Talk » lineup over the last two weeks. Dustin P

PITTSBURGH -- A solid road trip kept the Houston Astros on the right path toward a playoff spot.Evan Gattis hit his 20th home run and Carlos Correa got two hits and scored twice, leading Collin McHugh and the Astros over the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-4.The Astros won the interleague matchup between wild-card contenders. They went 5-2 on a trip that began in Baltimore.Im really proud of our guys. We have a small margin of error these days and weve responded by playing well, manager A.J. Hinch said.McHugh (8-10) gave up three runs in five innings, ending an 0-4 rut in his last five starts. Ken Giles closed for his fifth save.Gerrit Cole (7-9) allowed five runs in five innings. He has a 6.07 ERA through five August starts.Pittsburgh has lost five of six.Ive been trying to look at approaches and maybe see how I can use my stuff better. I thought today there were some good steps in the right direction: some good sliders, some good curveballs for strikes, he said.Miss over the plate, and Im getting punished. Thats the bottom line, he said.Gattis homered in the second, connecting after a single by Correa.We did a pretty good job of executing some at-bats, Hinch said. (Cole) has some really good stuff and we stayed enough inside the strike zone. Gattis delivers the big blow. I think that relaxed the dugout a little bit.Correa reached on an infield single in the fourth and scored on a triple by Marwin Gonzalez.George Springer singled to begin the fifth and Alex Bregman followed with a double, setting up sacrifice flies by Jose Altuve and Correa for a 5-1 lead.Jordy Mercer homered in the Pittsburgh third.The Pirates closed to 5-3 in the fifth on RBI singles by Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco.Polanco, who hit two home runs Tuesday, tripled home Marte in the seventh.Hes continued to find a way to plate runs for us. Using all of the field, doing some nice things, Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said.It speaks to his mentality to hit the ball hard where its pitched. Hes not just up there trying to yank or drill something into the water. Hes up there trying to do some damage, trying to hit the ball hard and hes been doing it quite frequently lately, he said.TRAINERS ROOMAstros: Correa was back at shortstop a day after making an early exit because of an illness. Hinch said roughly half of the Astros roster is currently sick.UP NEXTAstros: Following a day off, Houston will begin a three-game series at home against Tampa Bay on Friday. After allowing one run through seven innings in his last outing, RHP Mike Fiers (9-6, 4.48) will try to repeat that performance against Tampa Bay.Pirates: Will travel to Milwaukee for the start of a four-game series against the Brewers on Thursday. RHP Chad Kuhl (3-1, 3.62) will look to bounce back from his first major league loss.C.J. Miles Jersey . Mickelson barely made the cut but had the best round of the day with nine birdies and an eagle coupled with two bogeys to sit two shots behind leader Craig Lee of Scotland. Lee shot a 69 for a 12-under 204 total. "I just love the fact I am in contention and have an opportunity in my first tournament of the year here in Abu Dhabi," Mickelson said. Stanley Johnson Raptors Jersey . After taking two big hits this week -- losing at home and dropping back-to-back games for the first time all season -- Indiana struck back by playing its most complete game of the year. https://www.raptorsrookiesshop.com/Jeremy-Lin-City-Edition-Jersey/ . Laudrup revealed Thursday he was notified of his dismissal in "the briefest of letters which gave no reasons why such hasty and final action was deemed necessary. Fred VanVleet Raptors Jersey .500 on the season. The Jets are now 0-5-1 in the second game of back-to-backs. The game started the same way the Vancouver game started the night before, with the Jets taking the first two penalties of the game and killing off the first, but the Oilers getting on the board first, scoring on the second man-advantage. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson Jersey .5 seconds to play in the game, Kevin Love never stopped believing that they would come out of there with a win.DETROIT -- It looks, and sounds, like manager Brad Ausmus is trying to tiptoe his way into September without disrupting his current Detroit Tigers starting rotation.Which means Jordan Zimmermann and Mike Pelfrey probably wont be coming off the disabled list until at least Sept. 1.Even though Detroit was 3-10 for its last 13 games, it hasnt been the fault of the starting pitching. No offense (19 runs in those 10 defeats) and inconsistent relief pitching are primarily at fault with the starters largely giving the Tigers a chance to win.Since the All-Star break, heres the Detroit rotation breakdown:Justin Verlander -- 4-1, 1.98 ERA; Matt Boyd -- 4-0, 2.10 ERA; Michael Fulmer -- 1-2, 3.31 ERA; Daniel Norris -- 0-2, 2.93 ERA; Anibal Sanchez -- 1-2, 4.14.Sanchez has been clocked a couple times but also has turned in two gems.If you have consistently good pitching, if we continue to pitch like that through the remainder of the season, Ausmus said, I feel good about our chances.Zimmermann had one 1 2/3 inning start in between stints on the disabled list but two ailments -- the last a sore neck area -- pretty much negated his spectacular April. Pelfrey is on the disabled list with a bad back. He was pitching decently before that.Detroit has slow-tracked both in their return, citing nothing more than the desire to have them fully healthy when they return.Both threw bullpens during the weekend, have simulated games scheduled and then will be sent out for rehab assignments of at least two starts each. Put five days before the first start and another five prior to the second and youre looking at months end before either is activated.The Tigers are off Monday, giving Ausmus a chance to rejigger his rotation so as to give Fulmer additional days before his next start as the club tries to keep his innings down.We have it plotted out probably through the next week and a half, Ausmus said. To the next off day.Does he know what that rotation looks like?Yeh, but I couldnt tell you off the top of my head what it is though. I cant rememmber which day Fulmers pitching.dddddddddddd Im not sure if its Friday or Saturday. Tell you Sunday.The current starters have one of the lower ERAs in the league since the All-Star break, including starts by Pelfrey, and Ausmus clearly is in no mood to break that up.He doesnt want to plot too far ahead though.Then youre going to start getting into when will Zimmermann be slotted back in, the manager said, when will Pelfrey be available to be slotted back in. We have it written out with the people that are pitching for us right now, but that can change.We have options but past this coming week we havent really etched in stone.Verlander (12-7, 3.44 ERA) starts against Boston on Sunday. He is 4-5 with a 3.05 ERA in 14 career starts against the Red Sox.The Red Sox scratched lefty Eduardo Rodriguez from his Sunday start when he reported lingering hamstring soreness.Boston will bring up right-hander Henry Owens to replace him. Owens (0-0, 5.11 ERA) faced Detroit once last season at Comerica Park and earned a victory. He is thus 1-0 lifetime against the Tigers with a 1.80 ERA. He gave up three hits and a run in five innings of that start.Farrell has tinkered with Bostons lineup over the last two weeks. Dustin Pedroia has done the bulk of the leading off, David Ortiz bumped up a notch to third, Xander Bogaerts to second, Mookie Betts to fourth or fifth and Jackie Bradley Jr. moved around with Betts.I really like David in the three-hole because it gives us no more than two right-handers consecutively, Farrell said. Previous, maybe bullpens on the opposition can be lined up if theres an angled right-hander to save them for the top three guys in the order. That maybe is a little bit changed now with David in that three spot.But with Mookie, we dropped him down to the three and four-hole, thinking we might be able to take more advantage of the power. Thats played out. The RBI have come in bunches. ' ' '