Houston Astros humiliate Arizona Diamondbacks 9-1 – MLB Update
The Houston Astros crushed the Arizona Diamondbacks 9-1 in the first outing of the four-game series at Chase Field in Phoenix on Monday, August 8.
Astros’ pitching depth acted as per the expectation of their spectators, as all combined to destroy the strong batting squad of Arizona. Starter Wandy Rodriguez started the stint with his granular pitches in six innings. He struck-out five batters for his
shut-out spell to get his eighth win of the season.
"I was trying to make quality pitches," Rodriguez said. "My breaking balls, I threw good ones then I threw bad ones. I threw more bad tonight. Locating my breaking ball, that's my key."
Rodriguez tossed many balls in the first two innings and allowed four walks, but he did not let his confidence down and rebounded in later innings.
"You could just see in his body language out there that he couldn't get the pitches right where he wanted to," said Astros’ manager Brad Mills. "He worked out of a lot of jams while he was finding his rhythm."
As Rodriguez laid down the foundation for the offensive part of his club, the Astros’ relievers carried the momentum to later innings. Although Jeff Fulchino gave away a homer, he made an excellent comeback and flattened the Astros’ batting line-up over
two innings.
Closer Wesley Wright gave away just a single hit in the ninth inning to cement the Astros’ first win against the D-backs in this season. The D-backs are leading the season with 3-1.
The batting line-up also joined hands from the start of the game with their five runs in the first inning. J.D. Martinez launched a destroying hit for a three-run homer and catcher Carlos Corporan made an RBI double to take it to 5-0 in the first inning.
Matt Downs touched an RBI single in the second inning and Clint Barmes reached on infield single to short-stop while Martinez scored the seventh run of the game in the second inning. Third baseman Jimmy Paredes singled to left-centre, allowing Jose Altuve
and Martinez to score.
The D-backs reliable starter Daniel Hudson went a little loose and allowed seven runs on three innings that lasted for 75 pitches. It was one of the worst losses for the right hand hurler, who has 11-8 record in the 2011 regular season. Relief pitcher Zach
Duke also gave two runs on five hits in his four innings.
However, Brad Ziegler and Joe Paterson each did not allow any hit, walk or run over their one inning spell, but the D-backs bat completely lost the impetus. Henry Blanco made the only hit in the seventh inning for one run homer.
The D-backs are now under great pressure after this humiliating defeat by the worst team of the 2011 season. However, there bull-pen is confident to rebound in the next game.
Tags: