Harrell: Nine up, nine down.
(c) Houston Astros
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Bud Norris and Lucas Harrell both tossed three innings of no-hit ball Friday as the Astros rolled to a 5-1 victory over Washington. The Nationals' first hit was a seventh-inning single by Jayson Werth off Brett Myers. The next hit came in the eighth when old reliable Jason Michaels homered off Fernando Abad. The Nats finished with three hits.
Norris was working through some slight stiffness and was given a pitch count. Norris walked one and struck out three. Harrell then came in and got nine straight outs with two of them on strikes.
Brian Bixler and Chris Johnson both hit solo homers. Chris Snyder got the scoring started with a sacrifice fly off Jordan Zimmerman and Carlos Lee added an RBI single before the power bats arrived.
Houston notched 12 hits on the day with Bixler, who started the game in left field as he hopes to win a utility job, and Lee each producing a pair. Jack Cust got his first hit of the spring to go 1-for-25.
The Astros next travel to Bradenton to face the Pirates in a 12:05 Central contest. Kyle Weiland will get another chance to impress the front office in hopes of joining the starting rotation. Earlier this spring, he had a strong outing against the Yankees followed by a fair performance against the Marlins. He is 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA in March.
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