Tampa Bay Rays vs Houston Astros Box Score on Aug 02, 2017

The Sports Xchange
Aug 2, 2017

HOUSTON -- Rookie Austin Pruitt delivered a memorable start in his hometown, and the Tampa Bay Rays turned some early offense into a 3-0 win over the Houston Astros on Wednesday night at Minute Maid Park.

Pruitt (6-2), born in the Houston suburb of The Woodlands, pitched at the University of Houston. With a vocal contingent providing support, he threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing five hits and one walk while recording three strikeouts.

The Astros (69-38) pushed baserunners into scoring position against Pruitt in the third, fourth and sixth innings. In the third and sixth, Pruitt induced inning-ending, double-play grounders to escape unscathed, getting Jose Altuve and Yuli Gurriel to ground out and snuff those threats.

Tampa Bay (56-53) mustered all the offense it needed in the first inning when designated hitter Logan Morrison bashed his 28th home run, a two-run shot off Astros left-hander Dallas Keuchel, who took his first loss of the season.

Corey Dickerson, Trevor Plouffe and Adeiny Hechavarria each recorded multi-hit games for the Rays, who handed the Astros their fourth shutout loss on the season.

Houston finished 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

The Rays had five two-out hits against Keuchel, with Morrison's two-run homer in the first inning the biggest blow. That marked just the second homer that Keuchel allowed to a left-handed hitter this season.

Even though Keuchel escaped the second inning unscathed, he was forced to dodge additional two-out traffic to keep the deficit at two runs.

Keuchel (9-1) wasn't quite as elusive in the third. After he got two quick outs to open the inning, the Rays strung together three consecutive baserunners, with Hechavarria and Brad Miller getting back-to-back hits after Wilson Ramos' two-out walk. Ramos scored on Miller's single to stretch the lead to 3-0.

Keuchel gave up three runs, seven hits and two walks with two strikeouts in five innings.

NOTES: Astros 2B Jose Altuve was named American League Player of the Month for July after hitting .485 (48-for-99) with 10 doubles, one triple, four home runs, 21 RBIs and a 1.251 OPS over 23 games. ... Rays DH Logan Morrison did not participate defensively for a third consecutive game as he continues to deal with a bruised left heel. Morrison last started at first base on July 27 against the New York Yankees. ... Astros 1B Yuli Gurriel was named American League Rookie of the Month for July after leading AL rookies in hits (28), doubles (nine), RBIs (20), slugging percentage (.565) and OPS (.899) last month.