After winning two of three from the Oakland Athletics, the Houston Astros started a four game series with the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday night. Despite all the trades going on, there was a ballgame that had to be played.
On the mound for the Blue Jays was right-hander Drew Hutchison. Hutchison, who was 7-9 coming into this game, was looking to get in the win column again. Early on, he was pounding the strike zone and the Astros' hitters were getting a ton of good looks. In the second and third inning, the Astros found success. Whether it was Jon Singleton's solo shot in the bottom of the second, or just simple base hits, the Astros were having it their way. After a three run third inning put together by a series of hits, Hutchison's night was over. He allowed four runs on six hits, and he didn't seem like he would settle down for the rest of the game. So, with that being said, the Blue Jays were forced to rely on their bullpen for the rest of the game. Their bullpen did an outstanding job. Todd Redmond gave up one unearned run and two hits. Other than that, the Astros' offense was shut down.
On the mound for the Astros was young right-hander Jake Buchanan. Jarred Cosart was set to be the starter tonight until he was traded to the Marlins. So, with late notice, Buchanan had to get ready and do a decent job. Tonight was his second career start, and he did better than most would have expected. Although Joey Bautista greeted him with a home run back in the first inning, he didn't let the game totally slip away. Jake allowed three runs on five hits in only five innings. Similar to the Blue Jays, the Astros had to rely on their bullpen to shut down a high-powered Blue Jays lineup. The only problem, was that Toronto kept up the success off of the Astros' bullpen. Dioner Navarro hit a solo shot off of Jose Veras in the top of the sixth to tie the ballgame at 4. As mentioned earlier, the Astros got an unearned run off of Todd Redmond in the bottom of the sixth to take a 5-4 lead, but could the bullpen hold that lead? The Jays responded with base hits and eventually a sacrifice fly by Jose Bautista tied the game at 5 in the top of the 8th.
The Astros still could not get the bats going offensively late in the game. The Blue Jays were still hot with the bat. In the top of the 9th inning, Nolan Reimold hit a solo shot off of Chad Qualls to give the Blue Jays a 6-5 lead. That home run ended up being the game-winning run for Toronto. Not only was it the most important run, but that was Reimold's second home run of the game.