The Astros' bats haven't made much noise in the two previous games against the Oakland Athletics, but Wednesday night was a different story for Houston as it avoided the sweep with a 6-1 win.
Against his former team of the past two seasons, Jed Lowrie provided the offense from the get-go with a mammoth two-run home run to left field in the first inning, scoring Jose Altuve, who doubled to leadoff the game. Later, Lowrie added to his RBI count with a double in the third inning to score George Springer.
"I love his quality at-bats," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said of Lowrie's performance. "I think that's what you know you're going to get out of Jed every night is an at-bat where he works the count, or he gets a good pitch to hit and he can drive the ball. He's one of the most prepared guys that we have and to watch him go through his daily routine, there's no secret as to why he's so consistent in what he does."
Lowrie, who has hit in the third-spot in the batting order in every game since April 10 in Texas, has shown a knack for consistency in a lineup that has lacked overall in the young season.
"That's what I do," Lowrie said. "I try to have a professional consistent approach at the plate and I've always believed if that I do that, the results will be what I want them to be."
Lowrie put the Astros on the board early to be the difference maker, but Houston showed more of its potential tacking on some insurance runs coming off home runs from Luis Valbuena in the seventh inning and Evan Gattis in the eighth, his first of the season. Gattis, who started the season with a 0-for-23 dry spell at the plate, now has a three-game hitting streak, and his manager believes there is more to come from the slugger.
"It was pretty exciting when [Gattis] got back to the dugout," Hinch said about the team's reaction to Gattis' first homer. "This guys works and he cares and he puts a lot of time and energy into everything he does. So everyone in that clubhouse knows how much he's grinding to try break out. So maybe this is a sign of things to come, he certainly takes every at-bat as if it's his last at-bat. To see him connect, tack on a run, which is even more important, was really good for the team."
Hinch stressed that the Astros' early lead helped build the confidence of team that has lacked firepower in the season so far in avoiding the sweep at the hands of Oakland.
"We haven't played with the lead that much and for us to get into a game that we certainly wanted to salvage a win out of the series after losing the first two, it's nice to get an early lead," Hinch said.
While the offense finally came out of it's shell after being shutout two nights in a row, Astros starting pitcher Collin McHugh put on a show of his own with 11 strikeouts, one shy of his career-high 12, while allowing just one run in the second inning. He was pulled with two outs in the sixth inning after throwing 102 pitches.
"[McHugh] had really good stuff tonight with all pitches across the board," Hinch said. "He came out with his fastball, with his breaking ball, obviously set the tone in the first inning when he punched out the side. Really, really good performance out of him, obviously pitch count drew up. I wanted to go extremely far with him but really good to see that kind of pitching performance out of Collin."
After the game, McHugh said his dominant outing was driven by the desire to avoid the sweep early in the season at the hands of a divisional opponent.
"It's a big game," McHugh said. "It's the last game of the series, when you take on a division opponent, you want to take at least take one, especially at home. I was pumped up, I was excited."
The Astros will have the day off Thursday, before welcoming the Los Angels Angels to town for a three-day series at home over the weekend.
Follow Shawn Ramsey on Twitter: @ShawnPRamsey
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