Instant Analysis: Astros 6, Nats 3

Both teams had opportunities to rally early in this game. Only Houston took full advantage to take the middle game of this series.

Photo by Andrew Banaz / ALL-PRO REELS

Both the Nationals and Astros gave themselves opportunities for early offense tonight. Only Houston took full advantage of those opportunities, taking the middle game of this interleague series. Though the Nationals did make things mighty interesting in the bottom of the ninth.

For the eighth time this year, James Wood gave the Nats a 1-0 lead with one swing in the first inning, blasting Tatsuya Imai’s slider to right-center for his 25th homer of the season. He and his teammates continued to put pressure on the erratic Imai, with their first 14 batters facing a whopping 72 pitches in three innings. But the Nats managed only two runs through it all, then couldn’t get anything going against the Houston bullpen despite putting at least one runner on base each inning.

Andrew Alvarez also found himself facing traffic on the bases, issuing five walks and hitting a batter. And the Astros made him pay for it, scoring three runs in the top of the fourth, two of them on Nick Allen’s bases-loaded single to left. They added another in the sixth before Alvarez was finally pulled.

Two Nationals relievers (Justin Lawrence, Riley Cornelio) were asked to pitch out of a bases-loaded jam, and each pulled it off with a strikeout. Cornelio, though, did give up a tack-on homer to Jose Altuve in the top of the eighth that increased the deficit to four runs.

José Tena cut the deficit back to three runs with a pinch-hit homer in the ninth off Alimber Santa, and Wood followed with a single to keep the pressure on. Curtis Mead and CJ Abrams each reached against Josh Hader, loading the bases with two outs. But Dylan Crews (pinch-hitting for Keibert Ruiz) struck out on a high fastball from Hader to leave them loaded and end the game.

HITTING HIGHLIGHT: Remember when it looked like Wood was about to be mired in a slump about a week ago? Well, he not only didn’t fall into a slump. He busted out with one of his best weeks of the season. With his first-inning blast tonight, Wood improved to 11-for-28 with 11 runs, two doubles, one triple, five homers, 12 RBI, 10 walks and only five strikeouts over his last eight games.

PITCHING HIGHLIGHT: Alvarez has pitched much better than this at times during the season, only to be pulled after four innings or two trips through the lineup. So why was he still out there into the sixth inning, facing the entire Houston lineup three times, tonight? Consider that a reaction to the state of the bullpen. Blake Butera left the young left-hander on the mound as long as he could, with Alvarez ultimately throwing a career-high 97 pitches. All this despite the fact he issued five walks, hit a batter and had all kinds of trouble with the bottom half of the Astros order. The free passes were the real killers; three of the Astros’ five runs off Alvarez were scored by guys who either reached base via walk or hit-by-pitch.

NOTABLE: Now that Cade Cavalli’s appeal has been decided, don’t count on a ruling on Miles Mikolas just yet. MLB tries to keep a team from having two players suspended at the same time, so it’s possible Mikolas won’t have to serve his until Cavalli returns to the active roster Sunday.

UP NEXT: The series concludes Wednesday at 6:45 p.m., with Foster Griffin making his final start of the first half and right-hander Spencer Arrighetti on the mound for Houston. TV: Nationals TV RADIO: 106.7 FM