TORONTO -- Right-hander Brandon Morrow struck out nine and threw six quality innings, while Brett Lawrie homered and Maicer Izturis had a pair of hits to lead the Blue Jays to a 7-3 victory over the Astros on Wednesday night at Rogers Centre.Morrow was coming off a somewhat inconsistent season debut and it almost appeared as though he entered this outing with something to prove. Morrow came out extremely aggressive, struck out the side in the first, and while doing so, consistently hit 96-97 mph on the radar gun, even topping out at 98 on three occasions. 
Morrow struck out two more batters in the second and one more in the third. He didn't allow anyone to reach base until a leadoff walk in the fourth that was shortly followed by a one-out single off the bat of catcher Jason Castro. The strong outing continued until the sixth when it appeared as though Morrow might have hit a wall.Houston's Dexter Fowler led off the sixth with a single and then came around to score one batter later when Alex Presley hit a first-pitch slider over the wall in right-center field for his second homer of the season. Morrow allowed another run later in the inning after Jose Altuve tripled and eventually scored on a grounder to third.Morrow eventually got out of the inning, but he did not come back for the seventh. He was charged with three runs on five hits, one walk and the nine strikeouts were the most Morrow's had in a game since he struck out 10 vs Oakland on May 9, 2012. The velocity dipped just a bit throughout the course of the game, but he was still consistently hitting mid-90s until the start of the sixth.Toronto also made things relatively easy on Morrow by giving him some early run support. Izturis, who was promoted to the second spot in the lineup prior to Tuesday's game, got things started with a single up the middle. Jose Bautista then followed with an opposite-field RBI double and he later scored on an RBI single by Edwin Encarnacion.The Blue Jays added three more in the sixth and once again it was Izturis who played a major role. Izturis singled home Melky Cabrera for his second hit of the game, which marked the fifth time in seven games this season he has recorded multiple hits. Houston third baseman Matt Dominguez then allowed the floodgates to open when he fielded a tailor-made double-play grounder off the bat of Dioner Navarro, but he threw the ball into right field as two more runs scored.Right-hander Lucas Harrell allowed all five of those runs -- four earned -- on seven hits and three walks while striking out two. Lawrie later put the game out of reach when he sent a two-run shot into the left-field bullpen for his first home run of the year and just his fourth hit in 33 at-bats.The Blue Jays have won their first series and will look to complete the three-game sweep on Thursday night. A sweep would be exactly what the team needs before heading out on a nine-game road trip through Baltimore, Minnesota and Cleveland.Gregor Chisholm / MLB.com
Morrow struck out two more batters in the second and one more in the third. He didn't allow anyone to reach base until a leadoff walk in the fourth that was shortly followed by a one-out single off the bat of catcher Jason Castro. The strong outing continued until the sixth when it appeared as though Morrow might have hit a wall.Houston's Dexter Fowler led off the sixth with a single and then came around to score one batter later when Alex Presley hit a first-pitch slider over the wall in right-center field for his second homer of the season. Morrow allowed another run later in the inning after Jose Altuve tripled and eventually scored on a grounder to third.Morrow eventually got out of the inning, but he did not come back for the seventh. He was charged with three runs on five hits, one walk and the nine strikeouts were the most Morrow's had in a game since he struck out 10 vs Oakland on May 9, 2012. The velocity dipped just a bit throughout the course of the game, but he was still consistently hitting mid-90s until the start of the sixth.Toronto also made things relatively easy on Morrow by giving him some early run support. Izturis, who was promoted to the second spot in the lineup prior to Tuesday's game, got things started with a single up the middle. Jose Bautista then followed with an opposite-field RBI double and he later scored on an RBI single by Edwin Encarnacion.The Blue Jays added three more in the sixth and once again it was Izturis who played a major role. Izturis singled home Melky Cabrera for his second hit of the game, which marked the fifth time in seven games this season he has recorded multiple hits. Houston third baseman Matt Dominguez then allowed the floodgates to open when he fielded a tailor-made double-play grounder off the bat of Dioner Navarro, but he threw the ball into right field as two more runs scored.Right-hander Lucas Harrell allowed all five of those runs -- four earned -- on seven hits and three walks while striking out two. Lawrie later put the game out of reach when he sent a two-run shot into the left-field bullpen for his first home run of the year and just his fourth hit in 33 at-bats.The Blue Jays have won their first series and will look to complete the three-game sweep on Thursday night. A sweep would be exactly what the team needs before heading out on a nine-game road trip through Baltimore, Minnesota and Cleveland.Gregor Chisholm / MLB.com
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