HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 After years of injuries and struggles, Lance McCullers looked like his old self Monday night, pitching seven strong innings to help Houston get a win over the Red Sox.<\/p>\n
McCullers (1-0), who missed the 2023 and \u201924 seasons with injuries, allowed four hits and a run with nine strikeouts in his season debut for his longest outing since 2022. The home crowd gave the longtime Astro a nice ovation as he left the mound after his best start in years.<\/p>\n
His big game came after he went 2-5 with a career-high 6.51 ERA in 16 appearances last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year was obviously tough and I think I just carried the weight every start and so this year I\u2019ve just been just really focused on just trying to not worry about the past or the future and just enjoy the moment,\u201d he said. \u201cGo out there and compete as hard as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
The right-hander\u2019s performance was big for a team that had to rely on its bullpen a lot through the first four games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what the Astros needed right there,\u201d manager Joe Espada said. \u201cAnd Lance delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCullers retired the first seven batters before Carlos Narv\u00e1ez singled with one out in the third. But Ceddanne Rafaela grounded into a double play to end the inning.<\/p>\n
McCullers struck out the side in the fourth and fanned Willson Contreras to open the fifth. Wilyer Abreu singled after that, but Caleb Durbin grounded into a double play to end the inning.<\/p>\n
There were runners at first and third with two outs in the seventh when Abreu hit a ground-rule double to make it 5-1.<\/p>\n
Houston\u2019s Carlos Correa, who is close friends with McCullers, was thrilled to see his buddy have such a great game after all he\u2019s been through.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor him to be in that position to go out there and perform for this team, it means the world, man,\u201d Correa said. \u201cHe already got paid and he didn\u2019t sit back through all the injuries, through all the struggles, through all the ups and downs. He worked really hard this offseason and I saw it firsthand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Correa said McCullers, who helped Houston to a World Series win in 2017 before his injuries began piling up, is a more complete pitcher as he\u2019s evolved in the wake of his setbacks. And he raved about his performance Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was beautiful,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a masterpiece.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jose Altuve, who tied a career-high with four hits and homered twice in the 8-1 victory, was excited to see his teammates have such a great night.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe worked hard to be in the position he is in right now, and I know he cares about the team, he cares about winning,\u201d Altuve said. \u201cAnd I really think he has everything he needs to help us win this year and we\u2019re excited for him and we need more games like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
When McCullers struck out Masataka Yoshida on a foul tip on his 96th pitch Monday night, he screamed and pumped his fist before heading to the dugout.<\/p>\n
In that moment there was a mixture of excitement and relief for the 32-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust the way the game played out, Joe letting me stay out there and I really wanted to prove him right,\u201d McCullers said. \u201cJust making big pitches and it was just a big moment and I knew I was done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 After years of injuries and struggles, Lance McCullers looked like his old self Monday night,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[88207,88208,88211,88209,88214,5515,57926,62996,88210,202,196,942,82,84,83,88213,88212],"class_list":["post-228111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-astros-mccullers","tag-caleb-durbin","tag-carlos-correa","tag-carlos-narvaez","tag-ceddanne-rafaela","tag-joe-espada","tag-jose-altuve","tag-lance-mccullers","tag-masataka-yoshida","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40815-ap-texas-sports-only","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-willson-contreras","tag-wilyer-abreu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}