HOUSTON -- The calendar reads early May, but everything about Tuesday night’s game -- from the back-and-forth chants of a charged-up crowd, the presence of Shohei Ohtani and an intense baseball rivalry that’s still flickering -- served as a reminder this game meant a little bit more.
Especially for the Astros, who were in desperate need of a night like this -- a crisp win against a great team who had one of this generation’s greatest players on the mound. Few players know what Ohtani means for baseball and Japan more than Astros starter Peter Lambert, who pitched last season with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows and saw Ohtani’s face everywhere he went, from billboards to TV commercials.
He saw Ohtani’s face again across the diamond at Daikin Park and made sure he and the Dodgers would remember who he was this time. Lambert fired seven scoreless innings and got solo homers from Christian Walker and Braden Shewmake for a 2-1 win that was as fun as any the Astros have played this season.
“I think what this team is craving right now is wins, and to have a really well-executed win against a good team who's been playing well and give us a chance to take the series tomorrow, it’s exactly what we were looking for,” Walker said.
Lambert, who was signed by the Astros to a Minor League deal in the winter, allowed three hits, four walks, struck out four batters and pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth. The seven innings tied his career high, and he also set a career high with 104 pitches, which was also the most by a Houston pitcher this season. Lefty reliever Bryan King allowed an RBI single to Kyle Tucker in the eighth before nailing down a six-out save.
“That’s always a goal of the starting pitcher is to give length, especially on a day like today where the bullpen’s been pretty beat up lately,” Lambert said. “So yeah, that was part of the gameplan, for sure -- get ahead and attack the zone and try to get some quicks to go deep into the game.”
Walker, who was the DH on Tuesday, said Lambert was “electric.”
“He dominated tonight,” Walker said. “It was a lot of fun to watch. I wish I was playing behind it in the field but watching it in the dugout was just as good. Happy for him. The boys needed it. To do it in front of a great home crowd tonight against a good team was impressive.”
Ohtani, who came into the game with a 0.60 ERA, hadn’t given up a home run in the 122 batters he had faced this season until Walker turned on a first-pitch fastball in the second and sailed it a Statcast-projected 395 feet onto the train tracks above left field. It was Walker’s 30th career homer against the Dodgers.
“Just wanted to be on time with the heater,” Walker said. “[Ohtani] throws a lot of fastballs, he’s got a lot of confidence in that fastball. I wasn’t sitting [on] it or looking to ambush it, but really wanted to prioritize being on time for it. It ended up being a decent pitch, up and in, but timing was good, so it matched up.”
Shewmake, who was added to the lineup about an hour before the game when shortstop Carlos Correa was scratched with an ankle injury, hit an opposite-field homer into the first row of the Crawford Boxes in left field in the third. That was only Shewmake’s third career homer, including his second this year for the Astros.
And homering off Ohtani made it even more meaningful.
“It’s something you’ll be able to tell your kids about forever,” he said. “It’s really cool. Obviously, I’m just trying to help the team win any way we can. It’s great, don’t get me wrong, but in the moment it’s really just about putting runs on the board.”
Ohtani worked seven innings and allowed two singles in addition to the two homers, which were the most earned runs he’s allowed since giving up five on Aug. 20 of last year at Colorado.