2016 Houston Astros Regular Season

[eagle eye]

Astros lose 1-0.

Offense on a day of vacation. Jose Altuve had a major brain fart. With a man on 2nd base in the 9th he took it upon himself to try to sacrifice bunt the man over to 3rd. Trouble was he forgot he was the best hitter in baseball and he took the bat out of his own hand. To add injury to insult he laid down a lousy bunt and got the man put going to 3rd. The man was Marwin Gonzalez who led off the inning with a double and he got himself in a rundown to allow Altuve to take 2nd. End result? Man on 2nd with one out. What were you thinking, Jose?

Houston hitters looked like they were swatting at flies instead of trying to hit a baseball. Pathetic job hitting on the day.

No, Hisake Iwakuma is not the Japanese reincarnation of Cy Young. He went 7 innings giving up just two hits with one walk and 8 K's. Oh yeah, no runs but you knew that.

Lance McCullers did a nice job going 5.1 innings allowing 4 hits, 4 walks with 8 K's and the one run scored in the game. McCullers needs to throw strikes early in counts. For a power pitcher he seems to nibble around the corners too much. In 5.1 innings McCullers threw 97 pitches while Iwakuma only threw 90 pitches in his 7 innings. Nolan Ryan needs to go and instruct that young man how a power pitcher is supposed to pitch.

I hate the Astros hitting coach.

Houston tries to go for the series win this afternoon. Colin McHugh (5-6, 4.50 ERA goes against Mike Montgomery (3-3, 2.06 ERA) Montgomery has appeared in 31 games for Seattle but has only started one game this season. His only start came against Kansas City on July 10th where he gave up one run on 5 hits with no walks and 3 K's.

After yesterday's loss Houston is 21-23 in road games this year. That sucks.

The Astros officially announced their new player Yulieski Gurriel. He played 3B when he played for his Cuban team but he played 2B in international play. Obviously he is targeting 3B as the position he will fill for Houston. He will likely be assigned to AA Corpus Christi after his work visa is completed and it is expected that he will need 50-60 games before he's ready to make it to Houston which would put his call up in mid-September It is quite possible that is a very conservative guess as I'm sure the Astros would like to have him ready in August sometime. Gurriel's deal is reportedly worth 5 years and $47 MM dollars.

 

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/189956172/astros-officially-introduce-yulieski-gurriel/

[eagle eye]

Houston wins 8-1 to win the series 2 games to 3. They remain 4.5 games back of Texas who beat the Cubs 4-1 today.

The bats came out as Houston had 11 hits for the game highlighted by a 2 run shot by Jose Altuve in the 3rd and a grand slam by Carlos Gomez to the Astros scoring. Altuve hitting in the DH role today went 4 of 5 for the game raising his BA to .346. Marwin Gonzalez had 2 hits and they were the only Astros to have a multi-hit game. In fact every position player in today's lineup got a hit except for Carlos Correa and George Springer. The Mariners also contributed 4 errors on the day. The home plate ump even recorded an error as he punched out Luis Valbuena on strike 2 in the 5th inning. After review confirmed the ump made a mistake Valbuena ended up getting a walk. McHugh got out of 2 bases loaded jams, one in the 1st inning and one in the 3rd. Houston also blew some scoring opportunities as they were 3-13 with RISP on the day stranding 9 baserunners for the game.

McHugh got the win going 6.1 innings with Chris Devenski (1.2 innings) and Tony Sipp (1 inning) cleaning up for McHugh.

In the first inning with Altuve on 1st and Gonzalez on 2nd when the Astros tried a double steal. The throw to 3B to get Gonzalez was not handled by the third baseman allowing Gonzalez to score. Altuve got screwed out of the stolen base at second with the official scorer ruling he advanced on the E5 on the throw to 3B. It's about the only thing that didn't go Houston's way on the afternoon.

Houston now heads to Oakland and I'd figure they would like some payback for the series split to the A's right before the ASG. Oakland came into the Juice Box immediately after Houston swept the Mariners and took 2 of three from Houston. Houston has a 3 game series to get some payback.

To begin the series Mike Fiers takes the hill with his 6-3 record and 4.35 ERA up against the A's Kendall Graveman who has a 5-6 record and a 4.37 ERA. The Astros should take care of these guys but I thought that last weekend too. Hopefully, Houston can take care of business before returning to Houston Friday for a series against the Angels followed by the Yankees. The schedule is very favorable for Houston IF they can take advantage of the opportunity.

[eagle eye]

I don't know what the deal with the A's is but it needs to stop right now. Frankly the A's have some good players but they should not be beating Houston as regularly as they have been recently. Last night Houston lost 7-4 mainly because of the complete meltdown of Mike Fiers in the 4th inning. Through 3 Fiers had given up one run in the 2nd and the A's and Astros were tied 1-1 going into the 4th. Houston got a run on an infield hit by Carlos Gomez and a throwing error to first by 3B Ryon Healy that allowed Carlos Correa to score from 2nd base. Fiers came out in the bottom of the frame and got two quick outs and he had a 2-2 count on the third hitter in the inning Stephen Vogt but Fiers made a mistake that Vogt smacked for a double and the flood gates opened up. A wild pitch by Fiers got Vogt to 3B. He then walked Marcus Semien who then stole 2B with Yonder Alonso at bat. Semien had a 3-2 count when he walked and was the 2nd batter in a row the Astros were one strike away from the inning being over. Alonso singled on a 3-2 count scoring both Vogt and Semien. Ryon Healy made up for his error in the top of the inning with a double that scored Alonso. Fiers then walked Coco Crisp again on a 3-2 count and that was all AJ Hinch could stand. He made his 2nd trip to the mound this time to pull the troubled starter to prevent further damage in the inning. Fiers had words with Hinch before he left the mound as he was obviously unhappy about sucking and about having to come out of the game. Michael Feliz came on and he immediately walked the first batter he faced Jed Lowrie that loaded the bases. He then walked Josh Reddick to score Healy from 3rd. With the bases still loaded Feliz gave up yet another walk to Danny Valencia scoring Crisp. Hinch went to the mound and had a come to Jesus meeting with Feliz who had just walked 3 batters in a row. It must have worked because Feliz got Khris Davis to fly out to George Springer to end the inning. Fiers got credit for all 5 runs scored in the inning but Feliz did some major pooch screwing coming out of the bullpen. Meanwhile Fiers exchanged heated words with Hinch and Carlos Gomez in the dugout before calming down. Of all the guys who you would expect to be leaders on that bench like Altuve, Correa, Springer or Dallas Keuchel the guy who stepped up and calmed Fiers down and defused both arguments was Doug Fister. Way to go Doug! The bottom line Houston lost yet again to a team that should not be beating them like they have in the past 5 meetings where they are 3-2 in those games. The A's are standing dead smack in the way of Houston making up ground on the Rangers who lost yet again last night to the Angels. The Astros didn't make up any ground but they didn't lose any either as they remain 4.5 back of the Rangers.

Tonight Houston sends Dallas Keuchel (6-8, 4.80 ERA) while Oakland counters with Dillon Overton (1-1, 11.42 ERA). Keuchel seemed to have found his form in the month leading up to the All Star Game and this will be his first start since a week ago Sunday. Overton is making his 3rd ever start in the majors and he's coming off a game against San Francisco where he gave up 8 runs on 8 hits and 3 walks with just one K in just 3 innings of work. The way things work for the Astros Overton will dominate the Astros and the A's will win 4-0. I'm frustrated with this team right now. I want them to go on another 8-2 run and make up the rest of the ground on the Rangers and by August 1st I want the Astros in first place in the AL West. But, you know the old saying about wishes in one hand and bull squirt in the other and which hand fills up first. Yeah, I'm a glass half empty guy this morning.

Edited July 19, 2016 by eagle eye

[eagle eye]

Dammit. The Astros lose to the friggin' A's AGAIN! AAARRRRGGGHHH! This time it was second time in a row his teammates let Dallas Keuchel down after a nice performance. On July 10 against these same A's Keuchel pitched his ass off for 7 innings allowing just one run and ended up with a no-decision because his offense couldn't score even one run until after he left the game. Will Harris got the win after the Astros scored twice in the last two innings to get a 2-1 victory. Last night Keuchel had a 3-0 lead going into the seventh inning and his team lost the game and he lost out on a win he deserved when the bullpen allowed a tying run in the 9th on Will Harris' second blown save and in the tenth on a walk-off single by Oakland's Josh Reddick after Pat Neshak set the table and Tony Sipp allowed the game winning hit. Neshak was credited with the loss but it was a team effort by him and Sipp. Thank goodness Keuchel didn't get saddled with the loss but the bullpen has to feel sick they robbed him of a win. Ironically, the Astros won in Houston on a 10th inning walk-off single and that's how they lost the game last night. Of the 5 Houston relievers who pitched last night only Luke Gregerson didn't allow, or have a hand in allowing, a run or runs to score. Ken Giles came in the game in relief of Keuchel with one out and runners on 2nd and 3rd and he allowed both runners to score before getting the last out of the inning. The runs were charged to Keuchel but Giles let them score and there is never going to be a time when I don't think that's fair. The maddening thing is the lowly Angels are pounding the Rangers so Houston is blowing a golden opportunity to make up ground in the division. I guess we should be thankful that the Rangers are struggling. I'm sure a guy blogging for the Rangers is bitching about the blown chances the Rangers have had to extend the lead over the Astros because they can't seem to beat the crappy Angels. I'm about to go find another chicken and curse the A's but outside of the Astros they aren't such a great team which makes the Astros struggles against them even more maddening. The bullpen did detract from the fact that George Springer hit a solo home run, a tape measure shot to center field, for his 21st dinger on the year and the 2-4 night Evan Gattis had and Jose Altuve's 4-5 night with yet another game that left him a home run shy of hitting for the cycle. All that was lost but the Astros also were only 1-7 with RISP and they stranded 9 base runners even though they did pound out 10 hits. The only saving grace is the Rangers and Mariners both lost meaning the status quo in the division hasn't changed because of last night's loss.

 

Houston will be trying to salvage one game in the series finale tonight with my new hero Doug Fister (9-6, 3.64 ERA) going against Daniel Mengden (1-4, 5.54 ERA). In his last two outing Mengden is 0-2. On July 8 his faced Houston and lasted 4.2 inning allowing 6 runs in an A's loss. On July 15th he only lasted 3.2 innings allowing another 6 runs against Toronto. Mengden made his big league debut on June 11 and this will be just his 6th MLB start. Two items of interest about Mengden, he is from Houston and he went to college at Texas A&M. Mengden was actually drafted by the Astros in 2014 and he had worked his way up to the Class A Lancaster Jethawks when he C Jacob Nottingham were traded to Oakland for Scott Kazmir before the trading deadline last summer. Mengden also sports a Dick Dastardly type of waxed mustache that curls at the ends back towards the mouth. It is similar to the old A's great and Hall of Fame pitcher Rollie Fingers. You just don't see guys do their mustache's like that much any more and it kind of catches your eye when you see it.

The last time Fister pitched against Oakland was on July 7 when he went 8 innings and allowed only 2 runs. Nice job right? Yeah, well it wasn't good enough as Houston could only manage one late run and the Astros and Fister lost 3-1. Fister did get some run support in his last outing as Houston beat Seattle in the first game after the All Star break. He only went 5 innings allowing 3 runs but that was a day the Houston bats didn't disappoint. The top 4 guys in the lineup for the Astros accounted for 6 of the 11 hits the team got and 6 of the seven runs the Astros scored in the game.

[eagle eye]

Astros salvage a win in Oakland in a big way shutting out the A's by a score of 7-0.

Fister was really good going 7 innings allowing no runs on just 4 hits, 2 BB's with 5 K's. He has upped his record to 10-6 and he's the first starter to 10 wins on the season.

Jose Altuve is the only hitter the A's had no answer for. Yesterday he went 2-3 with 2 walks. How he failed to manage an RBI or score a run I can't explain. In the 3 games against Oakland he's gone 8 for 12 upping his BA back to .357. In his last seven games he's hitting .538 with .... well you get the idea. He's been awesome lately.

By contrast in his last 7 games Colby Rasmus has driven off into a ditch going just 1 for his last 27 AB's. Need to get Colby going again. (I hate the Astros hitting coach)

Since June 20 Carlos Correa has more RBI's than anyone in the bigs with 29. Albert Pujols is right behind with 28. Yesterday he had 3 RBI's, one on a bases loaded walk in the 2nd inning and 2 more on a 2 out bases loaded single. The Astros have depended more on small ball to score runs lately than the long ball which is a good thing to see.

The score should have been much worse in the Astros favor as they left a small army stranded on base yesterday. Houston was just 3-14 with RISP and they stranded 13 base runners for the game including bases loaded situations in a couple of innings.

The best thing other than the win was seeing Texas get swept by the Angels meaning Houston actually took advantage of a situation and gained another game on the Rangers in the AL West standings. They are now just 3.5 back. Seattle won last night meaning they are sticking close and are just 3 games behind Houston. They are like a fly you just can't swat. Everyone in the division except Oakland gets a day off today and will resume play on Friday night.

Houston begins a 6 game home stand Friday night when they play the Angels for 3 followed by the Yankees for 3. In fact Houston will play 13 of their next 16 games at home followed by a similar stretch of road games. Friday the pitchers will be Lance McCullers (4-4, 3.61 ERA) against Matt Shoemaker (5-9, 4.08 ERA).

 

The Astros signing of Yulieski Gurriel means the Astros will have to do some fancy dancing to get Alex Bregman up from AAA. The reason being is Gurriel is a third base/2nd base player which mean there isn't enough space to go around for another infielder. Perhaps that's why Bregman played his first game as a left fielder last night. He played the position well and he continued wielding a hot bat going 3-5 in the game. It was his 9th multi-hit game in his last 16 games. I am not sure why Houston doesn't consider moving Bregman to 1B. So far the AJ Reed experiment has yielded nothing worth saying you can't try Bregman at 1B. Reed is hitting a meager .156 in his first 45 big league AB's. I know they are wanting to give Reed every chance but it's almost August and the division lead is within the Astros grasp. The trade deadline is coming soon and Houston needs to take advantage of any and every opportunity to improve the club down the stretch. The Astros do need some offense from the outfield and with Carlos Gomez (.208), Colby Rasmus (.238) and Jake Marisnick (.206) they are just not getting it. Maybe the best place for Bregman and even Gurriel is in the outfield. The 3 I mentioned earlier are great defensive outfielders and Houston could suffer by benching them but the offense needs a shot in the arm.

[eagle eye]

Has it been a busy weekend! I have been busy and so have the Astros. It has been a good week overall for the Astros this entire week but it didn't start out that way. The Astros lost 2 of 3 against the Oakland A's and in doing so missed a golden opportunity to not only catch the Rangers who were swept by the Angels but take over 1st place in the division. On Monday Houston was 3.5 games behind the Rangers and it they even go 2 of 3 against the A's Houston would have been just 1/2 game back heading into the weekend. Houston beat the Angels in Game 1 on Friday night and the Rangers lost to Kansas City in their series opener. If that scenario had gone down like that Houston heads into the rest of the weekend 1/2 ahead of the Rangers. If Houston had been able to sweep the A's (like they should have) Houston is 1-1/2 games up in the AL West right now. The Oakland A's have been a royal pain in the ass and I hope Houston gets some payback before the season ends. Houston has six more games left with Oakland left this season.

One guy who can honestly say he had a great week was Jose Altuve. Just against the A's, a series that Houston lost, Altuve went 8 for 12 with 2 BB's and 3 runs scored. He couldn't help it if the rest of the team struggled. Against the Angels this weekend it was more of the same but his teammates also did some hitting as well. Against the Angels Jose was 6 for 13 and in today's game he scored two runs and drove in a career high 6 runs. He also set a career high for HR's in a season with his first AB in the bottom of the 1st when he crushed a 3 run HR to begin the scoring today. He followed that up with a 2 run HR in the bottom of the second. He got his 6th RBI of the game on a base hit in the bottom of the 5th scoring George Springer. That made the score 11-1 at the time and the game ended up 13-3 to complete the 3 game sweep of the Angels. With the win today Houston has beaten the Angels 11 straight times this season. This is the same LA Angels who swept the Rangers to begin the week and the same Angels who are one of the highest scoring teams in baseball, or they were until they hit Houston. Altuve began the week hitting .341 which still was good enough to lead baseball in batting average but after the smoke cleared he had powered his way up to .360 and still atop all of baseball in BA. He also leads the majors in hits with 139 and OBP .428 and 2nd in SLG (.575) and OPS (1.003). The guy is flat out amazing.

On Thursday night the Astros had seen enough of AJ Reed and optioned him back to AAA Fresno. Reed was hitting just .156 in 45 official AB's. He was clearly struggling but I'm sure he will be okay after he's not under the white hot spotlight of an MLB team in a chase for a division title. To fill his spot the Astros recalled Preston Tucker who, after he was sent down to AAA earlier in the season seemed to have figured out his problems hitting big league pitching. In his first game back on Friday night he went 1-3 which included his first big league triple and the run he scored was critical in the Astros 2-1 win.

Immediately after today's game Houston made another roster move. It was one that has been hotly anticipated since the All Star break as the Astros will bring up Alex Bregman. This is Bregman's 3rd promotion this season as he began the year in AA Corpus Christi where he tore through AA pitching and played well enough to play in the AA All Star Game. He was also tabbed to represent Houston in the Futures All Star Game where an All Star team of American players faced off against a team of international players. Bregman was excellent in both games. After the All Star break Bregman was promoted to AAA Fresno and he was even better at the next level. Ever since the All Star break the Bregman watch has been on with the anticipation reaching new highs after every game he played in Fresno. That anticipation cooled somewhat as Houston signed coveted Cuban star IF Yulieski Gurriel who chose the Astros over several higher profile clubs like the Yankees, Cardinals and Dodgers. Then, out of the clear blue sky after today's game the Astros pulled the trigger. To make room for Bregman the Astros optioned 3B Danny Worth to Fresno. It is being reported that Bregman will be on the field tomorrow night as Houston begins a series with the Yankees.

In his first three game back from Fresno Preston Tucker went 3 for 9 with a triple and a homer and 2 runs scored with 2 RBI's. In all Tucker should be better than AJ Reed and with the addition of Bregman, if he's truly ready for the bigs he will be much better than Danny Worth had been. This roster just got a whole lot better and when Yulieski Gurriel gets his visa issue settled and gets some AB's in Corpus the only question will be who has to go to make room for him? I'm scared the odd man out will be Jake Marisnick. I would much rather have him than Carlos Gomez but the Astros will keep Gomez. With the trading deadline a little over a week away why not move Gomez? Just a thought.

 

Dallas Keuchel will take the hill for Houston tomorrow and he will face the Yankees Michael Pineda.

 

http://m.mlb.com/gameday/yankees-vs-astros/2016/07/25/448350?#game=448350,game_state=preview,game_tab=

[eagle eye]

For three years now Dallas Keuchel has achieved his success with hard work, dedication and talent. Every time he takes the mound he gives it his all and most of the time it's enough. Sometimes, though, it's not. Not because he didn't do his job but because either the offense or the bullpen screws the pooch. Last night, just over 24 hours after banging out 5 home runs and scoring 13 in the series finale against the Angels Houston had one of those nights where it looked like they were swatting at flies rather than trying to hit a baseball. As a team they failed to recognize the difference between a pitch they could hit and one way out of the strike zone. Between Michael Pineda and Dellin Betances the Yankees pitchers cast a mystical spell over the Astros lineup that saw them swinging at sliders that began out of the pitcher's hand out of the strike zone and got worse the closer to the plate they came. Is anyone but me sick to death over Carlos Gomez constant out of control swings that either have him stumbling to regain his balance or down on one knee usually with his batting helmet rolling around on the ground beside him? There was absolutely no pitch recognition last night by the Astros outside of George Springer's lead off home run to begin the game. For a long time it looked like that one run would hold up because Dallas Keuchel wasn't even in trouble in any inning until the 5th when that old 2-out kryptonite struck the Astros again. The Yankees got a double and single to tie the score at 1 before Keuchel recorded the final out of the inning. Then, again in the 8th back to back hits undid Keuchel again. Chase Headley led off the inning with a single and Austin Romine doubled scoring Headley all the way from 1B. Keuchel retired the next two batters but instead of allowing Keuchel to finish the inning AJ Hinch pulled one of his head scratching moves and pulled Keuchel for Luke Gregerson taking away any chance that the Astros could come back in the bottom of the 8th to get the win for Keuchel who deserved it. Instead Gregerson came in and retired the next batter to end the inning.

The only batter that seemed patient enough at the plate was Jose Altuve and his at-bat with one out in the 8th was frustrating. With a 3-1 count Betances threw a pitch high and it was confirmed by the pitch tracker graphic. The pitch was clearly high but home plate ump Dana Demuth called it a strike. Altuve wasn't happy with the call and on the 3-2 pitch Betances put it right in the same place, high in the zone, and Demuth called it strike. Altuve isn't demonstrative at the plate but he got into it with Demuth with the two exchanging words. I was afraid Altuve was going to get tossed. He didn't get tossed but it was clear he wasn't happy. Demuth was hearing it from the Astros bench as well. Carlos Correa followed with an absolutely horrible AB in which he swung at two pitches that were nowhere near the strike zone.

Last night was the Astros 2nd pick in the draft from last year, Alex Bregman. The Yankees kept Bregman busy all night at 3rd base with Bregman up to every challenge including 3 spectacular plays he made look easy. He got bupkis at the plate though. He even had a chance to be a big hero as he came up in the bottom of the 6th with the bases loaded and 2 out. The crowd had been behind Bregman the entire game giving him a standing ovation every time he came to the plate. On a 1-1 pitch Bregman got hold of a hit to right field that went all the way to the wall but Yankee's RF Aaron Hicks caught the ball with his back against the wall for the 3rd out. Just about 6 more feet of carry and it's over Hicks' head and into the stands. With the way Keuchel was pitching the Astros would have had a 5-1 lead on NY and they win that game. It wasn't to be and there was no storybook tale of Bregman's first MLB game. Instead he went 0-4 with 2 K's and no walks. He also left 6 men stranded on base on the night. Welcome to the bigs, rookie.

 

To make matters worse the stupid A's blew a 5-1 lead and they ended up losing on a walk-off 2 run HR by Adrian Beltre in the bottom of the 9th to beat the A's. Houston falls to 3.5 back of the Rangers and they lose a 1/2 game to idle Seattle. I'm telling you folks, Keuchel deserved better and Houston can't afford to keep blowing opportunities to gain ground on the Rangers. The end of July is Sunday and the stretch run of the season begins in earnest next Monday, the 1st of August.

 

Tonight Houston sends Doug Fister (10-6, 3.42 ERA) up against the Yankees and CC Sabathia (5-8, 4.04 ERA). Houston needs to beat these guys. Even though they are still in the pennant race and for sure the wild card race they seem to be giving up. Yesterday the Yanks completed a trade with the Cubs sending ace reliever Aroldis Chapman to Chicago for a bunch of the Cubs prospects. The Yanks are also said to be shopping Carlos Beltran, their best hitter, as well as Glen Headley. Houston needs to bounce back and start pounding this team like I, and everyone else, knows they can.

[eagle eye]

Houston lost again 6-3 to the Yankees.

 

Offense stank, Fister was not good. Disappointing to miss another opportunity to make a move on the Rangers who lost to Oakland.

Seattle has made up 1.5 games on Houston as they have beaten Pittsburgh in their series opener last night and they got a 1/2 game with Houston's loss on Monday. Seattle is now just 2.5 back of the Astros.

 

Seven of the 11 men who went to the plate last night failed to get a hit. That sucks. Marwin Gonzalez had a big night with two home runs and Evan Gattis had a homer, all solo shots last night. Gonzalez and Carlos Gomez are the only hitters with a multi-hit game. Gomez when 2-4 but I still don't like the guy. It's usually a bad sign when 3 of the top 4 hitters have a bad night. Last night Springer, Altuve and Correa went hitless in a combined 10 AB's. Springer did walk once and Correa walked twice but obviously they weren't on base for any of the dingers the Astros hit.

 

Fister didn't even last 5 innings. 4.2 to be exact. The 3 runs charged to him in the 5th were the nails in his coffin on the night.

 

Alex Bregman is still looking for his first hit in the majors. Last night he went 0-3 with a walk and a K. He has hit the ball hard a couple of times but the ball didn't find a hole. He'll be okay but I think he's pressing a little trying to get that first big league hit. He came so close to a grand slam on Monday night that would have been a magical start to his career considering the high quality leather he was flashing in that game. Last night he was DH even after Luis Valbuena pulled a hammy and left the game in the 2nd when he was trying to leg out a ground ball up the middle. The Astros are hoping it's not serious and Valbuena said he felt much better after receiving treatment in the clubhouse.

 

Valbuena is listed as day-to-day so Bregman should see some time at 3rd.

 

It may not be so pressure packed for Bregman if the whole darn Astros team hadn't gone cold. When everyone is hitting you don't feel the pressure to deliver. Bregman will get his first hit soon, of that I have no doubt. Look for him to be in the lineup at 3B tonight as Houston tries to salvage a win in this series, the only one in Houston by the Yankees this season. Houston has lost 2 of their last 3 series and except for a couple of games their offense has been stagnant since just before the All Star game. They just have gotten some really great starting pitching. Bad outings like Fister had last night have thankfully been few and rather far between.

 

Tonight Houston sends Lance McCullers (5-4, 3.33 ERA) to the mound tonight. The Yankees counter with Masahiro Tanaka (7-2, 3.00 ERA). Tanaka has been the Yanks best pitcher so far this year while McCullers seems to be finding a groove. In his last outing he had his best and longest outing of his career. He went 8 innings allowing just one run on 4 hits, 4 walks and 10 K's in a 2-1 Astros win that saw the Astros needing an outing like that to win because, again, the offense just wasn't there enough to produce more than 2 runs.

[eagle eye]

Astros win 4-1. McCullers went 6 fanning 10 batters for the second straight game. He allowed just one run on 5 hits and two walks. The lone run he allowed was off a homer by Brian McCann in the 4th inning. McCullers is throwing more efficiently lately and he's made his fastball more reliable because he's throwing it for strikes a lot more often. He's learning to pitch vs just being a thrower. The Astros salvaged a win in the series so now they move on to Detroit for a series beginning Friday.

 

Alex Bregman is still looking for his first big league hit. He went 0-2 last night with a walk. The encouraging this is he didn't strike out last night so he made contact every AB last night. The hit will come.

 

Carlos Gomez pulled his hamstring running from 1st to 2nd in the 2nd inning last night. Like Luis Valbuena, who pulled his hammy the night before, he is listed as day-to-day. This means more playing time for Jake Marisnick and Colby Rasmus. That, to me, is a good thing.

 

Colby Rasmus headed into his 2nd AB of the game in the 3rd inning mired in an 0-29 slump. His last hit was seven games ago and his last homer was on July 2nd. It wasn't all milk and honey because he had just the one hit in 4 AB's and he struck out in 2 of the 3 other AB's he had. But, that is not to diminish the importance of his 2 run homer. It gave Lance McCullers a little breathing room allowing Houston to cruise home to the victory.

 

Jose Altuve went 2-4 in the game and he was the only Astro with a multi-hit game. Every player in the lineup last night got a hit except George Springer who is slumping again, Preston Tucker and Bregman.

 

The best news other than the Astros win were losses by both Texas, who fell 6-4 to Oakland, and Seattle who was bombed by Pittsburgh 10-1. It's nice to see Oakland being a pain the arse to somebody other than Houston.

 

Colin McHugh (7-6, 4.18 ERA) leads the Astros into Detroit Friday night. Detroit sends Matt Boyd (1-2, 4.63 ERA). The Tigers are coming off a series sweep of Boston so Houston is walking into a bit of a buzz saw with the Tigers on a bit of a hot streak. Houston is coming off a 4-2 six game home stand but they lost 2 of 3 to the Yankees as they head out on the road.

[eagle eye]

I have been thinking about this for a while now because I have noticed that I am pretty much the only one who posts in this SportsCenter forum. I have hoped to spark discussion and debate both pro and con but it hasn't happened in a while. I never intended this forum to become my own domain. So, I am going to back off from posting in this forum for a while in hopes that all you BRI people will make this a true fan forum again. I appreciate the folks to who have checked out my posts, almost 8,000 views on the 4 pinned threads I have going is pretty awesome and I thank you for giving my ramblings a look. The downside of that is I know you're out there so I'm challenging you all to step up and make this continue to grow. Thanks to Mike and the other administrators for giving us all this opportunity to talk Lamar and sports in general and thanks also for not kicking me off the site because my posts are just too darn long. I'll still be around posting on the Inside the Birdcage forum and I'll be watching SportsCenter to see what comes up. Go Cards and Go BRI!

 

I may not be able to stay off an Astros thread because I am so all in on this team but it will be just a line or two and it won't be everyday. Go 'Stros, Go Cards and Go BRI!

[eagle eye]

Houston have lost 2 series in a row for the first time since early June when the Rangers and Rays beat them in back to back series. Collin McHugh got bombed on Friday night as Houston went on to get waxed 14-6. In 1.2 innings McHugh allowed 10 hits-no home runs-and 8 runs and the game was over in the bottom of the 2nd. Last night the Astros had the game won but that old Astros kryptonite, 2 outs, bit them in the backside again. The Astros should have stole that game away from Justin Verlander who has found the fountain of youth I guess because he's found his old 98 mph fastball again. He is dominating again and he did it last night pitching a complete game getting the win just when it looked like Houston had broken his, and the rest of the Tigers' hearts, with a 2 run rally in the top of the ninth but it wasn't to be. After recording 2 quick outs in the bottom of the ninth the roof came crashing in on Will Harris. First he issued a walk to Justin Upton, then a base hit to Tyler Collins which was a badly located curve ball that Collins knocked into left field. Collins was pulling off trying to pull every pitch leaving the outside of the plate vulnerable. Harris had a 1-2 count on Collins throwing to the outside corner. He inexplicably followed with a pitch inside for ball 2 and then the curve ball. It was low in the zone but right over the middle of the plate and Collins got the hit that kept the inning going after the Tigers were down to their final out. James McCann followed Collins with a hit to left fielder Alex Bregman scoring Upton from 2nd base tying the game. Bregman made matters worse with a bad throw to home plate trying to nail Upton was up the line and it allowed Collins to advance to 3B. Next batter was the number 9 hitter Jose Iglesias who hit the ball on the ground to 1B where Jason Castro, who moved to 1B when Evan Gattis came off the bench in the 8th to pinch hit for Jake Marisnick, and he tossed the ball to Will Harris who moved to cover the bag. It was a bang-bang play which Harris failed to make. The hit scored McCann from 3B ending the game. AJ Hinch challenged the call at 1B but it was clear Iglesias beat Harris and the game was over. Verlander got the win, the Astros got a punch in the gut with the loss and life sucks.

BTW, the Rangers won again for the third night in a row and Houston is now 5 games behind them in the division. Seattle is just two and half back of Houston. Did I mention the life thing?

Houston will try to salvage a win in this series when they send Dallas Keuchel who had his heart broken in his last start as he pitched more than well enough to win but the he got no run support. He will take his 6-10 record, which should be better than that, as the Astros face off against Mike Pelfrey (3-9, 4.98 ERA) Hopefully they can end July on a high note because with Toronto and Texas up next week it won't be any picnic.

[eagle eye]

Wow, what a lousy weekend for Astros baseball as the Detroit Tigers just put an old fashioned ass-whoopin' on the home team. Yesterday was the best pitching matchup of the series and on paper it looked like Houston should've won the series finale. Somebody forgot to tell the Astros because the whole team sucked the big one yesterday. Dallas Keuchel had his worst outing since April giving up 6 runs in the 1st inning which sort of signed "game over" for the Astros. The fact is, if Keuchel had only given up 1 run it was game over because the offense stunk up the Tigers stadium. They scattered 7 hits on the afternoon, 3 of those by Evan Gattis, but could get nothing to show for it. Astros prospect Alex Bregman got his first hit of his career in the 2nd inning ending a 0-19 string to begin his career but he went 0-3 the rest of the game and he was 1-5 on the day. Preston Tucker continues to frustrate. He was hitting .301 at AAA Fresno and he was sent down because he was swinging at everything in sight and striking out all the time. He was said to have focused on pitch selection and refocusing his approach. It seemed to work at AAA but since he has come back he fell right back into his old bad habits. Since he returned on July 22nd in the nine games played he's 4-27 with a homer, 2 BB's and 7 K's. Yesterday he was 0-4 with a K. All this frustration against a pitcher with a 3-9 record and 4.98 ERA. Mike Pelfrey has been completely underwhelming so far this season but the Astros gave him a big boost in confidence yesterday as he went 5 innings allowing 4 hits but no runs with 1 BB and 4 K's. Four Tigers reliever combined with Pelfrey to shutout Houston as the Tigers took target practice off Houston pitching scoring 11 runs on the day. Getting trounced 11-0 I'll be was the furthest thing the Astros could imaging before the game started. Evan Gattis going 3-4 on the day was a bit surprising and his big day was totally wasted as the 5 hitters in front of him combined to go 3-17 with 3 walks but nobody was in scoring position when he got his hits, all singles. So, Houston got swept by Detroit and to make matter worse Texas swept Kansas City in 4 games which means Houston, who was as close as 2.5 games back of the Rangers are now 6 games back. A totally devastating weekend for Houston.

 

Yesterday was the last day of July and July ended with an Astros losing streak which was totally bad from any way an Astros fan can look at it. Houston did go 13-12 for their 3rd winning month in a row after a disastrous April so there's that. Stinking up the place in Detroit was not good and damaged the heck out of Houston's chances of catching the Rangers but, hey, the Rangers made up a big deficit in 2015 to win the division and there's no reason not to hope Houston can't do the same thing. July saw the return of minor league prospects Tyler White and Preston Tucker and so far they have under achieved as has the most anticipated prospect since Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman. He has shown he can play defense but his 1-22 start to his career has been a big disappointment. He also committed a throwing error in Detroit in the 9th inning that set up a walk off single by the Tigers to win a game Houston should have won. If Houston is going to make a run at the division these 3 guys will need to pull their heads out of their asses and start hitting the ball. The trade deadline is today so if Houston is going to pick up a position player and a pitcher or two they had better get that done by the deadline this afternoon. Ah August. The dog days of summer are here and the Astros better bring out the dog in themselves or this will go down as yet another disappointing season.

 

Recently signed Cuban player Yulieski Gurriel finally got his work visa and the Astros immediately sent him to the Gulf Coast League Astros last week. It could be that he will be called up to the bigs within the month depending on how he fares with minor league pitching.

 

This first week in August is critical to the Astros. First they have 4 games against Toronto who is in the thick of the Wild Card race as the leader so far. They are also just 0.5 game back of AL East division leader Baltimore. Being swept by Detroit knocked the Astros down to 4th place in the Wild Card race behind the Tigers. If the season ended today Toronto and Boster would be the Wild Cards in AL. To end the week Houston takes on the Rangers which is also critical and could make or break Houston's season. The good thing is all 7 games are in Houston this week. The bad news Houston will probably have to use minor league prospect Joe Musgrove because Doug Fister is on paternity leave. Personally, I rather trust the start to veteran Scott Feldman than an unproven minor leaguer but that's just me. The Astros will face Toronto's Marcus Stroman (8-4, 4.92 ERA). Tall order but Houston needs to answer the bell or their playoff hopes could die an ugly death this week.

[puddin tane]

Ok..I ragged on nobueno enuf and he started hitting. So, maybe the same will work for Bregman

 

Breg-less sucks! Not ready for the show. Send him down before he jumps out of a hi rise window. 1-20 something? Shittttt

[eagle eye]

Houston made a collection of the most mediocre pitchers look like the best ever. Fortunately, the Astros pitchers were great. Doug Fister returned from paternity leave and pitched his ass off. He went 6 innings allowing 4 hits, 2 BB's and 8 K's and most importantly no runs. He was followed by Tony Sipp and Pat Neshak who combined for a scoreless 7th and Ken Giles pitched a scoreless 8th even though he got into a bit of trouble in the process eventually stranding a runner at 3rd. The Astros got a solo homer from Jose Altuve to stake the Astros to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 6th that they rode into the top of the ninth. For the 2nd time in 3 games Will Harris blew a save but he didn't wait until he got two outs in the inning the way he did against the Tigers on Saturday. He got the blown save out of the way with the first hitter in the inning. Russell Martin killed a 3-2 pitch over the train tracks in left field that tied the game. Harris then got his two outs in the inning on back to back K's when he walked Darwin Barney. AJ Hinch decided Harris was done for the night and he brought in Chris Devenski. It was a very good move. Devenski proceeded to mow down the Tigers for 4.1 innings recording 7 K's in a row at one point. That got the Astros through 13 innings.

A sidebar here to mention an important couple of facts. 1) Earlier in the day on "The Drive" on ESPN radio AJ Hoffman was incredulous when Houston traded away P Scott Feldman at trade deadline to -- wait for it -- Tornonto. His argument was that Feldman was insurance in case one of the starters got hurt. He also was pissed about the Houston front office helping a competitor in the Wild Card race. Chris Devenski's performance last night answered Hoffman's worries. Devenski came up earlier in the season as a spot starter and he did well. Well enough to remain in the Astros bullpen rather than going back to the minors. 2) Feldman was called upon just a few hours after being dealt to Toronto to pitch the bottom of the 14th inning.

Feldman came on after Michael Feliz completed a scoreless top of the 14th including two K's. Now maybe you've noticed I keep mentioning the K's the Astros pitchers threw. Why? Because last night Houston recorded 22 strike outs for the game which is just one K shy of tying a team record nearly 3 decades ago in a 24 inning game against the Dodgers. That's how good Houston pitching was last night.

So, Feldman came on to face the meat of the Astros order beginning with Jose Altuve. Jose led off with a single to center field followed by Carlos Correa who blasted the ball that caromed off the right center field wall just a tick shy of a walk-off homer. As it was it was a walk-off double as Altuve was running balls out at the crack of the bat and he scored from 1st easily. Game over. It was a little unfair of Toronto to use Feldman so soon after the trade went down. The whole situation had to seem surreal to him. The Astros got a much needed win to begin the series and maybe it will light a spark under the Astros. You'd certainly hope so.

The Astros didn't get anyone that can help the team right now. They gave up Scott Feldman and Josh Fields in deals that will help restock the minors. The Rangers did get some players that will help them. Bad news there.

Two observations: 1. The Astros offense really went south after Valbuena went down with a pulled hamstring. We need him back off the DL pronto. 2) Alex Bregman is getting his ass handed to him at the plate. He is now 1 for 28. The Astros moved him to the #2 spot in the lineup hoping he'd see better pitches with George Springer and Jose Altuve hitting around him. It hasn't helped. Puddin Tane, you need to get a little stronger in dissing Bregman to break him out of this slump.

Houston has Valbuena coming back and they will have Cuban Yulieski Gourriel coming soon and it's something but not enough to offset the total lack of movement by Houston to get some help. So, it falls on the young guys to stop being a liability. I'm talking not just about Bregman but Preston Tucker, Tyler White, AJ Reed and the others who have spent time on the Astros roster this season. If Houston is going to make the playoffs these young guys need to start living up to their potential. That and Colby Rasmus needs to figure out why he can't seem to hit any more. Sheesh.

[puddin tane]

Breg-less sux.

[eagle eye]

Houston lost 2-1 last night. They have now scored a grand total of 3 runs in the last 23 innings. Won't win much that way. Houston had 7 hits last night, 5 of those came from Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa. 5 men in the lineup didn't get a hit. Same old story, Bregman, Rasmus, Reed along with Springer and Castro barely got contact much less a hit. Yet another blown opportunity to make up ground on the Rangers who lost to Baltimore and Seattle made up ground on the Astros with a win over Boston last night. This sucks watching the Astros whiff games away. The Astros had yet another game where they had more K's (8) than hits (7). Pitiful. I looked it up, Houston is in 3rd place in all of baseball with 979 which is behind Milwaukee (1005) and San Diego (988). They are in the middle of the pack in team RBI's and in the bottom 1/3 in team hits. What has been their savior so far is they are 8th in team ERA as pitching staff. That is the main reason they are in the conversation is because their pitching and Jose Altuve have been so good. With all the youth up from AAA that were hitting lights out there they haven't had the same success in the bigs, not even close. Subpar season's by Colby Rasmus, Jason Castro and Evan Gattis hasn't helped either. This team is underachieving big time and this is a terrible time of year for their offense to become a dumpster fire.

The next bit of bad news is that Lance McCullers left the game early in the top of the fifth with elbow soreness. Can you say "Tommy John surgery". That's me being a pessimist but it's rarely a good thing when a pitcher grabs at his elbow. McCullers surrendered the only runs Toronto scored last night on solo HR's by Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. One bright spot was one Joe Musgrove. Musgrove was called up and would have started the series opener against Toronto if Doug Fister had not made it back to the club from paternity leave. Instead he was thrown into the fire without warning when McCullers injured himself. Coming in cold off the bench without warning Musgrove responded beautifully tossing 4.1 innings allowing just one hit and one walk and 8 K's. It was an historic performance by Musgrove as the 8 K's in relief set a franchise record. He was absolutely brilliant retiring the first 10 batters he faced before he allowed a base runner. He walked Michael Saunders to lead off the 9th. He then retired Kevin Pillar and Devon Travis on fly balls to center and he allowed his only hit to Melvin Upton to put men on 1st and 2nd with 2 out. The hit he allowed to Upton must have made Musgrove mad because he then struck out Josh Thole to end the Jays threat. Jose Altuve had his 44th multi-hit game this season as he went 3-4 on the night upping his BA to .360 again. Carlos Correa went 2-4 and he is hitting .269. The guy you might consider the most disappointing is George Springer. George strings several games together when he goes hitless and then he has a good game or two to raise his average up to the .260 mark. For as good a fielder as he is and the obvious talent he has you would expect more from him but he may never be more than a .260 hitter in his career. Especially if Houston continues to employ their current batting coach. It's pretty obvious he isn't doing anything for the team except keeping the bench polished with his useless ass. Jason Castro has gone from a .276 hitter in his All Star season of 2013 but his batting average has dropped markedly over the last 3 years since. I think that has a lot to do with the hitting instructor. Here's Castro's BA from 2012 to now in order by year: .257, .276, .222, .211 and .207. AJ Hinch encourages a free swinging style of play but so far in 2016 it has not paid the dividends in home runs that it did in 2015. The AAA guys are getting schooled by big league pitching even though they were having great success in AAA and it's killing the Astros offense. I never thought I'd say it but I miss Luis Valbuena. OMG! Has it really gotten THAT bad????

[eagle eye]

Is there a back half of any MLB batting order that is any worse than Houston's. Sheesh, they are bad right now. Yet another game when Houston is only able to score one measly run yet again. Since Houston went into the series with Detroit last Friday Houston is 1-5 and it took a superior job by the pitchers to hold the Blue Jays to one run because it took them 14 innings to score 2. In order from Detroit to last night against Toronto here's the run production by this offense; 6 (loss), 2 (loss), 0 (loss), 2 (win in 14 innings), 1 (loss) and 1 (loss). Right now this team stinks offensively. It's not like Houston has faced a bevy of pitching studs. They had to face Detroit's Justin Verlander and the irony there is they should have won the game if not for a 9th inning meltdown by Will Harris. The other pitcher that was really considered good was Marco Estrada who pitched last night who has an ERA of 2.92. The best ERA among the rest of the starting pitchers Houston has faced is 4.49. Not exactly lights out. This team stinks right now. BTW in all three games this week every single run Toronto has scored has come off home runs. That's something this staff hasn't been doing is giving up HR's. The Jays have stolen a page out of Houston's 2015 playbook. Collin McHugh had a good game except for three mistakes and the Jays took all of them yard. Josh Donaldson hit two HR's, one in the 2nd inning and one in the 6th and Jose Bautista also went yard in the 6th. McHugh went 6, just enough time to lose the game for Houston because the offense sucks so bad. McHugh had 10 K's and just one walk in the game but it just wasn't good enough. I'll give you 3 guesses and the first two don't count to see if you can name the player who drove in the Astros lone run. Got it? I knew you'd get it. Jose Altuve got an RBI double in the 6th driving in Marwin Gonzalez who had doubled right in front of Altuve. It's been pretty rare for Houston to get back-to-back hits lately and it's amazing what can happen when you are able to do that.

Texas lost again last night so Houston remains 5.5 behind the Rangers.

Seattle has now won 2 in a row and they are just 1.5 games behind Houston. Houston is swirling as they are flushing their season down the toilet. It looks pretty bad right now and I have no hope.

[eagle eye]

Astros lost 3rd game and series to Toronto. The final was 4-1 and it was just one more game when Houston could only score 1 stupid run. JA Happ, a former Astro, who is a mediocre pitcher shut down the Astros holding them to 4 hits and a walk with 6 K's. This offense is pitiful. Doesn't this sound like a broken record? Astros lose. Astros suck. Astros lose ground to the Rangers. Blah, blah, blah. Now, the Astros limp wristed offense and suddenly shaky pitching play host to those Rangers over the weekend. Can Houston rebound? Can they save their season and finally win a series against a team they are currently 1-9 in games already played? Man, I don't think so. In the last two series Houston played 2 of the 3 teams, Boston being the other, who are the major players for a wild card spot and they went 1-6 against them. Now they play the team leading the division by 6.5 games thanks to Houston's loss and the Rangers win last night. This weekend could go one of two ways, either this could be a great weekend when Houston finally rights the ship or it could be the death knell for the Astros playoff hopes. I don't think anyone thought this would be said but Houston needs Luis Valbuena back off the DL, pronto. The Astros desperately miss his bat. Isn't that a little ridiculous to say about a guy hitting .260 but it's about 50 points higher than anybody else playing right now in his place. You can see Alex Bregman is a better fielder than Valbuena but not by much because Luis has been pretty good at both 3rd and 1st base. The problem with the wunderkind Bregman is he forgot his hitting stroke in AAA. He did get his 2nd career big league hit last night meaning he is now 2-35 hitting since being called up to Houston. He had a decent game last night going 1-3 with a walk and no K's. Encouraging. As was Tyler White who went 2-3 and he drove in the Astros lone run. In the 5 games since being recalled he's gotten at least one hit in 3 of them. Encouraging. Colby Rasmus continued his slide going 0-3 last night meaning in his last 66 AB's he's gotten 3 hits. That goes way beyond what you would call a slump. There is word that he's been battling an ear infection that's bad enough to need surgery in the off season. To his credit Rasmus isn't making excuses and it's also been reported that he's taken to wear batting gloves because he's worn blisters on his hands from all the extra batting practice he's taking trying to work his way past this utter collapse. Jake Marisnick has been hitting better lately and he may deserve more playing time as a result. Problem is Carlos Gomez sucks almost as much as Rasmus. AJ Hinch has his hands tied with the Astros arch enemies coming to assault them in their own house. Things don't look good, not good at all.

 

Tonight is Dallas Keuchel's turn to try to shutdown the Rangers. The problem is who is going to catch fire enough to score more than one frigging run? Maybe they ought to open the roof at the Juice Box and just sweat the toxins out of the Astros. Heck, maybe the high humidity will cause about half the Rangers lineup on the DL with severe dehydration. You can always hope.

[eagle eye]

The questions I asked yesterday were emphatically answered last night. Dallas Keuchel did indeed shut down the Rangers. After giving up two hits in the top of the 1st Keuchel didn't allow another hit until there were 2 outs in the top of the 9th. Other than a couple of walks the only other batter to reach base was a strike out on a passed ball that allowed Redneck OH-der to reach base in the top of the 7th. So, the bottom line, the Rangers only had 6 baserunners all game. Throw in 7 K's and Keuchel's complete game shutout of the Rangers were just what the Astros ordered. Another question answered was whether or not Houston was going to score more than one run. Ironically only one run would have been enough but Houston finally strung together some hits and they broke through scoring 4 runs in the bottom of the 3rd giving Keuchel enough breathing room to pitch his game. The 3rd began with a hit to left by Jake Marisnick. George Springer lined out to center on a sharply hit ball. Alex Bregman, who went 0-3 on the evening worked a walk. Jose "The Hitting Machine" Altuve delivered an RBI double into the left field corner to plate Marisnick for Houston's first run. Carlos Correa followed with a single to right that scored both Bregman and Altuve. Evan Gattis singled to right and Tyler White ended the scoring with a single to left that scored Correa. The Rangers prevented further damage when they turned a double play off a ground ball by Marwin Gonzalez to end the inning. It's the first time in a good while Houston has strung enough hits together to have a big inning and it was nice to see. The Astros added one more run in the 7th. It almost didn't happen because after an error that allowed Jake Marisnick to reach 1B and single by George Springer Alex Bregman popped up a bunt attempt that was caught and Marisnick was doubled off 2nd base because he was moving on the play. You go from no outs and men on 1st and 2nd to 2 outs and a man on first it is usually an inning killer. A side note, you know a guy is struggling when a sac bunt turns into a double play so Alex Bregman is truly having a bad couple of weeks at the plate. To save the day Altuve hits another double that scored Springer all the way from first to give the Astros a 5-0 lead and that is how the game ended. It's only one game though. Houston needs to continue to take care of business with the Rangers and beyond. The Astros are just 3-7 in their last 10 games and before last night's win they were 2-8. It was a big win for Houston but it won't mean much if they don't back it up with more wins, especially over the Rangers. It would be nice if Houston can dominate the Rangers the way the Rangers dominated Houston prior to last night. Texas was 9-1 going into last night's game against the Astros so a little payback is definitely in order.

 

Doug Fister has been on paternity leave for the past few days but he returned yesterday after the birth of his first child late this week. He will be backing up a really nice start last Monday against the Blue Jay when he allowed no runs in 6 innings of work. He got a no decision in the game as Will Harris blew his 3 save opportunity, his 2nd in 3 games, but Houston ended up beating Toronto 2-1 in 14 innings. After that game Will Harris was demoted from his closer role and Ken Giles was named the closer. Trouble is the Astros haven't needed a closer since last Monday's win. The Astros will face Big T's favorite pitcher ever in Lucas Harrell who the Rangers obtained in a trade from Atlanta on July 27. Harrell pitched for Houston from 2011 to 2014. Harrell got into conflict with then Astros manager Bo Porter because he kept being burned by the defensive shifts that are so common now. He has been in several different organizations since leaving Houston. Harrell has made one start for Texas since coming to the team, a win over Kansas City in which he allowed 3 runs over six innings. One thing about Harrell, the guy sweats like he's standing in a shower. I don't think I've seen anyone sweat as much as he does.

 

The latest update on Cuban star Yulieski Gurriel: Gurriel, who signed with the Astros on July 16 after playing parts of 15 seasons in Cuba's Serie Nacional, was hitting .385 (5-for-13) with two doubles and two RBIs in his first four Minor League games for the Astros. He has been playing for Class A Lancaster (California) Jethawks but he is scheduled to move on Sunday to AA Corpus Christi. If all goes well he could be in Houston with the next 10 days.

[eagle eye]

Lucas Harrell was what I remember him to be--a mediocre pitcher. He lasted just 3.2 innings and the rest of his stat line was a matter of 5's. 5 hits, 5 walks and 5 K's. Houston had Harrell on the ropes in the bottom of the first loading the bases and they only managed one run and that came as a result of one of Harrell's walks. AJ Reed struck out to end that threat. Houston again loaded the bases in the 3rd and again Houston choked this time Jake Marisnick was the last out on a routine ground ball to 3B. The only other excitement came in the bottom of the seventh when, with one out in the inning, home plate ump Alan Porter rung up Jose Altuve and Jose took exception to the call and got himself tossed. You don't see Altuve argue balls and strikes but this is the second time he's challenged an ump because of a bad call. BTW, he was right, the ump blew the call but it didn't matter as Porter gave Altuve the old heave ho. BTW, Houston lost to Texas 3-2 in what was another disappointing display of poor offense.

 

http://m.mlb.com/hou/video/v1019046083/texhou-altuve-gets-ejected-after-arguing-strikeout/?tcid=mm_hou_vid&c_id=hou

 

The Astros made some huge defensive plays with George Springer throwing out Reuben Mazara at home after a single to right by Shin Soo Choo in the fourth inning----

 

http://m.mlb.com/hou/video/v1019748283/texhou-springer-throws-234-feet-to-nab-mazara/?tcid=mm_hou_vid&c_id=hou

 

And a double into the left-center gap by Redneck OH-der that resulted in a perfect relay from Jake Marisnick to Carlos Correa to Jason Castro to nail Carlos Beltran at home in the 7th inning. Honestly, if not for some good defense Houston would have been blown out by the Rangers. Doug Fister went six and didn't allow a run but he got some good defensive help to bail him out of some jams.

 

http://m.mlb.com/hou/video/v1019010783/texhou-astros-perfect-relay-nabs-beltran-at-home/?tcid=mm_hou_vid&c_id=hou

 

Recently the balls and strikes that have been called have been particularly egregious and baseball could save themselves a lot of crap if they would just turn to the technology to call the pitches. Virtually all baseball broadcasts have the strike zone box that shows where the ball is in relation to the strike zone. People argue that they don't want to take the "human element" out of baseball. To that I say hogwash. (Secretly I am saying things much more rooted in four letter words) Why wouldn't you want to get the calls right? You know umps are human and if a batter or a pitcher or a team pisses him off he's going to screw them over. We've all seen it time and again and the shame is it can be addressed ---- easy. I can't see a game turning on an ump who is willing to call strikes 3 inches off the black or won't call the high strike. Want to shorten games? Stop depending a flawed system of calling balls and strikes. Hitting a baseball is hard enough without having to protect against pitches outside the strike zone. By contrast, you need to reward a pitcher for making a great pitch instead of frustrating him with a too-tight strike zone. Want to stop arguments and avoid ejections over these bad calls, use the technology to call balls and strikes. You still need the home plate ump to make the calls the technology makes and to call the plays at the plate. It hasn't hurt the game one bit to use replay to make sure of calls and it will only make baseball better to call pitches with an unbiased eye on the play.

 

Last night Houston got some production from Alex Bregman at last. He went 3-5 with a run scored and his first big league RBI when he plated George Springer with a hit in the 9th. Preston Tucker also had a nice game going 2-3 with an RBI. His RBI was a bases loaded walk in the 1st inning. Houston had nine hits in the game along with 5 walks but unfortunately the hits didn't come in bunches like they did on Friday night and the Astros didn't get a hit when it counted. The Astros blew what was a totally favorable pitching matchup with Fister against Harrell but they failed to take advantage of the situation.

 

Today Houston sends Joe Musgrove to the mound for his first big league start. His first big league appearance was this past Monday night when he pitched 4-1/3 perfect innings in relief in the 14 inning win over Toronto. That appearance was the impetus for giving Musgrove this start. The Rangers will send Yu Darvish (2-3, 3.29 ERA) to the mound. On paper it's advantage Texas but baseball is a funny sport and you just never know what is going to happen.

 

The loss drops Houston back to 6.5 games behind Texas and Seattle beat the Angels as well closing the gap between them and Houston back to 1-1/2 games. Houston needs to win today. They NEED to win today. There is really is no room for error now if Houston has any post season hopes. It's a week into August and there is only 7 weeks or so left in the season and I don't want to give up the season and concentrate on the Texans and Cowboys just yet.

[eagle eye]

I generally recap the past week on Mondays but I'm taking this a little further to illustrate a point. What's the point? That the Astros are a bunch of choking dogs who probably just mediocred their post season hopes down the drain. Or more appropriately, down the toilet because their offensive output has been pure doo-doo. The Astros have wasted pretty darn good pitching performances, disrespected some good, maybe even great, defense with the worst ever offense. The time frame I'm talking about is the last ten games that would include being swept in 3 by Detroit and losing 3 of 4 to Toronto and finally losing 2 of 3 to Texas. The Astros came into these ten games with an opportunity to take control of the Wild Card race as Detroit and Toronto are the big players in that race and they also could have made up ground on a struggling Rangers team in the division. What they actually did was go 2-8 in those games and they came out farther behind Detroit and Toronto in the Wild Card and they actually lost another game to the Rangers as they now stand 7.5 games back of the craphole Rangers. What's even more irking is the 2 games Houston lost to the Rangers was because of the players Texas picked up at the trade deadline. C Jonathan Lucroy and OF Carlos Beltran slapped the Astros around like the helpless curs they are. Even Lucas Harrell did damage to Houston in just 3.2 innings where he gave up 5 hits and 5 walks but he bailed himself out of trouble because the sorry assed offense couldn't take advantage of Harrell's ineptitude getting but one run despite having the bases loaded in two different innings. Good grief, the Astros scored their lone run of the game on gosh darn walk! AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH! For all intents and purposes I don't see any way in hades Houston can climb out of the hole they dug in the last ten games. Everything was right there for the taking and they flat just choked. I'm not giving the other teams credit because when you are a contender you don't care who pitches or who hits because winners find a way to win. The 2016 Astros are not winners. I hate to give up on them but they lack guts and this team is NOT clutch. Guys you depend on like George Springer and Carlos Correa have failed time and again. Even Jose Altuve has only been so-so. Colby Rasmus tried to play through having an inner ear cyst that obviously contributed to a 3-68 hitting collapse. Carlos Gomez has either sucked as a hitter or he's been on the DL with one thing or another. The players Houston has brought up from AAA are clearly not ready for big league pitching. Bregman, Tucker, White, Reed are all clearly not-ready-for-prime-time players. To bad. Couple that with yet another sub par year from Jason Castro and under performing gents like Evan Gattis and Jake Marisnick yes, even Springer continue to show how easy it is to strike out in the bigs. I am sick to death of being frustrated by this team. I'll keep watching but my attitude is along the lines of Randy Quaid in Major League 2. I just need some black tape to make an X on my shirt and turn my Astros cap inside out and verbally abuse my own team. There. Got it. Now I'm ready to handle the disappointment of the rest of the season because there just isn't a Wild Thing to come in and strike out Parkman and save the day. Crap.

 

Next up is seven road games, 4 against the Twins and 3 against the Blue Jays. Maybe Houston needs a road trip but it didn't help much in Detroit 10 days ago. Houston sucks. Collin McHugh is going suck against the Twins tonight while the offense will likely struggle against yet another mediocre pitcher in Tyler Duffey (6-8, 6.21 ERA). Duffey will look like Cy Young tonight as he will allow the Astros obligatory 1 run. Houston will lose by a score of 8-1, I just feel it in my bones. Thank God the Olympics are on.

Edited August 8, 2016 by eagle eye

[eagle eye]

I was wrong, the game ended 3-1 instead of 8-1. Big deal. One stinking run against a staff that allows around 7 runs per 9 innings. For 6 innings Collin McHugh was lights out. Well, not lights out, he did allow 10 hits but he threw 6 innings of shutout baseball. Trouble was he pitched for 7 innings and in a 3 run 5th he ran out of luck and his defense, mainly Carlos Gomez bent the dog over and viciously screwed the pooch. (In the video linked below please replace "Wild Thing" with "Gomez".)

 

 

 

Tonight's matchup is even more favorable than last night's but it won't matter. Mike Fiers (7-5, 4.34 ERA) goes against Minnesota's Hector Santiago (0-1, 7.20 ERA). How much do you want to bet the final score will be Minnesota some crooked number and the Astros 1? No takers? I thought so.

 

BTW the Rangers came back in the 9th against Colorado last night scoring 3 runs to steal the game away from the Rox by a score of 4-3 extending their lead on Houston to 8.5 games. To make matters worse Seattle has now won 4 straight and they are in 2nd place ahead of Houston by 1.5 games. This just keeps getting better and better. If Houston doesn't fire their hitting coach after this season I will be starting a petition to have him deposed or spike his coffee with alpha-lax and force him to retire. You can now refer to Houston as the THIRD PLACE Astros. Pray it doesn't get worse. I thought beating their 2015 win total of 86 game was a no-brainer. The way it's going they will be luck to win 66 games (they currently stand at 57 wins).

[eagle eye]

Houston squeaked out a win last night beating Minnesota 7-5. Despite the best efforts to the contrary by Mike Fiers the Astros finally scored more than one run. There are probably a couple of starters in the Astros rotation that are pissed because they pitched well, I'm talking about Collin McHugh and Doug Fister, but got no run support. Fiers, on the other hand seemed to be trying like hell to hand the lead back to the Twins. On the radio broadcast Steve Sparks and Robert Ford noted after the game that Fiers did a good job limiting the damage to just 4 runs allowed, 3 on back-to-back homers in the 5th, especially since Fiers allowed the leadoff man in 4 of the 5 innings he pitched on base. What they were basically saying in a polite way was that Fiers sucked and was lucky things weren't worse than they eventually were. So we beat the worst team in baseball--barely. Great. Now, what are the Astros going to do?

 

 

Tonight it's Dallas Keuchel coming off a truly dominating complete game shutout of the Rangers last Friday night. Never mind his record or ERA which are both way out of whack he will be looking to repeat that performance tonight. Minnesota will send Ervin Santana to face Houston. His last outing was a win over Tampa last Friday in which he pitched 6.1 innings giving up 6 hits and no walks allowing just 2 runs with 8 K's.

 

I would have been a lot happier with the win last night had either the Rangers or Mariners lost but the didn't so nothing changed. If you look on the bright side you could say things didn't get worse. Sounds pretty lame though.

[eagle eye]

I've been touting Jose Altuve's greatness all season but this article takes that praise and raises it to new heights. It comes from Bleacher Report and is written by Jacob Shafer and, as far as it goes, I agree whole heartedly with everything the man has written.

 

 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2656718-jose-altuves-career-year-makes-2016-al-mvp-award-his-to-lose

[eagle eye]

Every single team in the AL West won last night except Houston. It's not a bad as I made that sound because the Astros game with the Twins was rained out after just two innings. Good thing too because the Astros Suuuuuuuucccccccckkkkkkkkkkked. After tossing a complete game shutout of the Rangers last Friday last night was going to be the polar opposite. The first batter the Twins sent to the plate in the bottom of the 1st jacked it out of the stadium. BAM, 1 zip. Keuchel retired the next 3 batters but in the bottom of the 2nd everything went to hell in a handbasket. The leadoff man reached 1st when Alex Bregman, playing 3B fielded a grounder and promptly chucked the ball into the Twins dugout. BAM, man on 2nd and nobody out. There was also an error in the inning by Carlos Correa on what should have been a double play ball that resulted in no outs and the bases loaded. All told between the errors and the base hits off Keuchel Minnesota scored 4 runs in the inning giving them a 5-0 lead after 2. The good Lord must have felt sorry for the poor Astros because at that point a torrential rain burst out of the Minnesota sky that mercifully ended the game. What it is is a big do-over. All the stats from the game are scratched and it ends up being no harm, no foul. Keuchel is relieved. AJ Hinch is relieved. Astros fans are relieved. The only ones with any heartburn over this is the Twins and their fans. To them it's a big fat old dammit. The Astros and Twins will play a double header today with the early game starting at 12:10 PM and the nightcap beginning at 6:10 PM. Doug Fister (10-7, 3.47 ERA) will start the early game while Minnesota counters with Jose Berrios (2-2, 8.31 ERA) and Chris Devenski (0-4, 2.51 ERA) and the Twins will send Tommy Milone (3-3, 5.23 ERA).

 

Now that he's gone and no longer available for me and other Astros fans to kick around I kind of miss Carlos Gomez. That's right, Gomez was optioned for assignment last night after roughly one year with the Astros. Gomez and Mike Fiers came to Houston in a deal at the trade deadline last summer but Gomez never really fulfilled the Astros hopes for an All Star caliber center fielder. The final straw for the Astros probably came on Monday night when 2 errors by him cost the Astros 3 runs in a 3 run 5th inning in a game Houston lost 3-1. Not mention the yet another oh-fer performance at the plate. To his credit when Gomez faced the media after the move was announced he was a man about it. He said he understood that the Astros had expectation for him when they signed him last summer and he didn't deliver. He apologized to the team and the fans of Houston and expressed regret that he could play as well as he would have liked and helped the team win games. Okay, so Gomez isn't a total douche.

 

Houston is allowed to have a 26th player on the roster today for the double header according to MLB rules so Houston is bringing up Kevin Chapman from AAA. Another interesting fact is that when Houston brought up P Jandel Gustave that gave them 9 rookies on the 25 man roster. This second only to Oakland's 10 rooks. In case you didn't know them here is the list.

 

1. P - Jandel Gustave - Probably will be sent back to AAA after Luke Gregerson comes off the DL.

2. P - Chris Devenski - Despite his 0-4 record his 2.51 ERA is really nice and his record should be better but the offense doesn't give anyone any run support.

3. P - James Hoyt - If Gustave doesn't go down when Gregerson returns it will be Hoyt.

4. P - Joe Musgrove - The guy has made 2 appearances, one in long relieve and one start that should have been a win. His 0-0 record isn't a big deal but his 0.79 ERA is.

5. P - Michael Feliz - Only appeared in 5 games last year so he is still considered a rookie. Up and down year so far but he's going to be good.

6. SS/3B - Alex Bregman - A really good fielder who has struggled at the plate since his call up. Things are looking up as he's hit in 4 straight games and 5 of his last 6.

7. 1B - AJ Reed - One of Houston's top prospects has struggled hitting the ball at the big league level. He's in his second stint with the big club.

8. 1B/3B - Tyler White - Another guy who is in his 2nd try in the bigs this year. After a really hot first week of the season he's fallen off a cliff. Big league pitching is killing these rooks.

9. OF/2B - Tony Kemp - The third position player in his 2nd time up in the bigs. Kemp is the most consistent hitter among the rooks. He's hitting .269 in his 25 games as a big leaguer.

 

To me the best of the rooks are Devenski, Musgrove and Kemp based strictly on performance with a suddenly surging Alex Bregman right there too. White and Reed have to be big disappointments so far. One guy who isn't disappointing lately is Jake Marisnick. He's always been awesome on defense and he's got a cannon for an arm as evidenced by his assist all the way from mid center field to home on a line with a one hop to nail a runner at the plate on Sunday night against the Rangers. What you may be surprised at, I know I was, is that Jake is hitting a very healthy .286 in his last 30 days. His .225 BA is a darn site better than his season low of .048 back on May 12.

 

Is anybody beside me frustrated with the Astros catching situation? Jason Castro is a decent fielding catcher but he can't hit his ass with either hand. It's pretty clear the .276 he hit in 2013 when he made the All Star team was an anomaly. He's hitting just .206 and it doesn't look like he's getting any better. Castro will be a free agent next year and I'd let him go and let Evan Gattis be the starter. He's pretty good defensively and he's a way better hitter than Castro. I wish Houston had gotten Jonathan Lucroy instead of the blasted Rangers. Have I ever mentioned that I hate the Rangers? I'm sure I did. Maybe if Lucroy is a free agent at the end of the season Houston can go after him.

 

It's hard to believe there are only 49 more games left in the regular season.

 

 

8.