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Daulton Varsho’s walk proved key to Thursday’s Astros win. The center fielder appears to be settling in after a rough start to his Houston tenure after being acquired from Toronto.<\/p>\n
Frank Franklin II\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014 In the Houston Astros<\/a>\u2019 win Thursday that decided a series at Yankee Stadium<\/a>, manager Joe Espada said he thought \u201cthe at-bat of the game\u201d came from center fielder Daulton Varsho.<\/p>\n The Astros led 1-0 in the sixth inning when Varsho came up to face Gerrit Cole with two outs. Cole built an 0-2 count. Varsho worked a seven-pitch walk, extending the inning for Christian Walker, who struck a two-run home run that proved the decisive swing in a 5-1 result.<\/p>\n Varsho, the Astros\u2019 lone acquisition at the trade deadline<\/a>, endured a rough start with the team, batting .125 across his first 14 games. The past week-plus has brought more encouraging results for a hitter the\u00a0Astros hoped could help improve their outfield production down the stretch.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Varsho was 9-for-30 (.300) with five extra-base hits, including two home runs, over his previous\u00a0seven games entering Friday\u2019s series opener against the\u00a0Mets. He saw a modest six-game hitting streak end Thursday but had a 392-foot line out in his first at-bat against Cole and the significant walk.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like the at-bats the last week have been great,\u201d Varsho said Friday afternoon. \u201cDoing a better job of controlling the zone \u2026 When I get out of my zone, I\u2019m trying to chase things I don\u2019t need to really be swinging at. But I think overall what I\u2019ve been doing lately at the plate, it\u2019s been working for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Though Varsho is better known for his center-field defense, the Astros expressed hope upon acquiring him that the left-handed hitter could raise the offensive profile of an outfield group that had baseball\u2019s fourth-lowest OPS at the time of the trade. Varsho had an 86 OPS-plus with Toronto at the time (100 is considered league average).<\/p>\n