Playing in front of fans on the road for the first time since their cheating scandal didn’t seem to faze the Houston Astros over the weekend. The Astros blitzed the Oakland A’s for a combined 35 runs in a four-game sweep in Northern California.
On Sunday, they got home runs from Kyle Tucker, Jason Castro and Chas McCormick to finish off an impressive sweep of the defending AL West champions. The only downside of the weekend was an injury to Michael Brantley, who was replaced in the lineup by McCormick, who went deep in his first career start.
The Astros haven’t started 4-0 since 2001, and they are just the fourth team ever to score at least eight runs in each of their first four games. Houston batted .320 in the series with eight homers and 20 extra-base hits.
Second baseman Jose Altuve started hot with six hits, as did Brantley, in just three games. Yordan Alvarez added five hits in his return from knee surgery, and Alex Bregman slugged two homers and drove in five in the series.
Starting pitching performed well against the A’s imposing lineup as well. Zack Greinke and Lance McCullers each picked up wins as they allowed a combined one run and five hits while striking out 11 over 11 innings. Houston surrendered just eight earned runs and one home run in the series for a team ERA of 2.00 through four games.
Fans Back in Stands
Each stadium has different attendance rules based on their local rules, but there were fans back in all 14 stadiums that hosted games over the weekend. In some cases, the fans showed up despite inclement weather such as snow in Detroit and extreme cold in Chicago.
The Colorado Rockies hosted a league-best average of 20,540 fans over the weekend, with six other teams over 10,000. Every ballpark that hosted at least two games averaged over 5,000 fans.
The Texas Rangers made news last week when they announced plans to open the entire stadium for all 81 home games, with no restrictions. Their home opener is set for Monday and could be the largest outdoor event since the start of the pandemic last March.
Globe Life Field, which hosted fans for the MLB playoffs last fall, has a capacity of 40,158 and is expected to be at or near capacity when the Rangers host Toronto this week. The largest crowd for an NFL game in the 2020 season was also in Texas, as the Dallas Cowboys had 31,700 fans on Nov. 8 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Nationals Still In Pause
While the rest of Major League Baseball got underway over the weekend with three- and four-game series, the Washington Nationals were stuck in pause due to positive COVID-19 results. Their entire three-game set against the New York Mets was postponed, and their Monday game against the Atlanta Braves has also been wiped out.
The league office announced on Sunday that the Nationals have been cleared to finally begin their season on Tuesday against the Braves, but the entire episode put a blemish on the league’s 2021 start. The Nationals will host the Braves without a full roster on Tuesday, with 11 players still in quarantine, four of which tested positive late last week.
While it is not known which players tested positive, general manager Mike Rizzo said that several of the players were on the 26-man roster planned for Opening Day. At -155, the Nationals are still favored to beat the Braves on Tuesday, assuming that former Cy Young winner Max Scherzer is on the mound.
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