Astros' bats come alive with two big innings to back Verlander

MIAMI -- In the past, more often than not, it’s been Justin Verlander picking up the Astros when the offense has a rough day.

But on Wednesday night in Miami, those roles were reversed. In Verlander’s third start since Houston acquired him prior to the Trade Deadline, the veteran ace had to grind through five innings. He allowed a walk, then a second, for the first time since Aug. 5, and he gave up five runs (four earned) on nine hits.

And yet, with the Astros’ 12-5 win over the Marlins to snag the series finale victory at loanDepot park, Verlander improved to 103-0 when given five or more runs of support.

“It was a tough one,” Verlander said. “[The Marlins] had some really good at-bats -- and it felt nice to have a lead to work with obviously, when it's a game like that, and the guys stick you to an early big lead. You go out there and kind of know it's going to be one of those tough days, You kind of turn into just like, 'All right, let me work through this and hopefully find it.'

“I’ve played with [the Astros] long enough -- sometimes I pick them up, sometimes they pick me up. That's baseball. The guys picked me up today, and it could have gone very poorly. I look back at it, I'm thankful I was able to get out of some of the jams that they put me in -- that Miami put me in.”

The Astros’ offensive breakout began before Verlander stepped foot on the mound, with Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker going back-to-back in the first inning, before Chas McCormick followed with a two-run shot -- at an exit velocity of 109.4 mph and a Statcast-projected 435 feet -- two batters later.

Getting to Miami starter Jesús Luzardo early was crucial for Houston. The Astros struggled to find that big inning the previous two nights, and Luzardo boasts some impressive stuff -- his slider has a 50.7% whiff rate -- while his four-seam fastball rides some serious horizontal break.

“Luzardo's a great pitcher, too,” McCormick said. “We had to keep putting good at-bats together all game -- we couldn't shut it off after the first inning. But it was good to get a good head start in the first inning. ... Nice swings, by Breggy and Tucker, and followed by myself.

“They're a good team. You can't count them out. They have a really good lineup, so we had to keep putting [runs up] on them.”

As a result of that breakout first, Verlander took the mound already up by five runs. Though the big margin didn’t last (Miami pulled within a run at 6-5 by the end of the fifth inning), it didn’t matter. The Astros had Verlander’s back, and with a more well-rounded effort to boot.

Where long balls had given Houston its early lead, it was small ball in the seventh inning -- and a shutdown effort from the bullpen for a second consecutive night -- that sealed the series victory.

While relievers Kendall Graveman, Rafael Montero, Ryne Stanek and Parker Mushinski combined for four scoreless, hitless innings, Houston turned it back into a rout. The Astros batted around in the seventh, getting six runs across to double their run total on four walks, three hits (including a two-out, two-run double from Bregman) and a sac fly.

“Hey, man, you score 'em any way you can,” manager Dusty Baker said. “Everybody's waiting on the home run, but everybody doesn't hit home runs. So if you can string together a bunch of hits -- and especially when they count, with runners in scoring position -- because that's kind of what's been eluding us lately, is the runners in scoring position. … We made a couple of mistakes, but we won the game.”

Previously, Baker and the team have agreed that all aspects of the game haven’t clicked yet this season. The Astros are still waiting for their consistent play to turn hot. Wednesday’s effort was a pretty good start.

“I think that's what we do, honestly,” Bregman said. “Complete offenses have to find ways to score in different ways. We got guys up and down the lineup [who] can drive the ball out of the ballpark, but the best part about this offense is just the ability to make it happen fast and pass the torch to the next guy."