Astros a lead that they’d never relinquish. Kyle Tucker would make it back to back as he’d hit a soft fly ball that would most likely be caught in any stadium. However, luckily for Houston, the Astros were playing in Mexico City and the ball flew into the stands for a home run, making it 4-2. 

There were a few oddities in this game. One of them came in the bottom of the 5th when Yainer Diaz committed his third catcher’s interference of the road trip. He’s had one in each series, one in Washington, one in Chicago and now, one against Colorado in Mexico City.

This oddity however would be one-upped as with two outs and Brenton Doyle on 2nd and Ryan McMahon at 1st, Elias Diaz seemingly smacked a base hit into left field, scoring Doyle and making it 4-3.

But then all of the fielders ended up running off the field for some reason and the inning was over. It turns out that while rounding third, Doyle missed 3rd Base.

After someone from the dugout yelled at the players on the field, Bregman stepped on 3rd base and Doyle was declared out, ending the fifth inning.

This was a massive break for Blanco and the Astros, as Ronel would go 5.2 Innings, giving up 5 hits, 2 walks and 2 runs. Not a quality start like his previous four starts, but still not bad. 

The Astros would do a good job at breaking the game open starting in the sixth inning where they loaded the bases with nobody out. Mauricio Dubon pinch hit for Cabbage and hit an infield single, adding on another run, and his amazing hitting stretch with runners in scoring position.

Jose Abreu grounded into a double play, and despite not getting another RBI, another run scored, making the score 6-2.

Jeremy Pena would lead off the 8th inning with a single and for a few minutes, Yainer Diaz would hit the first triple of the 2024 Astros season.

It was a ball that went through right fielder Hunter Goodman’s legs and it’d understandably be changed to a single and an error.

This was surprisingly the Rockies only error on the day as they didn’t look very good in the field.

Nonetheless, it was 7-2 with a runner on 3rd. The man, the myth, the legend, Jose Abreu would hit an RBI single making it 8-2. 

In the 9th inning, the Astros were able to put up a few runs. Yordan Alvarez led the inning off with his second home run of the game making it 9-2. Both Tucker and Diaz walked, and Mauricio Dubon would get another hit with runners in scoring position, making it 10-2, and putting Diaz on 3rd.

Jose Abreu would get his second RBI hit in as many innings making it 11-2. Lastly, Chas McCormick would record his first hit of the game scoring Mauricio Dubon, making it 12-2. There would be a Grae Kessinger sighting as he’d pinch hit for Jose Altuve and hit a line drive that would be caught by Rockies 1st Baseman Elehuris Montero, doubling off McCormick. 

Brandon Bielak would enter the game in place of Tayler Scott and he’d struggle. He’d allow a walk to Brenton Doyle. Defensive indifference would allow Doyle to reach 2nd, and with two outs, Charlie Blackmon would record an RBI hit, scoring Doyle, making it 12-3. Blackmon then also reached 2nd on defensive indifference, and Elehuris Montero then hit an RBI single making it 12-4. Bielak eventually recorded the final out and the Astros would win by that score of 12-4. 

Many positives from Astros Mexico City Win

There were many positives of the Astros’ first game in Mexico City.

Trey Cabbage recorded an RBI double in his first Houston at bat. Even if Cabbage is back down in Triple-A after the series, I still imagine he’ll be up in the majors at some point this season, and this was a good start to his 2024 campaign.

Jose Abreu had two RBI hits, which took his season RBI total from one to three, and his batting average is up to .104.

Of course, Yordan Alvarez’s two mammoth home runs were not only fun to look at but were a bright spot.

Blanco was decent on the mound again, Yainer recorded three hits, Dubon had two hits and two RBIs with runners in scoring position, and Tucker had a home run and an additional hit.

Along with the positives, I would say the two negatives were Altuve and Bregman not recording a hit (although Altuve did walk twice), and Bielak not performing well, even though it was a 12-2 game when he entered.

You can’t win them all, and hopefully, Bregman will get going soon, as his batting average is down to .204. 

I hope you all enjoyed a different type of article. Like I said, I won’t be making these postgame recaps a daily thing, I just thought it’d be fun to go over this game due to the many good signs from the Astros offense and most of their pitching staff.

Maybe if the Astros win tomorrow, I’ll make a sequel to this article called “The Astros swept a baseball series (yes that’s the title),” but other than that this is probably a one-off article format.

What did you think about last night's game? Comment your answers down below, or tweet your answers to us @astronomic1.