Offense Explodes for Houston (Sort of)

Houston’s offense exploded (relatively) tonight against the LA Dodgers. The Astros 7 runs matched what they scored in the first 3 games of the series combined. Most the damage came from the likely sources with Pence and Lee each hitting a homerun for their 24th and 21st respectively, leaving Pence just one shy of his career best with 19 games to go. The two corner outfielders are also on pace to have 90 RBI a piece. The outfielder between the two sluggers (and the man currently Climbing Tal’s Hill) Michael Bourn, stole two bases to raise his National League leading total to 49. Two thirds of the baby bombers chipped in as well. Brett Wallace got two hits and a walk(!) to raise his AVG to .224 and added 2 RBI. This caps a two week period that’s seen his average raise 43 points, including his first career homerun. Apparently he just needed a little nudge from me. Jason Castro also picked up a pair of hits and now sits at .219. The highest his average has been July 1 when he was hitting .231. The rookie catcher is hitting .333 with 2 BBs and 2 SOs in September. Chris Johnson got the day off in favor of Matt Downs who went 0-5. I think Johnson’s job is safe.

Houston’s magic number at 7.

*Meanwhile, in ‘I didn’t know he was still alive’ news Dodgers outfielder Jay Gibbons hit his 5th homerun of the season and now owns a .349/.404/.698 line.