Hunter Pence’s hit helps Houston Astros to 4-3 victory over Cincinnati Reds – MLB Update
Hunter Pence established evidence of his phenomenal talent on Wednesday, May 11 as his last inning hit gave Houston Astros a difficult 4-3 win against Cincinnati Reds at Minute Maid Park, Houston.
"The last couple of games have been pretty rough," Pence said. “We kind of came to a conclusion that we had to go out there and have fun and stay enthusiastic and just go as hard as we can as a team. We pitched well, played defense and found a way to get
a win.”
The win could not have come at a better time given the fact that Cincinnati had the leading edge throughout last four matches. The Reds hardly had any difficulty in overpowering the Astros, but this time it was Houston that prevailed.
Victory was made possible by Pence’s last inning exploit. He took to task Reds’ Mike Leake and doubled to deep right to not only score the tiebreaking score but give a majestic victory to the Astros. Considering the fact that Houston have been through a
lot lately due to their unsatisfactory performance, this win will go a long way to boost their confidence.
The defeat, however, was something that the Reds hardly wanted here. The team was understandably toiling to continue the winning streak which stood at four consecutive. "We fought to get back, but it is very difficult to win when you give up nine walks,"
Reds’ manager Dusty Baker said. "Three of their four runs were walked."
Edinson Volquez, whose performance has not really been personification of excellence allowed two runs in the second inning to Houston’s Michael Bourn. He singled to right to get an early 2-0 lead for Houston.
The lead was then taken to 3-0 with the single of Matt Downs, as he hit a sacrifice fly to centre in one of the vulnerable fastballs of Volquez. The 3-0 was brought down to 3-1 by Brandon Phillips of Cincinnati in the fourth inning.
Wandy Rodriguez then gave up three hits and allowed two runs in the seventh inning, compounding the difficulties of the Astros which had initially got the lead. Two runs came from Chris Heisey and Drew Stubbs.
Facing a potentially grim defeat once again, the Astros saw Pence hit a single to deep right. Pence’s single gave a tough 4-3 victory to Houston.
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