Astros pitcher Lance McCullers impressed in his major-league debut, throwing five strikeouts in a 2-1 loss to the Athletics.

McCullers, sporting some Batman baseball cleats, allowed only one earned run in 4 2/3 innings. This gives him a 1.93 ERA to start his career. He walked three batters and gave up three hits in 93 pitches.

"I thought he hung in there pretty well," manager A.J. Hinch said after the game, per MLB.com. "First-night adrenaline pumping, he had his pitches, made some really good pitches for strikeouts. And he had a swing-and-miss strikeout on every pitch -- fastball, his big breaking ball and his changeup. So you know he'll get more pitch efficient as he gets away from the first-game adrenaline, but all in all, we obviously want to get five [innings] out of him. He came close to that, but for a major-league debut, with all the attention on him, I thought he handled himself very well."

McCullers was relieved by Joe Thatcher, who was credited with the loss.