2016 Houston Astros Regular Season

[eagle eye]

Wow, go on a short vacation and what the heck happens? Houston sweeps division rival Los Angeles, that's what! What turned out to be a slugfest on Friday ended up with a 10-7 win for Houston that, honestly, wasn't that close. Doug Fister got his team leading 8th win and everybody in the lineup contributed hits except George Springer, who contributed in other ways for a big offensive night for the Astros. Almost as offensive was the outing for Tony Sipp who pitched just 1/3 of an inning giving up 4 runs on a grand slam by Gregorio Petit on just 3 hits. By the time Sipp entered the game in the top of 9th the game was out of reach at 10-3 and slam just made the score respectable.

Games 2 and 3 were another story. Both were 3-2 Houston wins but they were as hard fought as the scores would indicate. Late inning heroics by the offense with a walk-off 2-run hit by Carlos Correa to end Saturdays game was his 3rd game ending hit this year. Correa accounted for all 3 Houston runs as he homered earlier in the game to cut a 2-0 Angels lead down to 2-1. In Sunday's finale Houston and LA were tied at 1 run apiece when, with one out in the inning, George Springer singled followed by a triple by Marwin Gonzalez scoring Springer. Next was Altuve who was intentionally walked. Carlos Correa came up and he grounded into a fielder's choice as the Angels tried to turn two but couldn't get it done which allowed Gonzalez to score from 3rd. In the bottom of the 6th Jose Altuve homered to tie the game at 1 which probably why the Angels walked him in the 8th. The extra run proved important because Will Harris came on he got the save, his sixth since taking over the closer's role a couple of weeks ago, but it was a struggle as he gave up 3 hits in the inning and one run to tighten the score, and everyone's butt muscles, to 3-2. It could have been worse had not Colby Rasmus thrown out Yunel Escobar at 2nd base when he took too much of a turn past the base on a single by Cole Calhoun. Jose Altuve put the tag on Escobar before he could dive back to 2nd on a play that was reviewed and upheld. That was the second out of the inning and it also took a runner out of scoring position. The next batter, Mike Trout, flew out to Colby Rasmus to end the game. To show how rare it is for Will Harris to allow a run you only need to look at his .083 ERA to know it's rare for him to give up hit much less a run.

 

So, Houston ends a really good week of baseball going back to last week's 2 game series against St Louis. Houston has played 8 games and they have gone 7-1 and in so doing they are one game above .500 for the first time since opening day when they beat the Yankees. As of Tuesday they were .500 on the season for the first time since day two of the season when they lost to those same Yankees. That was nearly 3 months ago folks. Another thing is they are now in 2nd place in the AL West as they have lapped a slumping Seattle team that has now lost 5 games in a row. Houston now has a day off to regroup a little bit before taking on Kansas City in a weekend series in KC. Dallas Keuchel will pitch for the first time against the Royals since last year and it's encouraging that he's looking much better in his last 3 starts. It sure isn't his fault he 1) couldn't get any run support and 2) the bullpen sucked the big one. To be honest Keuchel hasn't pitched like himself this season consistently enough. It's often one bad inning that does him in and without some run support he hasn't been able to have that bad inning. In his last outing against Cincinnati Keuchel had a 2-1 lead after 6.2 innings but Pat Neshak blew the save and the lead in the 9th inning. Houston ended up losing the game 4-2 in 11 innings. So, now Houston can set their sights on Texas who, at long last, lost to Cincinnati on Tuesday meaning Houston now has all summer to make up 10 games on the accursed Rangers. That's assuming, of course, they don't screw the pooch in Kansas City.

[Big T]

I'm alive!!! And how about the 'Stros pulling back above .500 and just 2 1/2 games back in the wildcard!!

[eagle eye]

I'm alive!!! And how about the 'Stros pulling back above .500 and just 2 1/2 games back in the wildcard!!

 

Long time no see Big T! Great to see you back. And you're right, the team is looking pretty good. Hopefully they keep it going.

[eagle eye]

Dallas Keuchel can't complain about lack of run support after last night when Houston's offense exploded for 12 runs in the first two innings including 9 runs in the first. Every Astros hitter hit the ball and even when they hit it something good happened. Like when Carlos Correa hit a ground ball to short with runners on the corners and he legged it out to first avoiding a double play for the first out of the inning but also scoring a run in the process. By then it was 3-0. George Springer was the star of the inning leading off the game with a triple and coming up again in the first hitting a grand slam to extend the Astros lead to 9-0. They weren't done yet as they added three more runs in the 2nd and ended KC starter Edinson Volquez' night early. Springer got some payback because it was Volquez who hit Springer in the wrist with a pitch that broke his arm and caused him to miss 2 months of the season. Houston got an oh-by-the-way run later in the game against an otherwise great performance by the Royals bullpen. Keuchel wasn't great last night as he went 6.1 innings and he gave up 4 earned runs including two solo HR's by Alcides Escobar and Cheslor Cuthbert among the 11 hits he allowed. Keuchel also gave up 2 walks to go along with 2 K's. Keuchel was in trouble in the first three innings but he escaped allowing only one run and that was key to Houston being able to cruise home to a much needed win against a team in Kansas City that has been almost unbeatable at home. The final score was 13-4 with Scott Feldman coming in a pitching the last 2.2 inning of scoreless relief. It's been a long dry spell for Keuchel who hasn't won since May 28th against the Angels. If not for Springer's great night at the plate going 3-5 and just a double short of the cycle it would have been Colby Rasmus' night as he went 4-5 with 2 RBI's and 3 runs scored on the night. Carlos Gomez was the 3rd Astro to have a multi hit game going 2-4. Every other starter got a hit on the night and 6 different Astros had at least one RBI led by Springer's 5.

 

Tonight Houston goes for the series win behind starter Mike Fiers (5-3, 4.43 ERA). KC will send Chris Young (2-6, 5.61 ERA) to the hill. Young will be pitching his 5th game after coming off the DL on May 29th. In his last start he went 6 innings giving up just 3 runs and one run against Detroit. He got a no-decision in that game. Most of his struggles came prior to his stint on the DL. Fiers will need to be very good to beat the Royals in their home park.

 

After the game the Astros optioned Tony Kemp to AAA Fresno and the reason was to make room on the roster for 1B AJ Reed to come up to the big club.

 

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/185993196/astros-will-call-up-aj-reed

 

Last night after Houston's game was over I watched the Rangers-Red Sox game but I missed the best part. When I turned off the tube Texas was up 7-4 on the Sox with a man on first and 2 outs. I just didn't see coming what actually came. Boston's Sandy Leon came on and doubled in Jackie Bradley who began the inning with a walk. After a pitching change Mookie Betts greeted the Rangers new pitcher Matt Bush with a home run that tied the game. The next Boston hitter was Dustin Pedroia who walked. Xander Bogoerts followed that with a single with Pedroia getting to 3rd base. With David Ortiz batting Matt Bush threw a wild pitch that allowed Pedroia to score the go ahead run and Bogaerts advanced to 2nd. Ortiz flew out to left to end the inning but whole complexion of the game changed. Boston brought on closer Koji Uehara who retired Prince Fielder, Elvis Andrus and Redneck Oh-der on three straight K's to yank the rug right out from under the Rangers feet. What that means is Houston now has a six game winning streak and they pick up a game on the Rangers and they are only 9 games back. That may seem like a lot but on May 1st Houston was 11 games under .500 and now they are 2 games OVER .500. Houston can't breathe too easy because Seattle ended their 6 game losing streak with a win last night and they remain just one game back of Houston for 2nd place in the AL West. It would be nice if Houston can keep this winning streak going while Texas and Seattle go on extended losing streaks. But that just fan dreaming. I'll settle for Houston continuing to win and you know, it's about friggin' time Texas lost a few.

[eagle eye]

Houston has now won a season high of 7 straight as they beat the Royals 13-5. Houston has scored at least 13 runs in back to back games in like forever. The recent explosion of runs is coming out of nowhere and is a very pleasant surprise as Houston has gone 9-1 in their last 10 games. They also clinched a series win over KC and this is coming with the Astros best pitcher, Doug Fister, on the mound in the series finale this afternoon. Of course, the stupid Rangers keep winning as well which is really frustrating when you consider they are playing the Red Sox and they beat Houston 2 of 3 earlier in May. The Astros also can't put any distance between themselves and Seattle who have broken out of their slump with wins in their last 2 against St Louis keeping the Mariners just one game behind Houston in the division. As Houston prospered in the run department starter Mike Fiers failed to capitalize on the rare run support. He only lasted 4.1 innings allowing 9 hits and 3 walks. It's just short of a miracle that he only gave up 3 runs. Michael Feliz wasn't much better as he allowed 2 runs in just 1.2 innings but he still ended up with the win. Neshak, Giles and Devenski each threw a scoreless inning to close out the game. The Astros were leading 10-5 in the top of the ninth inning when they got hot again finally getting to Royals reliever Chien Ming Wang who had tossed 2 scoreless inning prior to the ninth. The Astros had put 3 more runs on the board when Wang was replaced by backup catcher Drew Butera who came in with no outs and runners on 2nd and 3rd. All he did was allow a 2 run double to Jason Castro and then he induced a pop out from George Springer, who had a rough night at the plate going 0-6, a strike out of Marwin Gonzalez and ground out by Danny Worth to end the inning. Here's the recap of the game from Astros.com that also has a couple of videos including the crash and burn by Jose Altuve on what would have been a sure triple which would have allowed him to hit for the cycle on the night.

 

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/186163310/jose-altuves-4-hits-push-astros-past-royals

 

AJ Reed didn't have to wait long to get into a game after being called up Friday from AAA. He didn't get a hit last night but he got his first two walks, his first RBI on a sac fly and his first 2 runs scored in his major league debut.

 

Jose Altuve went 4-5 with a single, 2 doubles and a home run before being lifted in the ninth for pinch hitter Danny Worth. Jose also scored 3 runs and drove in 3 for a really big night for him at the plate. He does stuff like that so much you kind of take it for granted. He went into the game hitting .340 and ended up with a .348 BA. Altuve is leading the AL in batting average and is second to Washington's Daniel Murphy's .354. Altuve has sick numbers including a .427 OBP, .567 slugging % and an OPS of .993. This is just a reminder that we only have 4 days to vote for the 2016 All Stars and there are a couple of Astros who deserve to go to the summer classic.

[eagle eye]

I hate the stupid Rangers. Don't they ever lose? The only reason I'm going on is Houston can win as much as they need to for them to catch up to Texas but if you look at it, it's pretty frustrating to see Houston come from 11 under .500 on May 1st to 2 games over .500 on June 26th and the Astros have lost ground to the Rangers. I mean the Astros have a phenomenal 35-20 since May 1st but the Rangers have gone 35-17 in the same stretch. Sheesh. What is even more disheartening is since May 1st Houston is a paltry 1-6 in head-to-head games with Texas. As well as Houston is doing in June it can't compare to the Rangers June. Houston is 15-8 so far while Texas is 18-6. The Rangers have yet to run into a losing streak of longer than 4 games all season. I think it's about time the sorry dogs from Arlington run into a brick wall beginning with the 4 game series with the Yankees this week. I heard a comedian say one time that rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for the house at a casino. Pretty funny right? Well, this week I'm rooting for the house to sweep these bums. Houston is now 10 games behind Texas exactly where they stood prior to Friday. Texas lost on Friday and Houston lost the finale against KC 6-1 yesterday. Screw the no hitting, no pitching Red Sox for not doing better against the Rangers.

 

The loss to KC yesterday was inevitable. Our best pitcher against KC's best pitcher, at home -- the guy (Ian Kennedy) sucks on the road. Looking for a sweep of the series against the toughest team to beat at home the deck was definitely stacked against the Astros. Doug Fister had a good game going until the 7th. Through the first 6 innings Fister had allowed just one run but the 7th rolled around and he allowed 2 home runs in the inning, a solo shot and a 2 run dinger that gave the Royals a 4-1 lead. The 7th wasn't over though as Tony Sipp came in and stunk up the place allowing 2 more runs on 3 hits all without recording an out. Chris Devenski finished off the 7th without any more damage and he pitched a scoreless 8th. Fister allowing 3 home runs and 4 runs total was enough to ensure a Royals victory. KC's Ian Kennedy was even better than Fister through 6 only allowing a solo HR to Evan Gattis and just 3 hits total in his 7 innings of work. He also chalked up 11 K's as Houston had no answer for Kennedy yesterday. Yesterday's loss was the first for Fister since April so I guess you can't bag on him too much. It's all AJ Hinch's fault because he screwed up the rotation. Fister had been following Dallas Keuchel in the rotation with Collin McHugh following Fister but this time through Mike Fiers followed Keuchel and Fister followed Fiers with McHugh taking Fiers old spot as the #4 starter. It will be McHugh taking the hill tonight instead of Fiers followed by McCullers on Tuesday. Why Hinch changed the starting rotation is beyond me.

 

Yesterday was the first time I noticed that every starter in the Astros batting order except for newcomer AJ Reed had a batting average over .200. This is the first time in like forever. It was true earlier in the week but I just noticed it yesterday. AJ Reed came up Friday and played all three games this past weekend and he has yet to get a hit. Yesterday was his worst so far as he went 0-3 with 3 K's. Reed wasn't good at the plate in spring training and his numbers weren't all that great at AAA but in the week prior to being called up he seemed to have figured out what his problem had been. It obviously didn't stick when he got the call up.

 

There were a couple of promotions yesterday worth mentioning. After the AA All Star game on Tuesday where both players will represent the Corpus Christi Hooks Alex Bregman and Teoscar Hernandez will be moved up to AAA Fresno.

 

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/186444202/alex-bregman-to-get-called-up-to-triple-a

[eagle eye]

I turned off the tv after the Angels scored a run in the bottom of the 6th to go up 2-0 on Houston. The Angels' Matt Shoemaker was plowing through the Astros with upper 80's junk like nobody's business and I was already frustrated because the Astros blew a golden opportunity to score in the top of the 6th with Luis Valbuena in scoring position after a double to lead off the inning and nobody out. It was then Shoemaker went to work. He got Altuve to pop out to 2B, Carlos Correa was hit by a pitch putting men on 1st and 2nd, then Colby Rasmus and AJ Reed both struck out. The really disheartening thing was neither even got a piece of the baseball and they helplessly flailed away at Shoemaker's splitter. I needed to go to bed anyway and the game was over the way things were going. Oh how wrong I was. Houston rallied for 2 runs in the top of the 7th and scored two more in the top of the 9th to steal a 4-2 victory over the Angels. Houston didn't do it with a home run or three either, they played small ball scoring all four runs. In the 7th with men on 2nd and 3rd George Springer grounded out scoring the man from 3rd. Jose Altuve followed a batter later after Luis Valbuena walked Jose Altuve came through with a 2 out single to score the Astros 2nd run. In the 9th Jason Castro led off with a double followed by Springer who walked and Valbuena singled to load the bases. Altuve flew out but not deep enough to score Castro and Correa also flew out but his was deep enough to score Castro and allow Springer to advance to 3rd. Rasmus walked to reload the bases and with AJ Reed batting Angels reliever JC Ramirez threw a wild pitch allowing Springer to score the final Astros run on the night. Good thing because Reed ended up striking out to end the inning. Will Harris came on in the 9th and he struggled big time. He struck out the lead off hitter but on strike 3 he threw a wild pitch allowing the batter to get to first base. The next two hitters both singled to load the bases with nobody out. Harris didn't give up as he struck out the next batter and he got Andrelton Simmons to ground back to him. Harris got the lead runner at home and Castro threw out Simmons at 1st for a game ending double play. Sorry I missed it but I overslept this morning anyway. If I stayed up for the end of the game I would probably still be sleeping.

As for the confounded Rangers when I went to bed they were in a rain delay in New York with the Yankees leading 6-5 in the top of the 9th. It was raining like heck and I wish it would have rained long enough to call the game because when they finally did go back to out the Yankees allowed Texas 4 runs in the inning to give them a 9-6 lead and that is how the game ended. The Yankees are now on my "enemies" list. Oakland beat San Fran last night 8-3 and Seattle was off. So, instead of late inning heroics to win AND gain a game on the Yankees it became just another night at the ballpark. I am happy Houston won and the resilience they are showing is good to see but it doesn't matter unless Texas shows signs of being human. I need a good 15 game losing streak by the Rangers. That would make me happy.

[puddin tane]

If nobueno and Marwin continue to hit, there is no reason to throw reed or worth in the game.

 

nobueno up around .260? Whoduthunkit.

 

whats really weird is thinking, " oh crap, is Kuechel pitching tonight?" And being relieved that's it's Feldman.

 

I've seen JV pitchers with better arms than Lincecum.

[puddin tane]

Fricking Rangers.....

[eagle eye]

If nobueno and Marwin continue to hit, there is no reason to throw reed or worth in the game.

 

nobueno up around .260? Whoduthunkit.

 

whats really weird is thinking, " oh crap, is Kuechel pitching tonight?" And being relieved that's it's Feldman.

 

I've seen JV pitchers with better arms than Lincecum.

 

Last night the friggin Rangers and the Astros both won by a score of 7-1. On one hand I'm happy the Astros won and on the other I want to start getting back into voodoo and cast a curse on the baseball team from Arlington. (UUUUUUMMMMM, may all things bad happen to the Rangers, UUUUUMMMMM, curse their bats and curse their mitts, UUUUUUMMMMM, now, where's that live chicken I need to sacrifice?)

 

Scott Feldman made a spot start last night and he was really good. The fact is, since he was demoted to the bullpen to make room for Lance McCullers he has had a rebirth or sorts and he has been great as a long reliever and he was pretty darn good last night. Feldman went 5 innings allowing just 3 hits and no walks with 2 K's and just one run and that was unearned. Luis Valbuena was charged with an error on a hit by Mike Trout that he played soccer with before trying to throw out the Angels Carlos Perez who was on 1st when Trout was batting. It was an generally forgettable evening for Valbuena who committed the error that led to the only run the Angels scored on the night he was a no-show at the plate. He went 0-5 with 4 strike outs as he was not able to figure out Tim Lincecum's splitter or his change up. Lincecum is trying to come back from off season hip surgery and last night was just his 3rd start of the season. He is 1-2 in those starts and he hasn't last more than the 4 innings he went last night in the last two. Actually, Lincecum is in the perfect situation to make he comeback. The Angels are a last place team who can afford to give him time to work back into shape. The middle of the Astros lineup from 3 through 7 are hitting the ball right now. Altuve continues to roll along as he has now reached base a career best 31 straight games. Carlos Correa is hot right now as well. He was responsible for 4 of the RBI's on the night on a 3 run dinger in the 1st to stake Houston an early 3-0 lead and he drove in Jose Altuve in the 7th on a ground out to 3rd to increase Houston's lead at the time to 6-1. Correa looks like a guy who needs to go to the All Star Game. Colby Rasmus has driven his BA up to .253 while Marwin Gonzalez it up to .257. Carlos Gomez is hitting .225 which is a world better than where he was in May hitting .136. In fact in his last 15 games he's hitting .343 and in his last seven he's hitting 250. It's nice to see the middle and back end of the lineup hitting more consistently. Up until last night Luis Valbuena has been pretty good at the plate too. In his last 15 games he's hitting a whopping .314 and his last 7 he's hitting .318. He's been hitting so well that he was moved into the 2nd spot in the batting order to begin this series with LA. A few more nights like last night he won't be there long. The guy that has fallen off the table is George Springer. Since he went 3-5 in the series opener against Kansas City with a triple and home run in the 1st inning he has only 2 hits in his last 14 AB's (.142 BA). The thing about Springer is when he isn't hitting he's still making plays in the field. I know he doesn't have a gaudy batting average (.259) but he's saved a ton of runs with his defense. He's been good enough to be considered an All Star as has Colby Rasmus who has 3 or 4 assists in the last couple of weeks and he's also stopped runners from taking an extra base because he tracks down balls and gets them back in so quick runner have to stay on first base. I am making a case for y'all to give them a vote in the ASG not because I'm a homer but because BA isn't the only thing that makes a player an All Star.

 

Feldman didn't replace Dallas Keuchel last night he got the start because Lance McCullers has a blister on the index finger of his pitching hand. McCullers will likely be back when his turn comes back around next Monday. Keuchel will be on the hill today in the series finale against the Angels. Keuchel is now 4-9 with a 5.26 ERA after finally getting some run support in his last start last Friday against Kansas City. Keuchel didn't have his best stuff but he was good enough to get his first win in over a month. There were a couple of those starts between wins that he did pitch well enough to get the win but lack of run support and bullpen failures derailed those efforts. The Angels counter with Jered Weaver (6-6, 5.24 ERA) who only lasted 4.2 innings in his last start against Oakland last Friday. Houston has taken the series and they are going for the sweep in today's game beginning at 2:35 this afternoon.

 

Astros 2015 2nd round pick SS Alex Bregman will represent the USA in the 2016 SiriusXM All Star Futures game July 10th. Joining him will another Astros prospect P Joe Musgrove. More details in the link below from Astros.com.

 

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/186736212/astros-alex-bregman-selected-for-futures-game

[eagle eye]

Dallas Keuchel won consecutive games for the first time this season after the Astros beat LA yesterday 10-4 to complete the series sweep of the Angels. Keuchel is now 5-9 and his ERA has actually dropped to 5.13. He went 6 innings giving up 6 hit 3 runs, only 2 of which were earned, with 3 walks and 4 K's. Keuchel will kick his own ass over the walks and it's his control that has failed him more than anything else this season. All the hoopla over winning the Cy Young and the rest of the great things he had to deal with in the offseason undoubtedly has had an effect on his game. He would never admit that and, in truth, he probably doesn't think it did but that's the only difference between previous years and now. Keuchel needs to call Greg Maddux and find out how to keep his focus from one season to the next. Who better to ask than a guy like Maddux who won 4 CONSECUTIVE Cy Youngs from 1992 to 1995. Like Keuchel Maddux didn't have overpowering stuff, he beat you with location and control just the same as Keuchel does now. In his prime Maddux looked like Ferris Bueller but he was deadly accurate. Keuchel looks more like someone from Duck Dynasty but up until this year he killed you with his accuracy. He has shown flashes of his old self but it's generally one bad inning that kills him. He gave up a run in the bottom of the 2nd to Jeff Bandy who homered to lead off the inning and that should have been it except for a throwing error by 1B AJ Reed that prevented Houston from getting the 3rd out of the inning. Instead Kole Calhoun came up next and tripled and scored Johnny Giavotella who should have been out. In the fifth Keuchel was tagged by Mike Trout for a single and Albert Pujols (man I'll be happy when that guy retires) followed that with a double that scored Trout. I won't be the last time a pitcher gets double-dipped by those two guys. Earlier in the season if Keuchel had given up 3 runs the Astros would have lost 3-2 or 3-1 or 3-0 because there wasn't a lot of run support to be had. Now it's a different story, Houston is scoring runs in bunches. The Astros seem to have always been a team who goes into slumps and enjoys hot streaks as a team. It's not just a guy or two it's the whole lineup. Right now the lineup is doing a great job. In his last two starts Keuchel has enjoyed 23 runs being scored which give a pitcher a lot of breathing room.

 

Jose Altuve is a freaking machine. He went into the game yesterday hitting an MLB leading .350 and when the dust cleared after the game Altuve was up to .357 after going 4-5 and scoring all 4 times he got on base. Jose, for the 2nd time in a week missed hitting for the cycle. The last time was against KC and he would have done it then except he tripped and fell down as he was rounding 2B on the way to the triple he needed for the cycle. The Angels Mike Trout trolled Altuve prior to the beginning of the series on Tuesday but he had to eat his words when he did the same thing in the series opener. There is justice in this world. Altuve is running away with voting for 2B and should make his 2nd consecutive start in the summer classic. We should appreciate what we are seeing in Altuve because he has been historically good. Altuve is #1 in MLB in batting average, #2 in MLB in OPS (1.004), #1 in OBP, #2 in stolen bases, he has more walks (39) than strike outs (32). This will be Altuve's 4th All Star Game, 2 as a starter, He led all of baseball in hitting in 2014 and was 2nd in 2015. He was back to back AL hitting champ. He has had back to back 200 hit seasons and he's on his way to his third as he notched his 111th hit yesterday in the first 79 games. He led baseball in stolen bases in 2014 and 2015 and he won a Gold Glove last season. Do you know those are already damn near Hall of Fame numbers? Testify my brothers, Houston has a true super star on it's hands. While everyone goes on about Carlos Correa being the next Houston star I think they forget about our mighty mite second baseman.

 

An independent pro baseball league, the Pacific Association of Pro Baseball Clubs made history this week when the Sonoma (California) Stompers signed not one but two female players. Check out the link below.

 

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/06/sonoma-stompers-kelsie-whitmore-stacy-piagno-history-women-baseball

 

The signing of Kelsie Whitmore and Stacie Piagno comes just a week after MLB announced that French baseball player, 16 year old Melissa Mayeux, was added to MLB's International registration list. Mayeux is a shortstop in France who is said to be a pretty slick fielding player. In the article linked below Mayeux hit a 91 mph fastball the first time she faced someone who could pitch that hard. As Bob Dylan sang a long time ago, "...the times they are a-changin'."

 

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/06/melissa-mayeux-female-baseball-player-france-mlb

 

Most of baseball is looking at Cuban ball player Yulieski Gurriel who is eligible to be signed. He was worked out yesterday by the Astros in Florida. The player has seen success in international play for Cuba and that is why there is so much interest in him. Assuming, of course, he isn't a head case like countryman Yasiel Puig who has been a pain in the ass for the Dodgers. There is no doubt Puig is a rare talent but he also has some emotional baggage with him too. Gurriel isn't the talent Puig is but if he's a better teammate he could definitely help a team. With the prospects Houston has coming up is it worth signing a 32 year old player? Who knows but, he was certainly worth a look.

 

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/186958288/yulieski-gurriel-works-out-for-astros

[eagle eye]

I think the curse I put on the Rangers may have worked! The Rangers lost their second game in a row to the Yankees when the Bronx Bombers got the winning run in the bottom of the 9th on a passed ball by catcher by Robinson Chirinos that allowed the Yankees Chase Headley to score from 3B. What's even sweeter is NY scored without anyone getting a hit. There were 2 walks, a sac bunt and a ground out that got Headley to 3rd and the passed ball that scored him. I can't believe it but it looks like the voodoo curse I cast really did work! All it cost was the time to do the incantations and of course the chicken. Houston is now just 8.5 back now in the division. The real test comes this weekend when Texas plays the lowly Minnesota Twins, the team with the worst record in baseball, who reside at the bottom of the AL Central division. Houston takes on the Chicago White Sox who are just above the Twins in the same division. If the Twins can win a couple of the games this weekend I will need to keep that curse handy for future use. Also, the Yankees are no longer on my "enemies" list.

 

As for Houston, they send Mike Fiers (5-3, 4.41 ERA) to the hill while the Chisox counter with Miguel Gonzalez (1-3, 5.17 ERA).

 

If you look at the Astros rotation now, Keuchel, Fiers, Fister, McHugh, McCullers it is pretty different than it was just a couple of weeks ago when it was Keuchel, Fister, McHugh, Fiers, McCullers. I'm not at all sure why Fiers was moved up in the rotation because he hasn't been great but he had been winning. I guess it doesn't matter but the extra days off Houston has had the last couple of weeks enabled AJ Hinch to tinker with the rotation. I didn't help Fister who had his worst outing of the season in his last start. Hopefully, that was an anomaly game for him and he'll get back on track Saturday night. That won't be a picnic because he's going up against Chicago's best pitcher Chris Sale. I just hope Houston can keep rolling along now that June is gone and July is here.

 

In June Houston had a heckuva month. The Astros went 18-8 for the month and completed the climb from being in last place in the division and a sub .500 record to ending the month solidly in 2nd place in the division and a season high 5 games OVER .500. Houston also got themselves a new closer in Will Harris. Hinch made the move after Luke Gregerson blew his 3rd save in his last 4 chances. Harris is a perfect 7 for 7 in save opportunities even though he had a struggle in a couple of those games he persevered and got the job done. His 0.78 ERA in 34 appearances is All Star caliber. It is the second month in a row Houston has had a winning record and if they can keep it going they have a real good chance to catch up to and pass Texas like the Rangers did to Houston last year. That's the hope anyway. Let's hope for a good July starting tonight at the Juice Box.

[eagle eye]

Interesting weekend so far. So far in the series with Chicago the Astros have a 5-0 win on Friday night and yesterday Houston finally got to Chisox pitcher Chris Sale for 4 runs but it wasn't enough because Doug Fister picked yesterday to suck as he allowed 5 runs in just 4.2 innings and Houston ultimately lost 7-6 despite the Astros scoring a run in both the 8th and 9th innings. In no start prior to yesterday the most runs Houston had scored was 3 so on a day when the Astros finally broke through it was all for naught. The rubber game in this series is this afternoon with Collin McHugh (5-5, 4.58 ERA) squares off against the White Sox who sends Jose Quintana (5-8, 3.18 ERA) another tough left hander. The thing about yesterday's game was up until yesterday Houston had been putting up good at-bats. I don't know why, maybe it was Jose Altuve's 1st inning home run I don't know, but the Astros swung at pure crap helping Sale at every turn whiffing at pitches way out of the strike zone. Is Sale's stuff that good? Maybe but Houston showed no plate discipline at all.

 

On Friday Jose Altuve went 0-4 with no walks breaking his streak of 31 straight games. Yesterday he started a new streak going 2-3 with 3 RBI's and 2 runs scored. He also hit a sac fly in the 8th that scored George Springer to tighten the score at the time to 7-5.

 

After getting his first hit as a big leaguer on Friday snapping an 0-16 streak to begin his career AJ Reed got his first big league home run in the bottom of the 9th to close within one run at 7-6.

 

Earlier in the week Carlos Correa won AL Player of the Week making him the 4th Astro to win the honor this season and it also makes him the youngest player in Astros history to win POTW honors. Correa, at 21 years and 279 days, beat out Andujar Cedeno who was 22 when he won the award way back in 1991. In six games last week, Correa batted .333 (8 for 24) with four doubles, three home runs and a 1.202 OPS. His seven extra-base hits led the AL in that span. During that stretch, the Astros went 5-1, sweeping the Angels and winning twice over the weekend against the Royals. Yesterday Jose Altuve one-upped his teammate by winning AL Offensive Player of the Month. Altuve is the first 2nd baseman for the Astros to win POTM award and he did it hitting a franchise-record .420 batting average in June. Along with reaching base safely in all 26 games, the second baseman notched 42 hits, which led the AL, as well as four home runs, 15 RBIs and six stolen bases. Altuve is hitting .355 on the season which leads all of baseball.

 

Last year's 2nd pick in the draft Alex Bregman made his debut at AAA Fresno on Thursday night and is was a pretty nice debut. Bregman went 4-5 with 3 RBI's, 5 runs scored with a walk and a strike out. This follows his 2-3 performance on Tuesday night in the Texas League All Star Game including a 2 run home run in the first inning. Bregman was pulled in the 6th inning of that game. All the signs are pointing straight up but the Astros are saying they won't rush Bregman to the bigs. They aren't saying so but I believe it's because of a recent offensive resurgence by Luis Valbuena plus the Astros are trying to give Danny Worth a good chance to show what he can do. In Worth's first 27 AB's on the season he has just 4 hits (.148 BA) with just on 1 walk and 3 K's. If Bregman keeps playing like he has the Astros will have no choice but promote him.

[eagle eye]

The week is over and it ended on a sour note with the loss of the game and the series with the Chisox. It's the first series lost in the last 6 and it just happens to have come as June turned into July. Not a great start to the month. Chisox are the 2nd to last place team in the AL Central but Houston faced a couple of tough lefties in Chris Sale and Jose Quintano. Quintano was the man on the bump this afternoon and he dominated the Astros. He gave up just one run to George Springer who jacked an opposite field dinger to begin the game. The Astros fell off a cliff offensively after that getting only 3 hits total for the game to go along with 3 walks they struck out 4 times. The most excitement the Astros showed at the plate after Springer's homer was AJ Hinch getting tossed in the 7th inning after Quintaro threw a pitch behind Evan Gattis. This came after Quintaro came inside almost hitting Gattis on the previous pitch. All that was in retaliation for the Sox Jose Abreau getting hit by Chris Devenski in the top of the inning. Devenski didn't hit Abreau intentionally but the silly ass unwritten rules of baseball seem to dictate to Quintaro that a little payback was needed. After throwing behind Gattis the home plate ump issued a warning to Quintaro and both benches but that was not what AJ Hinch wanted to hear. As soon as the warnings were issued Hinch stormed out of the dugout and got in Ryan Blakney's face to let him know he felt Quintaro deserved to be ejected. By rule if an ump feels the pitch was intentional he has the right to toss both the pitcher and the manager of the team. Hinch felt payback was achieved by the first pitch that nearly hit Gattis and he felt, because Quintaro had exhibited total control all game, the second pitch was not only intentional but uncalled for and he said as much in his post game press conference.

 

http://m.mlb.com/hou/video/v890071483/cwshou-aj-hinch-on-mchughs-performance/?tcid=mm_hou_vid&c_id=hou

 

As for the past week, Houston was 4-2 on the week but most of that was due to the 3 game sweep of the Angels to begin the week. So far in July Houston is 1-2. Not a good start for the home team. They have been in 2nd place in the division and they actually made up two games this week when Texas lost their last two games in New York to the Yankees. The Astros are now 8.5 games behind the Rangers who lost yesterday and today to the Twins. You could look at this weekend as a blown opportunity to gain ground on Texas or good luck that Houston didn't lose ground to the Rangers who were playing the team with the worst record in baseball. So far my voodoo curse is working on the Rangers but I might have to do a similar one to Seattle. The pesky Mariners won't go away as they have won their last 4 in a row and are now tied with Houston for 2nd place in the division at 43-39. This makes the 3 game series at home against those same Mariners a pretty huge series. No, not "pretty" huge at all. Extremely huge as Houston tries to regain some momentum as they go into their last seven games before the All Star break. 3 with Seattle followed by 4 with Oakland and wins in both series could give them some real momentum going into the second half of the season. Losses in those series could make the climb to the playoffs look like Mt Everest.

 

For the 2nd time in his last 35 games Jose Altuve went oh-fer in a game. No hits, walks, hit-by-pitches, nada, nothing, zippo. Mr Altuve and the rest of this lineup need to get their collective heads out of their collective arses and get back to putting together quality at-bats again. It is what carried them through the bulk of May and all of June and it's what helped them get back into the division race. This weekend they looked like the April version of the Astros. By that I mean swinging at everything in sight even balls out of the strike zone and in the dirt. This weekend was literally the Nightmare on Crawford Street for the Astros at the plate. The only game the Astros got really poor pitching was Saturday when Doug Fister threw over 100 pitches in just 4.2 innings in a 7-6 loss. The offense just took the weekend off and the Astros paid for it with losses. It's time to put the notion that Houston's luck changed along with the calendar and open a can of whoop ass on 2 division foes this coming week. If they finish the week 5-2 with 2 series wins I'll be happy to go into the All Star break with that. I'll be even more happy if the Rangers lose both of their series this week against Boston in Boston and against Minnesota in Arlington. Let's hope the Twins continue their success against the Rangers next weekend. With that I wish all of you a very happy and safe 4th of July. I don't want to hear of anyone pulling a Jason Pierre-Paul on Monday night!

[eagle eye]

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July! The Astros had a great one, that's for sure! It's not like the offense had a great day but they their day was just good enough thanks to George Springer who went 2-4 on the day and he scored both Astros runs including a solo home run in the 5th inning that was the difference in the game. The top 3 in the Astros batting order all had good days with all 3 going 2-4 accounting for 6 of the Astros 8 hits on the day. Lance McCullers was really good too as he avoided the big early inning he had issues with when he came off the DL. Seattle threatened in 2 different innings but McCullers pitched his way out of both jams with no runs scored. In the 1st inning the M's Leonys Martin led off the game with a triple and McCullers got a K and a double play to end the threat. The double play was a mistake in judgment by Martin when #3 hitter Robinson Cano struck out swinging but the ball got away from Jason Castro but just by a few feet. Castro got the ball and threw out Cano and on the throw Martin felt like he could score from 3rd. Wrong. Marwin Gonzalez took the throw and he immediately came back home to McCullers who was covering home nailing Martin by 3 or 4 steps. Thanks for the holiday gift Senor Martin of the 2-3-1 twin killing. In the 7th McCullers gave up 2 hits around a walk to load the bases with nobody out. McCullers came back to get a 1-2-3 double play from Dae-Ho Lee followed by a fly ball out to left by Adam Lind to end the threat quicker than it took to get into the jam. The seventh inning was McCuller's last on the day. He finished with just one run allowed on 5 hits with just one walk and 10 K's. Yesterday was the 3 straight game with the Astros facing left handed pitching. On Saturday Houston finally got to Chicago's Chris Sale for 4 runs and 6 runs total but the Chisox got to Houston pitching better and scored 7 runs. The last two games saw Houston struggle mightily. Sunday Jose Quintaro confounded Astros hitting allowing just 3 total hits and one run. Yesterday Seattle's Wade Miley did a good job as he allowed just 2 runs on 8 hits with 2 walks and 2 K's. Houston did hit some hard shots but they all seemed to go right at somebody. Miley matched McCullers with seven quality innings of work and came up just a hair short on the day.

 

What made yesterday even better than the win over Seattle that put Houston a game up on the Mariners in the division was the fact that Texas lost to Boston 12-5 that allowed Houston to pick up a game on the division leaders. The lead is now just 7.5 games. Now, Houston can't rest on their laurels, they need to keep playing good ball and winning games. Houston sends Dallas Keuchel (5-9, 5.13 ERA) to the bump while Seattle counters with Taijuan Walker (4-6, 3.29 ERA). Keuchel is coming off 3 straight wins and he's had 4 good starts out of the last 5 games he's pitched. It could be he's finally rounding back into he old self. The Astros have always struggled against Walker. He is 5-2 with a 3.98 ERA in 10 career starts against the Astros. Keuchel is tough at home and if Houston is going to go anywhere in the second half of the season he needs to pitch well. Houston played the last of 3 straight day games yesterday and they get back to night contests this evening. Hopefully, it signals a return by Houston to scoring 8 runs a game like they did to close out June.

 

Alex Bregman is tearing up AAA pitching so far since his call up last week (1st link). He did so well he was named the SS on the Prospect Team of the Week for last week. (2nd Link)

 

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/188021224/astros-alex-bregman-hits-two-homers-for-fresno

 

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/187865492/prospect-team-of-week-led-by-dylan-cozens

[eagle eye]

I forgot about it earlier but tonight is the MLB All Star Selection Show. The starting position players will be announced tonight on the show and Houston's Jose Altuve is likely going to make his second start at 2B. Houston could have a couple of other All Stars when the backups are announced. Carlos Correa and George Springer have a chance to make the squad as does reliever Will Harris who has put together a phenomenal 1st half of the season. Nobody with 36 or more innings pitched and at least 30 appearances comes close to his 0.74 ERA. Since he was made the closer he is 8 for 8 in save opportunities. He should get a look anyway.

 

Another thing is Houston has managed to sign 27 of their 40 draft picks and 17 of their top 20 selections are under contract. I believe it comes as no surprise that all three of the top 20 draft picks that aren't signed are pitchers. You could easily see where they want to go back to school and try to up their draft stock and increase their draft payday. The unsigned top 20 guys are 7th round pick RHP Tyler Buffett a junior from Okla State, 14th round pick RHP Carson LaRue from Carson County CC and 17th round pick Brian Howard the junior RHP from TCU and all of them may want to go back to college to try to get a better payday down the road. Here's the Astros 2016 draft picks and their signing status in the link below.

 

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/team/draft.jsp?c_id=hou

[eagle eye]

Houston got the series win last night with a 5-2 bashing of the Mariners. Dallas Keuchel was really good in his 6 innings of work allowing just 2 runs on 5 hits with one walk and 6 K's. The first Seattle run came in the 2nd inning when Dae-Ho Lee got a single and advanced to 3rd on a Kyle Seager double with one out. Chris Iannetta grounded out driving in Lee from 3rd. It was just bad luck on the 2nd run scored by Seattle in 4th inning. Keuchel, pitching to Nelson Cruz, had a 2-2 count and he threw a slider that was low, about ankle high, and inside. Cruz was fooled by the pitch and swung golfing the ball over the fence in left center field hitting the lower part of the safety rail right where the lovely Sport Clips ladies give haircuts on Friday nights. You just have to give credit to Cruz for being strong enough to sky that ball out on a pitch I'm sure Keuchel was happy with until he saw Cruz had muscled the ball out of the park. On the offensive side Houston got all 5 of their runs via the long ball. Luis Valbuena absolutely crushed the ball in the second inning with 2 outs up in the upper deck in right field. You could tell by the sound of the contact Valbuena made that ball was gone. It was a high, majestic bomb that everyone watching at the park and at home knew that ball had been destroyed. In the 4th Jose Altuve did what he does by hustling out an infield single. After a Carlos Correa K (that should have been a walk because he swung at a bad pitch on 3-2 count) Colby Rasmus hit the Astros second homer of the game. Colby got all of it resulting in a towering Colby Jack that was impressive but not as impressive of Valbuena's home run. When the ball finally came down it landed in the seats behind the Astros bullpen. After Colby homered Valbuena walked followed by a Carlos Gomez fly ball out. Rookie AJ Reed came up and on a 2-2 pitch he jacked it out just below where Cruz's homer went out in the 2nd inning. That made the score 5-2 and from then on it was up to the Astros pitching which came through. Keuchel took care of the 6th and Pat Neshak handled the 7th in 1-2-3 fashion. Ken Giles gave the Astros a scoreless 8th and Will Harris took care of the save in the 9th. Houston not only guaranteed themselves a series win over Seattle they also moved 2 games up on Seattle for 2nd place in the division. No matter what happens tonight in the series finale Houston will still be in 2nd place. The hope is Mike Fiers can shut down the Mariners and lead the Astros to a series sweep. Fiers (6-3, 4.12 ERA) will try to build on recent success in the Astros rotation that has earned him a jump from the 4th spot in the starting rotation to the No 2 spot. The Mariners send left hander Wade LeBlanc to the hill. LeBlanc will be making just his 3rd start of his Seattle career tonight. In his previous two starts he is 1-0 with a 1.50 ERA in 12 innings of work. LeBlanc has been in the bigs since 2008 and he has a career 22-33 record with a 4.40 ERA. Houston has a winning record vs left handed pitching even though you couldn't prove it after the 3 lefties we faced last weekend. Let's hope this journeyman pitcher for Seattle is what his career so far says he is. There are several batters in the Astros lineup that have cooled off considerably in the last week. Namely, Carlos Correa, Colby Rasmsu, Carlos Gomez and Marwin Gonzalez. It would be sweet if these guys got hot in these last 5 games before the All Star break.

 

Last night a lady who holds the current record for views on youtube, known simply as the Chewbacca Mom, sang the National Anthem last night before the game. Turns out the lady can sing! The first link below is the video and article about her appearance at the Juice Box last night and the second link is the youtube video that made her famous.

 

http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2016/07/05/188164556/chewbacca-mom-sings-national-anthem-at-astros-game

 

 

Last night the All Star lineup for the American and National leagues was announced. There is still one more player the fans can vote on to get the last spot on the AS team. Jose Altuve will start at 2nd base for the AL in the ASG. For the second year in a row he won the fan vote for his position. Will Harris was named to the AL pitching roster. Well deserved honor for both guys. As I said, fans have one more chance to vote in a player on both squads and it matters to the Astros fans because one of the final 5 guys on the American League ballot is OF George Springer. You can go to MLB.com or Astros.com to vote. You can also vote on twitter and by text. Here's a link to the article on Astros.com that include instructions for voting on twitter and by text.

 

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/188111396/astros-springer-up-for-all-star-final-vote/

[eagle eye]

The Astros pulled out the brooms last night and completed the sweep of the Seattle Mariners that gives Houston a 3 game cushion for second place in the AL West maintains their momentum heading toward the All Star break. Houston is 9-0 in their last 9 games within the division which includes home and home sweeps of the Angels and the sweep of the M's. The only team in the division the Astros have a losing record against is the Rangers. The 9-8 win last night was more of a relief than a joyful experience because the pitching staff tried like heck to hand the game over to Seattle. Mike Fiers was swimming along the first three innings enjoying a 5-0 lead the offense had staked him to when he just fell apart in the 4th. In the inning he allowed 3 home runs, two solo shots by Robinson Cano and Dae-Ho Lee and a two run shot by Kyle Seager that made the score 5-4. Fiers was done after just 3.1 innings. In the 7th Michael Feliz gave up a 3 run home run that tied the score at 7 to RF Seth Smith. Feliz finished the inning but you could tell by the way he walked off the field he was probably pissed and ashamed of himself. Houston had scored two runs in the bottom of the 6th to extend their lead to 7-4 which didn't even last a half inning. Luis Valbuena hit another towering upper deck home run to right that was even more impressive than the one he hit the night before. It was a 2 run shot that scored Jason Castro who had doubled to lead off the 8th. At that point the score was 9-7 with Houston heading into the 9th. Will Harris had been used a lot lately and wasn't available so AJ Hinch turned to his former closer Luke Gregerson and it was almost deva vu all over again as Gregerson struggled almost from the git-go. He got the leadoff man on a groundout but he started to struggle beginning with a walk to Leonys Martin and followed that with a walk to Seth Smith. Next up was Astros killer Robinson Cano who doubled to left scoring Martin from second with Smith ending up on 3rd. Gregerson was looking at men on 2nd and 3rd with one out in what was then a 9-8 game. The game had already gone 3-1/2 hours and it was going into extra innings if not Houston losing outright. Needless to say, I was pissed. Gregerson got Nelson Cruz to strike out for the 2nd out of the inning. Next up was the other Astros killer Kyle Seager. Hinch had Gregerson intentionally walk him to load the bases meaning Gregerson had to get Dae-Ho Lee out to preserve the win. Gregerson got Lee to strike out to end the game and cause every Astros player and Astros fan a huge sigh of relief.

I don't know why the Astros pitch to Cano or Seager. Both guys just wear out Astros pitching. In this series Cano went 5 for 11 with a home run, 2 RBIs and a run scored. For his career Cano has a .435 BA. Seager was also 5-11 with really an identical stat line as Cano. The smartest thing done in the 9th by Gregerson was to walk Seager. It probably saved the game.

 

To make the win last night even sweeter was the fact that Boster brought out the whuppin' sticks and beat up on the Rangers 11-6 which means that Houston is now only 6.5 games behind the Rangers for the division lead. My curse is working just fine as Texas has now lost 4 of the last six games. In less than two weeks Houston has gone from 11 games back to where they stand now. Houston completes the first half of the season with 4 games against Oakland while Texas hosts Minnesota who beat them 2 out of 3 last weekend in Minnesota.

 

It's disheartening to see a team strength turn into a mess. I'm talking about the starting pitching. Mike Fiers and Doug Fister have both stunk up the place in their last start. It is lucky the Astros offense at least salvaged a win last night because they couldn't overcome Fister's struggles in his last start. Fister gets a chance to redeem himself tonight vs Oakland while Fiers will have to wait until after the All Star break.

 

Doug Fister (8-5, 3.66 ERA) goes against the A's who send Rich Hill (8-3, 2.31 ERA) to the mound to try to cool off the Astros offense. Even though the A's are in 4th place in the division and 10 games behind the Astros this series isn't going to be a walk in the park. A couple of days ago I hoped that the middle of the Astros lineup would start hitting again and Carlos Correa and Carlos Gomez have responded with a couple of good games. Gomez was 3-4 last night and was a home run shy of hitting for the cycle. Correa was 2-5. Luis Valbuena hit much better earning himself a move up the batting order to the 2 hole last night. He went just 1-4 on the night but his lone hit was the game winning 2 run blast in the 8th inning. Colby Rasmus is another matter. Last night he went 0-4 with 4 K's. He stunk last night and in his last 3 games he is just 1-12. The one was a home run in Tuesday night's game and it was his first jack at the Juice Box since late April. In his last 7 games he's hitting .182 (4-22) and seems like he's just not seeing the ball very well right now. We need to get Rasmus going to have a chance in the second half. Evan Gattis too. He hasn't been any better. He's hitting just .174 in his last 7 games but he has yet to hit a hot streak like Rasmus did earlier in May and June. He's hitting just .216 on the season and we need him to be better than that. I still think the Astros hitting coach stinks.

[eagle eye]

I had a feeling Houston was going to lose last night and I was right. I didn't have a feeling that Oakland's Rich Hill but his 9-3 w/l record and 2.25 ERA should have been a clue. Hill went 6 innings giving up just one run, a leadoff triple by George Springer to begin the game and an RBI groundout by Marwin Gonzalez that scored Springer. Who could have foreseen Springer's hit to begin the game was going to be 1/3 of the offense the Astros would muster on the night? Who would have thought the one run scored in the 1st inning would be the only one Houston would get for the game. Luis Valbuena got a single in the 2nd and that set the stage for a couple of ironies you just have to laugh about. First, Jake Marisnick got the Astros other hit in the 5th inning. The irony here is with all the firepower in the Astros lineup including the best hitter in baseball, Jose Altuve, the second worst hitter on the roster got a hit. The second irony is AJ Hinch pinch hit for Marisnick in the 7th because Oakland had brought in a right handed pitcher after Rich Hill's night was over after the 6th inning and according to Hinch's playbook you send a left hand hitter when you have a right handed pitcher. Trouble was AJ Reed is the one Hinch brought in and he's the worst hitter on the roster. Predictably, Reed struck out to complete this mini-farce. The other negative about this move is that it took arguably the best defensive outfielder on the roster out of the game. Marwin Gonzalez moved from 1B to LF for Marisnick and Reed stayed in the game at 1st. When you lose you see all the warts and Hinch made some weird moves last night. The worst move IMO was in the 9th. Tony Sipp came in for Doug Fister who was just shy of brilliant going 8 innings allowing 2 runs on 3 hits, 2 BB's and 3 K's. The A's got all three hits he allowed in the second that resulted in both runs he allowed. Fister certainly redeemed himself after his last poor start but the offense failed to give him any support. The first hitter Sipp face reached base on a throwing error by Carlos Correa and he was rewarded for his bad luck by being yanked for Pat Neshak. To be fair, Sipp was in to face the first hitter because he was right handed. With a group of lefties coming to the plate Hinch wanted the RHP Neshak in the game. Neshak got Danny Valencia on liner to center field and Khris Davis grounded out to short to give the Astros two outs which, of course, is their kryptonite. Houston gets 2 outs on a team and bad things happen and last night was no different. First, absolutely inexplicably AJ Hinch had Neshak intentionally walk the number six hitter, Stephen Vogt. Vogt was 0-2 on the night and brought in a not-so-scary .266 BA. With 2 outs and a runner on 1st why Hinch had Neshak walk Vogt cannot be explained. For whatever reason, I am going with utter confusion on Neshak's part over the IW to Vogt, Neshak walked the next hitter to load the bases. Nothing bad ever happens in that situation, does it? Nahhh. Except the next hitter was Yonder Alonzo who got the RBI double off Fister in the 2nd inning that scored the A's first run. The left handed hitting Alonzo was face the shift by the Astros defense which had Correa playing on the 1B side of 2nd base, Altuve playing half way between 1st and 2nd in shallow right field and AJ Reed at first. On a 2-1 count Alonzo lunged at a pitch on the outside corner barely getting a piece of the ball for a doink pop up which landed in the infield grass out of reach for anyone to make a play on the fly or have time to get the out at first. Seeing eye mistake scored the run from 3rd which Sipp allowed a full ten minutes before to begin the inning. Of course Sipp got tagged with the run even though, in no way, was it his fault. Of course it was an unearned run but one insurance run in a one run game was like 5 runs otherwise on a night when Houston couldn't hit their ass with either hand much less a baseball with a bat it was a soul killing run. Final score Oakland 3 Houston 1 ended their string of 9 straight division wins. The saving grace was that Texas got bombed by Minnesota 10-1 and Seattle also lost to Kansas City 4-3 so the status quo in the division didn't change which is the only plus you can take from last night's pooch screwing by the Astros.

Game two with Oakland is tonight with Collin McHugh (5-6, 4.50 ERA) leading the Astros with the A's sending Daniel Mengden (1-4, 3.48 ERA) to the hill to face Houston's will they or won't they show up offense. Mengden is a rookie who has 5 career big league starts and he's a guy who will give up some hits and walks without the K rate very high. That's relatively speaking though because prior to last night's game Houston led the American League in strike outs with 787. They added 13 to their total last night giving them 800 K's on the season and that was good enough to vault Houston into first place in total strike outs with 800 to lead ALL of baseball. Nice. Did I ever mention I do think the Astros hitting coach is worth a crap? I'll bet I have--more than once.

[eagle eye]

You sure get the whole package from the Astros don't you. The sublime side with the 3 game sweep of the Mariners and crap side with the embarrassing losses to Oakland. The Astros are just lucky they haven't lost three straight to the A's. If not for a three run walk off homer in the 9th on Friday night Houston would have crapped all over the sweep of the M's. Houston has one more game before the All Star break to finish this confounding series with Oakland. Hopefully, they can get the split to finish the week 5-2. When the week began I said I would have been happy to finish the week 5-2 and I still will be but for a completely different reason. The reason is I will be grateful the A's didn't just beat their ass. What I figured was winning 2 of 3 against Seattle followed by winning 3 of 4 ov(5-9er Oakland. I figured Houston would continue to ride the momentum they have enjoyed over the last month. There is never a good time for a slump but 4 games away from the ASG is a kick in the groin. Houston has made Oakland pitchers look unbeatable because they haven't been able to hit them at all. Except, of course, on Friday night when Houston pitching had an a really hard time getting A's hitters out. Collin McHugh sucked and for the first time this year Will Harris sucked blowing his first save opportunity in the last 10 tries. Fortunately for Houston it was the one game so far Houston actually hit the ball. Game 1 on Thursday Houston got 3 hits and scored no runs in a 3-0 loss. In Game two lack of pitching and an explosion of 16 total runs resulted in the Astros 9-7 win. Yesterday Houston needed Lance McCullers to be great and he wasn't. He allowed a run in the 2nd and 2 in the 3rd and that all the runs Oakland needed because Houston couldn't seem to figure out Kendall Graveman, he of the 4.57 ERA. This guy isn't a Cy Young candidate but Houston tried to put him in the conversation yesterday. They managed just 5 hits and zero walks in his 8 innings of work. The Astros got 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th off closer Ryan Dull but with a man on base and two out the Astro I would least like at the plate in that situation, Carlos Gomez, did what he does. Over swing at a pitch losing his batting helmet and falling to one knee, watch a nice pitch fly by him and swing at a breaking ball in the dirt for strike three. He had worked the count full but he could lay off the breaking ball striking out to end the game. It was clear Gomez was swinging for the fence and nothing good ever comes from that.

 

The series finale is today at 1 o'clock with Houston being led by starter Dallas Keuchel (6-9, 5.02 ERA) while the A's counter with Sean Manaea (3-5, 5.85 ERA). Keuchel is tough at home but if he doesn't keep his pitches down and get ahead early in counts it could be another long day at the Juice Box. Keuchel is 4-0 in his last 5 starts and he should've been 5-0 if not for the blown save by Luke Gregerson--his last before being demoted from the closer roll. If Keuchel continues his trend of getting back to his 2015 form Houston should win today. But, this is the Astros we are talking about so we take nothing for granted.

[eagle eye]

I was pissed at Houston up until a bad throw from A's third baseman Scott Valencia went wide up the first base line enough to allow Carlos Correa, who hit the ground up the 3rd base line to leg it out allowing Jake Marisnick, who led off the inning with a single, to score from 3B and win the game 2-1 in 10 innings. Why was I pissed? Because for 7 innings Houston made a half-assed pitcher Sean Manaea, he of the 3-5 record and 5.85 ERA going in look like the greatest thing since glazed donuts. Manaea held Houston to 5 hits, no walks and no runs with 6 K's. I was so pissed off I quite watching for a while. It was a shame because Dallas Keuchel pitched his second best game of the season since he went 8 innings allowing no runs way back on April 15th against Detroit. He got the win that day but he wasn't so fortunate yesterday. He deserved the win but the Houston bats were so silent you could hear a cricket chirp. Yesterday Keuchel allowed just one run in the Sixth. Oakland's Matt McBride singled to lead off the inning and advanced to 2nd on a sac bunt by Coco Crisp. Marcus Semien followed with a broken bat single to left field that could have resulted in an out at home if not for a piss poor throw from the usually accurate Jake Marisnick. Marisnick was visibly upset with himself and it was a poetic justice that he led off the 10th with a hit and scored the winning run 4 batters later. Houston looked like they had lost even when Carlos Gomez singled after Carlos Correa popped out to begin the 9th you didn't feel like this lineup was going to come through on this day. You had some hope that Friday night's hero Luis Valbuena might come through but his didn't but his was not a wasted at-bat. During the at-bat Gomez stole 2nd base and when Valbuena flied out to right field it allowed Gomez to advance to third. So, with 2 out and a man on third Evan Gattis came to the plate. Gattis was 1-3 as he stepped into the box to face closer Ryan Madson. Gattis blasted a 1-1 pitch past a diving short stop and it ran all the way to the wall in left center for an RBI double to tie the game. The A's had to be thinking WTF. An inning later the Astros walk off with a run scored on a throwing error. Even the Astros had to be thinking WTF. Houston got the 5-2 record for the week I wanted. They made up 2 games in the standings this past week too as the Rangers were just worn out by the Twins 3 games to 1 in their weekend series putting Houston just 5.5 back for the division lead. I sure is a shame Keuchel didn't get the win yesterday he sure deserved it but the sting of a no decision when you pitch as well as he did is eased when you win in the end. It was sure nice to see him pitch like we have grown accustomed to in previous seasons. The hope is he will keep it going after the AS break.

 

AJ Hinch announced that Doug Fister will be the starter when Houston resumes play next Friday in Seattle. He will be followed by Mike Fiers and Collin McHugh to round out next weekend's games.

 

The minor league Futures All Star Game was played last night with the World All Stars beating up on the USA All Stars 11-3 but it didn't keep Houston prospects, 3B Alex Bregman and P Joe Musgrove from turning in nice performances. Bregman, who played 3B last night for most of the game before moving to SS late went 3-5 for the game and in his first 3 AB's he went triple, double, single to end up a home run shy of the cycle. It is common thinking that Bregman has been so good in both AA and AAA that it won't be long until he gets the call up to The Show very soon. His play on the field seems to be demanding a trip up to Houston. Musgrove, a RHP, went one perfect inning to lead off the game getting 3 ground ball outs for Team USA. (The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades -- Timbuk 3 1986)

[eagle eye]

Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins put on a show last night in the annual MLB Home Run Derby hitting a total of 61 homers to win the 2016 contest going away. He hit 20 home runs in the final against defending Home Run Derby champ Todd Frazier of the Chicago White Sox who was only able to hit 13 HR's in the final. That total could have be 2 or 3 home runs higher but there was a tall kid in left field among the throng of kid shagging balls during the derby that actually robbed Frazier of homers by jumping up and catching the balls before the could leave the field of play. Frazier actually stopped after one of the ball the kid caught and asked if the homer would be counted. The homer didn't count and Frazier, who was in need of a break or two to catch Stanton, fell 7 home runs short of tying Stanton.

It was a clinic of power hitting 20 of the 21 longest home runs in the competition the longest being 497 feet. Stanton's 61 dingers was a Home Run Derby record shattering previous record holder Bobby Abreau's 48 set in 2005. Here's a link to an ESPN.com article about probably the best power hitter in baseball right now and his runaway win last night by Jayson Stark.

 

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/page/allstar2016_StarkHRDerby/miami-marlins-giancarlo-stanton-hit-61-homers-becomes-home-run-derby-legend

 

Jose Altuve will lead off for the American League All Stars tonight in the 87th annual MLB All Star Game. Even though he lost 16 points off his season high .357 BA down to his current .341 he is still leading the bigs in hitting and he also leads the bigs in hits with 119. Let's let Astros.com's Richard Justice tell us just how good Senior Altuve is.

 

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/189317776/jose-altuve-is-complete-all-star-package/

 

This week's Prospect Team of the Week again includes an Astros prospect. Rookie ball SS Miguelangel Sierra of the Greenville Astros had quite a week posting a stat line of .500/.571/1.444 with 6 R, 13 B, 5 HR's, 5 RBI's, 2 BB, 5 K's and 2 SB. Here a link to the whole list of this week's top MLB prospects.

 

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/189258668/prospect-team-of-week-led-by-david-dahl/

[eagle eye]

The American League won last night 4-2 in a game that was a good game to watch. The players seemed to be having fun and it appeared as though everyone had a nice time. Houston's two representatives, Jose Altuve and Will Harris gave a good account of themselves. Jose went 0-3 on the night and unfortunately it extended his hitless streak in four ASG appearances to 0-7. What he did do was flash some leather playing good defense. Will Harris was called with 2 out and the bases loaded in the top of the 8th. No pressure, right? Harris came in to face St Louis' Aledmys Dias and it was a battle with the count ending up full with nowhere to put him without a run being scored. Harris came in with a 93 mph cutter that painted the outside corner for strike three. Dias was frozen and didn't even swing the bat. Needless to say it was a sweet pitch. Now a couple of days off before beginning the second half of the season on Friday night in Seattle.

 

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/189471558/astros-will-harris-steps-up-in-all-star-game/

 

Until the All Star Game honor I didn't realize Harris is 32 years old. I forgot that he was a veteran pitcher when he came to Houston prior to the start of the 2015 season. He is actually a 10 year veteran as a pro baseball player. He didn't make his debut in the bigs until August of 2012 when he was with the Colorado Rockies six years after he was drafted by the Rox coming out of LSU. Houston claimed him off waivers in November of 2014 after he had a 3 day stint as an Oakland A when Arizona claimed him off waivers. The D-Backs waived Harris after the 2014 season and that's where his Houston story began. The following link talks about Harris' ten year, injury riddled journey to being one of the best relievers in terms of ERA in the majors. Since last season in 107 appearances Harris has a 1.80 ERA which is 6th best in MLB in that time frame.

 

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/189247788/will-harris-had-long-road-to-all-star-game/

[eagle eye]

Houston kicks off the second half of the season tonight on the road in Seattle. A week before the All Star break Houston swept the M's in a series in Houston that afforded them a 3 game cushion for 2nd place in the AL West. The Astros resume play still enjoying that 3 game cushion and they, like all Astros fans, hope to add some more distance between them Seattle by Sunday night.

 

Houston will begin the 2nd half with Doug Fister (8-6, 3.55 ERA) on the hill to face the Mariners and their 2nd half starter James Paxton (2-3, 3.91 ERA). Fister had been Houston's best pitcher in the first half before running into some trouble. He is 0-3 in his last three starts. His last outing wasn't bad at all as he went 8 innings allowing 3 hits and 3 walks and only 2 runs but he didn't get any help from the offense. It was the same with Dallas Keuchel's last start before the break as the offense struggled mightily the last week before the ASG. Jose Altuve took those struggles in the ASG as he went 0-3 on the game starting at 2nd base and hitting first in the batting order. In that last week Jose's BA was a healthy .357 but by the last game of the first half last Sunday his BA was down a full 16 points to .341. When the team is hot it's not just one or two guys, it seems like everyone if hitting the ball but by the same token when there is a slump the whole team slumps together. Let's hope the team starts to mesh better in this second half. The Astros are 7 games over .500 which is exactly where they were at this point last year and they have cut the gap between themselves and the Rangers to just 5.5 games because the Rangers have been victimized by my curse. On June 29th I cast my curse and since that time Texas has gone 3-10. The Rangers travel to Chicago to begin their second half against the Cubs who also struggled to a 2-11 record going into the break (through no curse of mine). The Cubs are at home and that should count for something. This game starts at 1:10 PM this afternoon while Houston's game doesn't start until 9:10 tonight.

 

Today is the last day the Astros have to sign the last 12 of their draft picks and I'm ashamed to say I didn't realize until I actually went through the names of the unsigned players that Lamar's own Stijn Van Der Meer was Houston's 34th round draft pick. Van Der Meer was a senior so unless he wants to use a possible extra year of eligibility there is no reason why he shouldn't go ahead and sign with Houston. I think it would be a hoot if he did sign and play for the Astros. As it is Houston have signed 28 of their 40 picks which is pretty good. What is even better is that the Stros have inked 17 of their top 20 picks. The deadline to sign 2016 draftees is today at 5 PM so maybe there will be a flurry of signings right before the deadline. In Van Der Meer's case I hope that's what happens.

Edited July 15, 2016 by eagle eye

[eagle eye]

Astros win 7-3.

They are season high 8 games over .500.

Fister decent-5 innings 3 earned runs earning him the win.

Springer homers to lead off the game. Gonzalez homers in the seventh to end the scoring.

Astros score 5 runs in the 5th-2 on wild pitches. Carlos Correa scored from 2nd base on the second wild pitch.

Feliz, Giles, Devenski and Gregerson each pitched a scoreless inning for Houston.

 

Cubs beat Rangers 6-0 earlier in the day so Houston is now 4.5 back for the division lead.

 

This afternoon at 3 Houston plays Game 2. Lance McCullers (4-3, 3.79 ERA) vs Hisashi Iwakuma (9-6, 4.25 ERA). McCullers only went 4 innings in a loss last weekend to Oakland. Iwakuma went 6.2 innings in a win over KC July 8. Iwakuma struggles against the Astros so here's hoping those struggles continue.

 

The Ranger activated Yu Darvish off the DL and he will pitch for Texas in their game against the Cubs and Jason Hammel at 1:20 this afternoon.

 

BTW - the A's and Angels both won yesterday. The A's are 9 back of Houston and the Angel are 10 back.

 

Houston has signed Cuban expatriate Yulieski Gurriel. He's 32 and had a highly successful international career playing for Cuba. Gurriel defected from Cuba along with his brother Lourdes Gurriel Jr, a highly touted OF prospect have been in Miami training waiting for a deal to be struck with an MLB team. Here's a full article about Gurriel from Astros.com. At the time of the article an offer had been made but just minutes ago the official signing was announced.

 

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/189772122/astros-sign-cuban-star-yulieski-gurriel/

Edited July 16, 2016 by eagle eye