Astros AM: Welcome to the Show Teoscar Hernandez!

Houston Astros Promote Another Prospect and Win!

Teoscar Hernandez didn’t waste any time breaking into the big leagues with a bang. With the Astros leading 4-2 in the 6th inning, Hernandez pounced on a 3-2 slider and sent it deep into the Toronto bullpen. We have seen rough major league debuts from A.J. Reed and Alex Bregman. It’s nice to look at the box score and revel in Hernandez’s unreal slash line from his major league debut: .500/.600/1.250.

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After facing the 5-0 deficit in the rained out game that “never happened” on Wednesday night, the Astros have outscored their opponents 37-17. In Houston’s first 12 games in August, they were only able to scratch across 28 runs. Now, in their last four contests, they’ve scored 37 runs. That’s right, 9.25 runs per game. That include’s last night’s 5-3 victory.

Joseph Musgrove was electric again, earning his first major league win in his third appearance. In a strange twist of fate, two of Musgrove’s appearances have come against the Toronto Blue Jays who drafted him in the 1st round of the 2011 draft. He was traded to the Astros in 2012 in the deal that sent J.A. Happ to Toronto. Happ is having a Cy Young caliber season this year, but Musgrove out-dueled the ten-year veteran on Friday night, posting a final line of 7 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 7K. His ERA sits at 1.47.

One of his two earned runs came on a solo home run off the bat of American League All-Star Michael Saunders in the 4th inning which tied the game at two runs apiece. That was the Toronto’s 9th home run against Houston this season – all nine of them have come without anyone on base.

Those solo blasts were enough to get the job done in Houston two weeks ago when the offense was struggling, but tonight the offense came through, scoring five runs against the best pitching staff in the American League who now hold a 3.65 ERA.

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