en he knocked a homer to almost the exact same spot in the bullpen. No. 9 hitter Gonzalez continued the slugging in the second inning when he also sent one

HOUSTON -- The Houston Astros hit the ball so hard Wednesday night that some players wished they had something to protect their ears in the dugout from the sound of smack after home run smack. The Astros put on an impressive display of power, hitting six home runs to get their seventh win in eight games with a 11-7 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. Jason Castro, Carlos Pena and J.D. Martinez each had two-run homers, and Jose Altuve, Matt Dominguez and Marwin Gonzalez added solo shots as the Astros came one home run shy of a single-game franchise record for home runs. "I think everybody hit the ball hard tonight," Martinez said. "You felt like you needed headphones or ear plugs in the dugout because everybody was hitting the ball hard." The Astros tagged Freddy Garcia (2-3) for four homers, then reached reliever Steve Johnson for two in the fourth inning. Its the most home runs the Astros have had in a game since also hitting six on Aug. 9, 2006 against Pittsburgh. The record of seven long balls came in 2000. It is the second time theyve had six different players hit homers in a game and the first since that record-setting game in 2000. The game extended a streak of eight straight with a home run for the Astros, who have hit 15 in that span. Pena, one of the only veterans on this team which is the youngest in the American League, said its fun to see the team start to play well. "Its a blast," he said. "We all pull for each other. We have a pretty good group. I think we all get along very well and we genuinely pull for each other, so when someone else has success its like everyone is just enjoying it." About the only disappointment for Houston was that every player didnt get a homer. "We kept talking about it," Martinez said. "All we needed was three more, and the whole lineup would have hit a home run." Houston starter Dallas Keuchel (3-2) yielded five hits and a run with three strikeouts in six innings. Garcia allowed seven hits and a season-high six runs, and the four homers tied a career high in three-plus innings, his shortest start of the season. Garcia had allowed just seven homers this season before Wednesday, and pitched eight scoreless innings in his last start. "He didnt have his split," manager Buck Showalter said. "All of the things he had working for him last time, he didnt have. He elevated a lot of balls. They put a lot of good swings on the mistakes we made, and we made a bunch of them tonight." The last time Garcia gave up four home runs was on Aug. 17, 2004. The Orioles couldnt get anything going on offence until after Keuchel left the game and they were down 9-1. J.J. Hardy had an RBI single in the first and a solo home run in Baltimores three-run seventh inning. Matt Wieters connected on a two-run homer in the eighth inning and Manny Machado drove in a run later in that inning. The Orioles were unable to build on the big inning when Hardy grounded into a double play with the bases loaded to end the eighth. Dominguez drove in two more runs with a double in the seventh inning. The Astros got hits from everyone in their lineup, with Carlos Corporan going 3 for 3 and scoring two runs. Houston got homer after homer in the first four innings, sending six of its first nine hits out of the park. Altuve singled with one out in the first before Castro became the first Astro to go deep, launching a shot to the bullpen in right-centre field to put Houston up 2-1. Corporan singled with two outs and Pena made it 4-1 when he knocked a homer to almost the exact same spot in the bullpen. No. 9 hitter Gonzalez continued the slugging in the second inning when he also sent one into the bullpen to extend the lead to 5-1. Garcia allowed a two-out single to Pena before walking Corporan in the third, but Trevor Crowe grounded out to end that inning. Dominguez opened Houstons fourth with his homer to the mezzanine to chase Garcia. He was replaced by Steve Johnson, who struck out the first two batters before Houstons hot hitting continued when Altuve sent one to left field to make it 7-1. Castro drew a walk to set the table for Martinez, whose soaring shot bounced high on the wall in left-centre field to extend Houstons lead to 9-1. Johnson issued another walk but finally escaped the inning by striking out Pena. The Orioles led early after Nate McLouth started the game with a ground-rule double and scored on a one-out single by Hardy to make it 1-0. Keuchel walked Alexi Casilla with two outs in the second inning before retiring 12 in a row. Baltimores next baserunner came when Adam Jones singled with two outs in the sixth. Chris Davis followed with another single and Wieters walked to load the bases. Keuchel got out of the jam by striking out Danny Valencia. "I honestly didnt think I was going to make it out of the first inning the way I was throwing the ball," Keuchel said. "But I got lucky to get out of that first inning and kind of settled in after that after Castros home run in the bottom of the first." Casilla had a run-scoring triple in the seventh before McLouth sent home another run with a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 9-3. Hardy hit his 13th homer with two outs in the inning. NOTES: The series wraps up Thursday when Houstons Bud Norris opposes Miguel Gonzalez. ... Houston minor league OF and top prospect Jonathan Singleton, who finished a 50-game suspension for a drug of abuse late last month, has been promoted to Double-A Corpus Christi after playing six games at Class A Quad Cities. ... Danielle Bradbery, a semifinalist on NBCs singing competition "The Voice" who is from the Houston suburb of Cypress, Texas, performed the national anthem. Vegas Golden Knights Shirts . -- Its been a long road back for Sean Bergenheim. Wholesale Golden Knights Jerseys . 31, the CFL club announced Monday. The team also has yet to decide on the future of Doug Berry, who began the season as a consultant to the head coach but took over the offensive co-ordinators duties in July. https://www.cheapgoldenknights.com/ . -- Timbers coach Caleb Porter didnt stray from his business-like approach to the season even after Portland downed the two-time defending league champion Los Angeles Galaxy to gain crucial playoff position. Fake Golden Knights Jerseys . Houston won 3-0 to advance to face New York in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Last in the game, Di Vaio and Romero got into a shoving match with several Houston players. Romero appeared to elbow and kick Houston defender Kofi Sarkodie. Golden Knights Jerseys 2021 . -- Linebacker Myles Jack ran for four touchdowns, defensive end Cassius Marsh caught a scoring pass, and No. 29.54 Average runs per wicket in the last Ranji Trophy season, the lowest among the four seasons since 2012-13, when Super League and Plate League concept was abandoned. The runs per wicket figure has kept decreasing season by season in the last four tournaments. It was 33.04 in 2012-13, 31 in 2013-14, and 30.30 in 2014-15. However, the scoring rates have remained nearly the same. With all matches to be played at neutral venues this season, the runs per wicket figure may go down further. 4 Players who have moved to Kerala this season from the other teams, the most for any team apart from Chhattisgarh which is a new team. Jalaj Saxena and Iqbal Abdulla, two of the four who got transferred to Kerala, had played for just one team since their debut. Saxena played for Madhya Pradesh from 2005-06 till last season while Abdulla was part of Mumbai from 2007-08 till last season. Click here for all the details about transfers.9 Matches that ended within two days in the last season, which raised a major talking point about pitches favouring bowlers way too much. Comparatively, there were only three such finishes in the previous three seasons. 0 Number of times a Ranji Trophy final was played as early as January 7, which is the scheduled date for the finale this season. The previous earliest Ranji final was played from January 11 in two seasons - 2009-10 and 2010-11.2004-05 The last time a new team was added to tthe Ranji Trophy - Jharkhand replaced Bihar that season.dddddddddddd Chhattisgarh is participating as a new team this time, the 28th team. This season will be the first to have more than 27 teams participating in a Ranji season.1 Number of teams which have got to the knockout stage in each of the last four Ranji seasons - Mumbai, the defending champions of this season, is the only one. Twice they managed to win the title, once they were knocked out in the quarter-finals and once in semi-finals.2 Batsmen who have aggregated over 750 runs in each of the last two seasons - Karnatakas Robin Uthappa and Mumbais Shreyas Iyer. Uthappa made 912 in 2014-15 to be the highest scorer, and scored another 759 runs in 2015-16. Iyer with 809 runs was highest run-getter for Mumbai in 2014-15 while last season he made a mammoth 1321 runs.1 No of bowlers who have taken 40 or more wickets in each of the last two Ranji seasons - Mumbai pacer Shardal Thakur. He picked up 48 wickets in 2014-15 and 41 last season. He was rewarded with selection for the recent tour of the West Indies but he couldnt make it to the playing XI in any of the four Tests. Odisha pacer Basant Mohanty is the only other bowler who has picked 35-plus wickets in both of the last two seasons - 37 in 2014-15 and 41 in 2015-16. ' ' '