HOUSTON — The intensity built with every zero that appeared on the scoreboard at Daikin Park on Wednesday, especially in the home dugout. The Astros, fighting to protect their American League West lead, were in desperate need of a hit to not waste a gem of a performance from starting pitcher Hayden Wesneski.
Things looked bleak when the White Sox loaded the bases with one out in the eighth inning against reliever AJ Blubaugh, who somehow escaped a mess. The Astros still needed a hero to emerge on offense, and Nelson Velázquez, in only his 10th game with Houston, delivered one of the season’s biggest hits.
Velázquez drilled a two-run single to center field with two outs and the bases loaded in the eighth to break a scoreless tie and send the Astros to a 2-0 win. Wesneski threw seven scoreless innings and combined with Blubaugh and closer Josh Hader (22nd save) for a three-hit shutout.
The Astros (71-69) won two of the first three games of the series to improve to 4-2 against the White Sox this year, taking the season series from Chicago. Houston also increased its divisional lead to two games over the Rangers, with the Astros owning the season tiebreaker.
Here are three key storylines from Houston’s clutch win:
Wesneski’s emergence
The Astros haven’t had much success in recent years in pitchers rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, a list that includes Luis Garcia, José Urquidy and Cristian Javier. Even Ronel Blanco, who had TJ surgery around the same time as Wesneski early last year, has yet to return to pre-surgery form. That’s not the case for Wesneski.
In his seventh start since missing 14 months, Wesneski threw seven scoreless innings while allowing only one hit, along with two walks and five strikeouts. Wesneski is the first Astros starting pitcher to finish seven innings since he did it himself on Aug. 10 at the Giants. He has a 3.18 ERA in 39 2/3 innings.
“I wasn’t sure how it was gonna go,” he said. “I just kind of accepted both outcomes of, ‘Wow, this could be really good,’ or ‘Wow, this could go horribly.’ I felt like it’s gone well because of the work I was putting in West Palm [Beach, Fla.], when [the Astros] were playing games here. And it’s just trying to take steps here, little steps there. I’m not surprised that it’s going well, but if you told me I pitched horribly for this whole time, I wouldn’t be surprised either.”
Wesneski pounded the strike zone, throwing 19 first-pitch strikes to the 25 hitters he faced. He threw 11 pitches in the first and only 10 in both the fourth and fifth. Wesneski said he’s been able to make adjustments on the fly much quicker than he did in his first few starts off the IL.
“I feel like my game plan and setup has gone well,” he said “I feel like I’m just kind of in a groove right now.”
Blubaugh’s magic act
The rookie’s transformation to a late-inning weapon led to a white-knuckle moment Wednesday. He immediately got in trouble in the eighth with a leadoff triple by Tristan Peters and a walk to Drew Romo. But shortstop Jeremy Peña threw out Peters at the plate on a fielder’s choice, and Miguel Vargas hit into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play with the bases loaded.
“The moments are not getting too big for him anymore,” manager Joe Espada said. “I’m starting to give him the ball in big spots because he’s earned the right to do that. He can pitch out of trouble, and he can get punchouts.”
Blubaugh said the out at the plate changed the tone of the inning, putting runners at first and second with one out. He gave up a single to Munetaka Murakami that loaded the bases, but right fielder Cam Smith got the ball in quickly to keep Romo at third. Blubaugh threw a 97 mph fastball over the middle of the plate to Vargas, who hit a grounder right at third baseman Isaac Paredes.
“Obviously, you’re going for the strikeout at all times, but in that situation I’m either looking for a whiff, an infield popup or exactly what happened was a double play to Paredes,” Blubaugh said. “It was perfect.”
Nelson on the spot
Velázquez, who clubbed a two-run go-ahead homer in the fourth inning of Monday’s win, delivered his second big hit of the series, this one coming off lefty reliever Sean Newcomb that was 107 mph off the bat. Velázquez was signed to be a right-handed option against southpaws and came through with Houston’s second hit with runners in scoring position (2-for-10).
“We’ve gotten so many opportunities in this game and finally, we get one in there,” Espada said. “We won the season series against the White Sox … and we don’t want to look back and wonder what we could have done if we could have executed better on a particular day. Let’s take care of business now and we continue move forward.”