Anemic bats waste yet another superb pitching effort
News Flash:
You probably need to score more than one or two runs a game if you want to compete for first place.
The pitching did its job again. Justin Verlander completed seven innings, allowing only one run and three hits with nine strikeouts. The only run was a fifth-inning home run by Dominic Canzone.
The blast took away the short-lived Astros lead after the Astros scored a run in the fourth with a string of singles culminating in Jake Meyers’ RBI.
The bullpen held until the tenth. Needless to say, the Astros failed to score the ghost-runner in the tenth, and the Mariners didn’t, leading to their third straight win over the Astros in their homestand and putting the Mariners 5.5 games ahead of the Stros.
In this series, the Astros are averaging six hits per game. When the hitting was good earlier this year, the pitching was horrible. Now that the pitching is excellent, the Astros are Mendoza line-hitters.