The Houston Astros are on fire! After the dramatic comeback on Monday, capped by an 11 run 8th inning, Houston won the 2nd and 3rd games of the series by a combined score of 24-8. It seems like so many guys on the squad are catching fire at the same time.
George Springer reached base in all six plate appearances and hit two of Houston’s season-high six home runs to lead the Astros to their seventh straight victory, 17-6 over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday.
Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, Evan Gattis and Marwin Gonzalez also went deep for the Astros, who scored 40 runs in the three games to set a franchise record for runs in a series of any length. They had 19 hits on Wednesday and 37 in the series.
Brian Dozier, Eddie Rosario and Jason Castro homered for the Twins, who have lost four straight. Hector Santiago (4-5) gave up six runs on eight hits and walked three in six innings, three days after he was an emergency fill-in during the 15th inning of a loss to Tampa Bay.
Springer’s two homers traveled an estimated 900 combined feet, including a moon shot off of Ryan Pressly in the six-run seventh inning that landed just short of the third deck in left-center field. That was measured at 473 feet, the second-longest homer in the majors this season behind a 481-footer by Arizona’s Jake Lamb on April 29.
Springer, who had four hits and two walks, now has 13 homers on the season and five career multihomer games.
Correa, who had three hits and three RBI, got the Astros going in the first inning with a shot that slammed off the facing of the second deck in left field. The two-run homer was his ninth of the season and seventh in May.
The Twins put three runs on the board in the sixth on homers by Rosario and Castro to pull within 6-5, but the bullpen fallen faltered badly once again.
Gattis had four hits and three RBI.
David Paulino made his season debut for the Astros, but only lasted 4 innings. He did strike out 8, but managed to throw 90+ pitches in only those 4 innings.
The Astros managed to finish the last 5 innings of the game without completely depleting their bullpen, and with an off day on Thursday ahead of the weekend series versus the Rangers, Houston sets up quite nicely pitching wise. Both Keuchel and McCullers will pitch in the series. That, plus a crazy hot offense of late, could bode dangerous for Texas, who has floundered of late after their 10 game winning streak. This series could be the final nail in the coffin if Houston manages to sweep, as the Rangers would be at least 14 games back of first place, depending on how they play Wednesday.