*Photo from the Houston Chronicle*
The goal of trade deadline acquisitions is to help your team make a push for the playoffs and the World Series. One is making a particularly strong impact. Jeremy Pena drove in a run, Trey Mancini homered, and the Houston Astros defeated the Minnesota Twins with a 6-3 victory on Thursday night in Houston.
Since he joined the Astros, Mancini only has a .233 batting average in 18 games, but his power surge has been the most documented. In the same 18 games, he has 6 home runs, and is slugging .567 with 16 RBI's in that time. He helped the Astros sweep the Twins and pick up their 4th straight win, and 6th in 10 games.
Mancini said of his homers with Houston that "I guess the couple of balls I hit in the Crawford Boxes might not have gone at Camden, but at the same time I don’t know if I have a perfect explanation. I’ve been working a lot with the hitting coaches on making some adjustments and my teammates have been helping me, too, on things they see. That’s been the name of the game for me."
The Twins got on the board in the top of the first inning, with Jorge Polanco hitting a solo home run to make it 1-0 early. In the bottom of the first, Yordan Alvarez tied it for the Astros with an RBI groundout, before Mancini blasted a 3 run home run to left field, opening up the lead for the Astros to make it a 4-1 game.
In the second inning, Nick Gordon came in to score on a wild pitch, cutting the Twins deficit to 4-2. Christian Vazquez got the Astros that run back with an RBI single to make it a 5-2 game. In the 5th, Luis Arraez hit a sac fly to make it a 5-3 game, and Pena hit an RBI double in the 8th to make it a 6-3 score.
Astros manager Dusty Baker said of Mancini's success "That’s why he’s batting where he’s batting, because I was hoping he’d have some runners on in front of him. That's why I hit Vazquez ahead of him, because he gets on base and has been getting base hits. But that was huge."
Getting the start for the Astros was Luis Garcia, who turned in a good start, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits and one walk through 5 innings, getting the win. Will Smith, Phil Maton, Hector Neris, and Rafael Montero each threw an inning out of the bullpen, with Montero picking up the save.
For the Twins, it was Chris Archer getting the start. Archer got roughed up, lasting just 4 innings while allowing 5 runs on 8 hits and one walk, striking out two hitters. 4 relievers came out of the bullpen for the Twins. Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Jorge Lopez, and Trevor Megill each came in for one inning.
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said that "Sending a player up there with a clear mind is really the goal every step up to the plate. When you do struggle as a collective group sometimes, it's very hard to clear your mind and just go out there and see the ball and hit the ball."
Up next, the Astros get a series started with the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night, with Lance McCullers Jr lined up to start. The Twins host the San Francisco Giants on Friday night, with Joe Ryan to get the start.
Comments
Post a Comment