Happ: 3 ER in 4 IP
(c) Associated Press
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The Astros and Cardinals did all their offensive damage in one inning on Wednesday with Houston doing better in their big frame to claim a 4-3 victory in Jupiter. The Astros have now won three straight Grapefruit games by one run to own a 7-4 spring record.
The Redbirds struck first with three runs in the third inning on a flurry of singles against J.A. Happ. Matt Holliday, David Freese and Yadier Molina drove in the runs. Happ would stay around for one more inning to pitch four total, allowing seven hits.
Houston answered in the sixth with four runs against Adam Ottavino. Jed Lowrie and Brian Bogusevic got the rally started then, after a walk to Jack Cust, Travis Buck singled, Jason Castro hit a sacrifice fly and Brett Wallace doubled to give the Astros the lead.
Lowrie, Bogusevic and Wallace combined for six of Houston's seven hits. The slow-starting Wallace has had four hits the past two days to raise his spring average to .278. I don't know if the experiment to make him a third baseman is over but he has started the last two days back at first.
Juan Abreu picked up the win with a scoreless inning of relief before Paul Clemens, a pitcher acquired in the trade for Michael Bourn, tossed four shutout innings for the save.
Houston returns to Kissimmee on Thursday for another try at beating the Toronto Blue Jays in a 12:05 Central start. Zach Duke, who lost to the Jays last Saturday, is expected to start against Dustin McGowan.
Off the field, the Astros signed catcher Landon Powell to a minor league contract. With Humberto Quintero hurting, Powell will likely fill in behind Castro and Chris Snyder on the depth chart. A former first round pick, Powell has spent three seasons with Oakland, hitting .207 in the majors.
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