An elite pitching matchup on paper turned into an onslaught.
Martin Maldonado lifted a first pitch grand slam over the wall in left field to chase Toronto Blue Jays starter Hyun Jin Ryu from the mound with two outs in the sixth inning and help lead the Houston Astros to a 13-1 victory before an announced crowd of 5,510 on Friday night at Sahlen Field.
“I don’t think it had anything to do with the stadium,” Ryu said through a translator, explaining his changeup and cutter were hanging over the plate too much. “It was just me. I just had some problem with myself today. But overall, the atmosphere and everything was really good.”
The Astros have been getting their comeuppance this season for their metal can-banging misdeeds that tainted their 2017 World Series run.
Maldonado, hitting ninth, gave the Astros a 7-0 lead with his fourth homer of the season and Carlos Correa belted a pair of long balls, a solo shot in the fifth inning and a three-run homer in the eighth to extinguish any hope of a Blue Jays comeback.
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Ryu (5-3) allowed seven runs, six of them earned, on seven hits in 5.2 innings. It was his worst outing since giving up seven earned runs in a 12-5 loss at Arizona on Aug. 29, 2019, when he pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He walked three and struck out one, watching his season ERA jump from 2.62 to 3.23.
“Ryu was one pitch away from getting out of the trouble that he was in,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said. “He gave up a lot of seeing-eye base hits and again, he was one pitch away, but Maldonado got him with whatever you want to call that – a fly ball, the wind took it. It’s still a grand slam, but he was one pitch away from keeping us in the game.”
Zack Greinke (6-2) cruised to the complete-game victory, allowing one run on six hits in nine innings. He walked one and struck out three. It was his first complete game since April of 2017.
After Maldonado essentially put the game out of reach with his grand slam in the sixth, Aledmys Diaz added a solo home run to give the Astros an 8-0 lead in the seventh.
Randal Grichuk broke the shutout with a solo homer to center field in the bottom of the frame, his 12th long ball of the season.
But the Astros added five more runs in the eighth, battering relief pitcher Tyler Chatwood, who failed to record an out.
“He’s 100%. If you look at his stuff, he was throwing 97, 96 (mph),” Montoyo said. “He was still throwing hard. Just his command is not there. … He wanted to pitch. He wanted to go out there. He knows the only way he can get out of the funk that he’s in is pitching.”
