Astros’ bats flourish in Monterrey, Mexico for 14-2 victory

The Houston Astros started their Cinco De Mayo celebrations early as the bats provided the fireworks in a thumping of the Los Angeles Angels

Alex Bregman may want to petition for the Astros to play in Mexico more often after his dazzling performance at the plate last night, and Wade Miley might be the first to sign. With contributions up and down the lineup, the Astros provided more than enough run support for another one of Miley’s fine outings on the mound.

The Astros amassed 14 hits on the night, forcing Trevor Cahill to exit the game early after surrendering six runs in 3 1/3 innings. The onslaught continued when Chris Stratton entered the game and gave up eight runs of his own in his four innings of work. Ten of those fourteen hits went for extra bases.

Bregman accounted for two of the five home runs the Astros would ante up in their route over the Angels. The first homer he hit opened up the scoring in the first and his second blast was in the eighth, scoring the final three runs of the game. Michael Brantley, Yuli Gurriel and George Springer would provide for the other three home runs, Springer’s being his tenth of the season.

Gurriel also had a triple to left center in the second scoring Carlos Correa. Tyler White even got in on the action with two doubles and Max Stassi went 2 for 4 scoring twice. Brantley continued to make GM Jeff Luhnow look like a genius acquiring him, knocking in five runs and raising his BA to a team-leading .333.

Miley has been one of the surprising additions to the team this year. He went six innings allowing six hits and two runs for his second win of the season. Miley now has an impressive streak of 22 straight games giving up three runs or fewer.

Justin Verlander will be on the mound tonight against Matt Harvey to try to make it a two-game sweep of this short trip to Mexico. Verlander is 4-1 on the year with a 2.45 ERA. In contrast, Harvey has had a rough start to the season for the Angels at 1-2 and an ERA of 6.54.