The Astros spoiled Robbie Ray's Padres debut Friday night, beating San Diego 6-3 behind two Cam Smith homers and another strong bullpen performance.
Smith was the star of the show for this one. He got the ball rolling with a home run in the second to put the Astros on the board, his 14th of the season.
Sung-Min Song was caught stealing third to open the third inning; Diaz threw him out, and Paredes applied the tag. A perfectly executed play by the Astros. With the bases loaded later in the inning, Christian Walker delivered a two-run single up the middle, scoring Alvarez and Paredes to make it 3-0.
Alvarez added an RBI single in the fourth, pushing his season total to 86 RBI and the score to 4-0.
San Diego started to show up in the fourth. Jackson Merrill tripled in a run, then later scored from third just ahead of a tag, as Christian Walker fielded a grounder, stepped on first, and threw to Jeremy Peña at second for a double play. Fernando Tatis Jr. stepped in a batter later, seemingly frustrated by what he felt was a quick pitch from Blanco, and made Houston pay, launching his 10th homer of the season.
Cam Smith answered right back in the sixth, taking reliever Yuki Matsui deep for his second homer of the night, making it 5-3.
Blanco was pulled after issuing a two-out walk in the fifth, finishing his outing having allowed three runs on four hits and three walks over 4.2 innings, per MLB. It's now three times in four starts this season he's failed to complete five innings, and his ERA sits at 6.98 with a 17-to-11 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Ray finished his own night having walked five and allowed seven hits over five innings.
Houston's sixth run came the same way San Diego's fourth-inning run did, on a double play. In the eighth, Jeremy Peña grounded into a double play, but Cam Smith crossed the plate from third just before the inning ended, making it 6-3. Hader closed it out in the ninth for his 16th save.
Peter Lambert takes the mound for Houston in game two of the series Saturday against Michael King at Petco Park.
Taking a look at the pitching breakdown from Friday night's game, per MLB:
- Ronel Blanco: Starter (4.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 1 SO)
- Bennett Sousa: Reliever (0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER)
- AJ Blubaugh: Reliever (0.2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 SO)
- Steven Okert: Reliever (1.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 SO)
- Bryan Abreu: Reliever (1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 SO, Win)
- Josh Hader: Reliever (1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 SO, Save)
Lambert giving the Astros length will be crucial after the wear and tear on the bullpen. Luckily for the Astros, Lambert is just the guy for the job.
