Team Ensberg walks off with intrasquad win

Today the Astros hitters and fielders saw their first “game” action. Team Ensberg and Team Everett squared off against each other at Osceola County Stadium. On the mound today? Iron Mike, a curveball pitching machine. Bo Porter wanted to get his hitters acclimated to breaking pitches without having to subject his pitchers to the workload. It seems to have worked out nicely.

Team Ensberg used a four-run rally in the bottom of the final inning to walk off with a 5-4 win. Jonathan Villar and Chris Carter set the table for Brandon Laird‘s game-winning single up the middle.

Team Everett, featuring Jose Altuve, Jason Castro and others, took the hard-luck loss thanks to the blown save by Iron Mike. Bo Porter made the losing squad serve banana splits to the winners after the game.

The jokes about the Astros beating themselves… again — have already started.

Bo Porter continues to impress me with his team-building techniques. All of the footage I’ve seen from Kissimmee shows a team that appears to be having fun and feeding off of each other.

Coming up

Alan Ashby will be tonight’s guest on SportsTalk 790’s AstroLine with Milo Hamilton and Kelly George.

Friday the Astros open their minor league mini-camp in Kissimmee.

Saturday is game day! Lucas Harrell gets the start against the Phillies in the Clearwater.