Astros starter Dallas Keuchel bounced back from two sub-par outings with another dominant performance on Thursday. After allowing four runs in each of his last two starts, Keuchel went seven innings allowing just an unearned run on six hits in the 6-1 victory over the A's.
Keuchel walked two and struck out four while throwing 69 of his 106 pitches for strikes. The only run he gave up came on an error in the top of the sixth to tie the game at one. But the Astros came right back to take the lead in the bottom half, as Keuchel improved to 6-0 on the season.
"I think he was as sharp as he was early in the year," manager A.J. Hinch said after the game, per MLB.com. "They made him work a couple of innings that were pretty long, which got him out of there after the seventh. He really dialed it up in a couple of innings when they had the bases loaded. ... The perfectionist he is, he's probably going to be a little harder on himself than I am, but I love the way he found ways not to break."
He now holds a very impressive 1.67 ERA. He's scheduled to make his next start on Monday in Baltimore.