On a rare occasion, the Astros hit two grand slams in two consecutive days. In its first exhibition game of the season, Kyle Tucker smashed a grand slam to help Houston defeat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-2 on Monday night.
The explosion marked his first ever bat at Minute Maid Park.
It was a dream growing up as a kid, Tucker explained, admitting his day was awesome.
On Tuesday
Following the same pattern, Carlos Correa launched a grand slam to the right-field bleachers in the bottom of the first inning, and Charlie Morton pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings as the Houston Astros thrashed the Brewers, 8-1 at Minute Made Park.
With the bases loaded and the score, 0-0, Correa drove a fastball into the right-field bleacher to give the Astros a 4-0 lead and it never looked back. It marked the second exhibition game in two days.
Morton sparkled on the mound, pitching 5 1/3 scoreless innings, surrendering one hit, and struck out eight batters. He found his rhythm early and wasted no time in going after Brewer batters.
The Brewers never received much run support. Opportunities were rare until the seventh inning when it faced Jesus Perez. Left fielder Ji-Man Choi led the off the inning with a slow rolling single past third base. Right after, Choi was retired on Eric Sogard’s fielders choice. Sogard stood on first base. Then Shortstop Nate Orf ripped a double in the left-field corner. Nick Franklin followed with an RBI single between first and second base, scoring Orf.
Still, Perez settled down and struck out Hernan Perez and Jett Bandy flew out to end the threat.
Houston chased Brewers starter Zack Davies after three innings. Davies surrendered six hits and four of his six runs came on Correa’s grand slam.
The Astros picked up two more runs in the third inning on Davis run-scoring single and Davis scored on a wild pitch. Later, Josh Reddick and Derek Fisher added RBI sac flies to round out the scoring.
Houston will open the season on the road Thursday in Arlington when it faces in-state archrival, the Texas Rangers in a three-game series.
