The bats bailed out the pitching staff for a nice change of pace. For the first half of the season, the Astros’ best attribute was their run prevention capabilities. Only the Rangers (290) allowed fewer earned runs than Houston (308) through July 6 when the latter swept the Dodgers in Los Angeles.

After a historic stretch of futility earlier this week, the Astros have scored 17 runs in taking the first two games of their series at Baltimore.