eagle eye Posted August 12, 2016 Author Posted August 12, 2016 Houston swept the double header in Minnesota yesterday. They didn't just win they embarrassed the Twins. The Astros banged out a season high 19 hits and scored 12 runs in the opening game and backed that up with 16 hits and ten runs in the nightcap. Doug Fister got the win in the afternoon game despite allowing 8 hits and 5 runs in his 7 + innings of work. Two of those runs should go to Tony Sipp who came in a sucked allowing 2 runs to score. Relievers are supposed to stop the bleeding not slow it down but Sipp is going through a phase where he pretty much sucks. In the 2nd game Chris Devenski was as good as the offense. He went 5 innings and he could have gone more since he only threw 71 pitches allowing just 2 hits and no runs with no walks and 5 K's. By the time Devenski finished off the Twins in the 5th inning he had a 9 run lead and I'm sure it was in AJ Hinch's mind that Devenski had a great outing and there was no need to push him deeper. The blowout also allow Hinch to get two of his newest pitchers some work. Just called up Kevin Chapman pitched 1.1 innings allowing 5 hits and 2 runs. He didn't walk anyone and he recorded a strikeout before being pulled for newcomer John Hoyt who finished off the 7th for Chapman and he also took care of the 8th inning as well. Hoyt didn't allow a run in his 1.2 innings giving up just 2 hits with no walks and 2 K's. The funny thing here is about 2 weeks ago after his 2nd blown save in 3 games Will Harris was taken out of the closer's role in favor of Ken Giles. Now Giles is the guy who everyone expected to claim the closer's role after Houston traded for him in the offseason. Giles struggled for the first two months of the season and did spot duty as a middle reliever. In May he started picking up his game and in June and July he was pretty much money. After Harris' final blown save got him demoted it was finally time for Giles to get his shot at the job he was signed to do. The funny part of the story is since he was named the closer he has not had one single save opportunity. That's how bad Houston has been the past couple of weeks. Yesterday's 2nd game was long enough for AJ Hinch to allow his newest closer to sit without any work so he sent Giles into the game in the 9th and he responded with a perfect 1-2-3 frame in which he got a flyout, a groundout and a K to seal the victory. This version of the Twins isn't very good and they shouldn't have even won the one game of the 4 Houston played with them. I'm going to say Houston is off and running now because of the 22 runs and 35 hits they got in yesterday's action. Houston goes to Toronto who beat the Astros in their series last week 3 games to 1. If, and I mean a humongous IF, Houston is going to get back into this playoff race they need to start beating teams again. Bottom line, they can't just spank around a bad team and go back to sucking against contenders. It's crunch time and as yet Houston has been more crumble than crunch. Houston begins their series in Toronto tonight sending Joe Musgrove to the hill with his 0-0, 0.79 ERA in two appearances up against Francisco Liriano (6-11, 5.34 ERA). Musgrove has been absolutely terrific in his first two opportunities and Houston needs him to continue to be terrific. The good thing is he is one of the few rookies on the Astros who is taking full advantage of this opportunity. There may be a guy or two in the Astros rotation who are seeing the guy who put them out of a job if he keeps up his stellar work. The Astros finally won a game on the same day the Rangers lost. Will wonders never cease? Another wonder is Houston actually made up a full game with its two wins yesterday on idle Seattle so Houston is now 6.5 back of Texas and just one game behind the Mariners. The Astros need to keep winning and maybe good things will happen. In the Wild Card Baltimore holds the #1 WC spot with Boston holding the other. Detroit is 1/2 game back of Boston and Seattle is a game out. Houston is 3rd in the trailing group 2 games out. The Wild Card is more realistic for Houston to shoot for at this point but I'll settle for a win tonight. Taking it day by day and, make no mistake, I don't have much hope for Houston. I'm still in Randy Quaid mode but there is still a little light shining in the tunnel. It's being said that Yulieski Gurriel will be joining the Astros as soon as next week when they come back to the Juice Box for 2 games against the St Louis Cardinals. Gurriel is going through what amounts to his own personal spring training and he's looking like he will debut next Tuesday. AJ Hinch has said that Gurriel will play 3B, which is where he has been playing in the minors so far. The overall play was to have Alex Bregman concentrate playing in left field but the injury to Luis Valbuena made it necessary to play Bregman at 3B. Bregman has had one game where he played in left since he was called up. The encouraging thing is that Bregman seems to be coming out of the slump he began the day of his call up to the big club. He now has a six game hitting streak and he's hit safely in 7 of his last 8 games. His current .156 BA is testament to just how bad he was in his first 10 games he was 2-39 at the plate. It took him 6 games before he got his first hit and before he even had a batting average. He has had just one multi-hit game that was last Saturday against the Rangers when he went 3-5. He needs to string together more of those before anyone can say the 2nd pick in the 2015 draft has arrived. C'mon Preston Tucker, stop messing around and hit the damn ball, okay Tiger? Quote
eagle eye Posted August 15, 2016 Author Posted August 15, 2016 Isn't that what these Astros in 2016 do? They give you hope than yank the rug out from under your feet. After lambasting the Twins and taking the opener against Toronto they go right back into the dumpster. I am full on Randy Quaid here in my disgust of this team. First, the front office does nothing to make this team better at the trade deadline then they get beat in a series against the Rangers by guys the Rangers acquired at the trade deadline. That's the first kick in the gonads. Then they go on a, what's worse than a slump, oh yeah, they sucked for two weeks. 2nd kick in 'nads. They they seemed to get well against the Twins with Mother Nature intervening in what would have been a blowout saving the Astros from the humiliation of losing a series to the lowly Twins and the subsequent ass-kicking they put on the Twin Cities boys in a double header on Thursday. The Astros rode the momentum of that and beat the Blue Jays in the opening game of their weekend series then came the final kick in the groin. The Astros sucked all weekend. They couldn't hit, they didn't pitch well, they got caught stealing bases and Marwin Gonzalez was hit by a pitch that will have him out of the lineup for goodness knows how long. I don't know about y'all but my testicles have had about all they can stand. If you look at the week they went 4-4 which, on the surface, doesn't look bad but when the Rangers lose to Detroit and you fail to take advantage of that it smells worse than a fart in a sauna. I'm done wasting my time rooting for this team this season. How can you expect to make a move when you do nothing to improve your team. I'm sure Jeff Luhnow figured the signing of Yulieski Gurriel was their trade deadline move but he hasn't played in inning for the Astros yet. He is supposed to beginning tonight but I'm afraid it's too little too late. How can Houston expect to keep pace in the playoff race when all AJ Hinch has to work with is an under achieving group of veterans and 10 rookies? Injuries have hurt and players not performing like they should is killing the Astros. I blame the from office for putting them in this situation, I blame the "veterans" (most of THOSE guys have a max of 3-4 years of experience) for not playing up their potential and I blame the world's worst hitting coach. I hate that guy. I don't even know the man but what he's sending to the plate every day and their piss poor results is all I need to know about this loser. People, do you feel my pain? So, we end the week just where we started, 8 game behind 1st place Texas and 1-1/2 games behind 2nd place Seattle. We are a mediocre team with a mediocre record with, apparently, mediocre prospects trying to play before their time. I hate this crap. We were supposed to have a team that was on the rise, not a so-so team who constantly shoots itself in the foot. Pull out the tarps, cover the field, bring on the bulldozers and turn the Juice Box into a parking lot. Quote
eagle eye Posted August 17, 2016 Author Posted August 17, 2016 In my pissed off frame of mind I failed to mention that the Astros best player, Jose Altuve, reached a milestone of 1,000 hits. He has done it the 2nd fastest of all active players in baseball and the fastest Astro to reach 1K. He did it in 786 games besting the previous record holder Cesar Cedeno who did it in 889 games. It is fitting that he got his final 3 hits to reach 1K in the same game notching yet another multi-hit game of the season. It was the biggest highlight of the night for the Astros as they fell to the Cardinals 8-5 in the opening game of their 2 game series. Altuve's excellence is unquestioned and it's a shame his performance is being wasted on this incredibly inept team. My previous "stick and a fork in 'em" post referenced the continued futility of the team as Dallas Keuchel had his 2nd consecutive poor outing. It didn't help one bit that Pat Neshak and allowed 3 more runs to score giving the Cards an 8-4 lead in the 6th inning. One of those runs was credited to Kuechel but it was Neshak you smelled stinking up the place. Back to Altuve, he increased his major league leading total of 167 hits to 170 meaning he's just 30 hits shy of reaching his 3rd consecutive 200 hit season which is also a team record. Altuve continues to build on his career high of 66 RBI's set last season. He currently has 74 ribbies on the season. He is also on the verge of a series of 200's. He will soon reach 200 in career stolen bases (195), he is 6 doubles shy of 200 (194) and he is 4 walks away from 200 (196). This season a slight adjustment at the plate going into the season has resulted in far fewer strikeouts as his total K's (50) is dead even with his total walks (50) which is nearly unheard of for a player over a full season. Not only that but he is one dinger shy of reaching a career best 20 HR's on the season. Unreal for a guy who stands just 5'5" and weighs less than 170 lbs. I think Altuve should become the Astros hitting coach. It is not unheard of for a player to also be a coach and nobody can deny the success he's having. Reaching 1K hits at only 26 years of age is almost a humbling thought with at least 6 or 7 prime years of his career still ahead of him. Every single season he improves his hitting. He took a bit of a tumble last season from Batting Title season of 2014 from .341 to .313 but he was still 3rd in the AL in hitting in 2015. This year he's raised his game even higher as it's mid August and he's hitting a league best .365 on a team with virtually no protection for him in the lineup. Consider this, his OBP of .429 and his slugging % of .573 leads the AL with his OPS of 1.002 2nd best behind Boston's David Ortiz' 1.028 and Ortiz is hurt and not playing right now. I know this is like the umpteenth time I've gone on about Altuve's greatness but doesn't he deserve it? Damn right he does. Alex Bregman is getting better at the plate. He started so slowly that despite multi-hit games in 3 of his last ten games he's still batting just .183 on the season. He's even hit safely in 9 of his last ten and 11 of his last 12 games. THAT is how badly he began his MLB career at the plate. He did get one of those multi-hit games last night going 2-5 and he got his first big league home run in the 1st inning. It was a 2-run shot scoring George Springer who led off the game by being hit by a pitch by Cardinals starter Jaime Garcia. Both Dallas Keuchel and Garcia both sort of sucked last night it's just that Garcia sucked a little less and he got help from his bullpen where Keuchel didn't. Houston lost despite getting 3 homers on the game from Bregman, Marwin Gonzalez and Jason Castro. Both Gonzalez and Castro's homers were solo shots While the Cards got only 2 dingers on the night but one was a 2 run shot and the other a 3 run blast. That right there would have beaten Houston 5-4 but the Cardinals worked 3 more runs in the game for the final 8-5 score. Doug Fister goes against St Louis' Carlos Martinez in a game that is currently in progress. It's the bottom of the 1st with a 0-0 score. Quote
eagle eye Posted August 18, 2016 Author Posted August 18, 2016 Alex Bregman had his 2nd multi-hit game in a row but it wasn't nearly enough as 6 hitters in the Astros lineup failed to get a hit in an 8-2 thumping by the St Louis Cardinals who completed the two game series sweep of the Astros yesterday afternoon. Everybody sucked yesterday from the starting pitching to the bullpen to the offense. Only the defense seemed to have showed up for the Astros. How pathetic is it that the most interesting thing about an Astros game is whether or not Alex Bregman gets his batting average above the Mendoza line. In this case he didn't but he's close after going 2-4 on the day he is sitting at .198. Yay. The Astros have a huge need for players who can actually hit the baseball and as yet Luis Valbuena, Colby Rasmus and newcomer Yulieski Gurriel have not been seen at the Juice Box even though it appears they will all be there soon. Stick a fork in 'em---they are done. Quote
eagle eye Posted August 19, 2016 Author Posted August 19, 2016 Houston is on their "Getting Their Asses Kicked" tour in Baltimore for four games. The first of those 4 was last night as the O's hit a total of 6 home runs on the way to a 13-5 drubbing of the Astros. It was yet another lesson in ineptitude at the plate for Houston. Oh, they did get two homers in the game, one by Alex Bregman who is now officially sitting right on top of the Mendoza line with a .200 BA and AJ Reed hit a 2 run round tripper in the 3rd inning. Joe Musgrove, after 3 really excellent outings to begin his big league career, was taken to the woodshed and the Orioles paddled his behind but good. He gave up 8 runs on 11 hits, a walk and two K's. Three of the hits were HRs. The one thing that kept Houston in any sort of contention during the multiple slumps this offense has slid into this season has been the starting pitching and bullpen that kept them close. In the last two weeks the pitching has been a bad as the offense and that's saying something. It's over boys. The Astros are just jockeying for draft position now. Houston is now 61-60 on the year and I don't expect they will end the season above .500. In fact I seriously doubt they will even get to 70 wins by season's end. This team sucks right now and I see no end in sight. Thank God football is cranking up. The Olympics haven't been very interesting to me, not even the Ryan Lochte alleged robbery which is looking like a hoax. Lochte and a fellow swim team member James Feigen are being recommended for indictment by the Rio authorities for filing a false report. Lochte is sticking with his story that he and his fellow teammates were forced out of their cab at gunpoint and robbed. The USOC apologized to the Brazilian authorites saying they don't condone the actions of 4 of the US athletes. Bleacher Report said we may never know the real story behind the incident and isn't it a shame the most memorable moment of the games was this affair? Quote
eagle eye Posted August 20, 2016 Author Posted August 20, 2016 (edited) Okay, let's not go bat-crap crazy here. We've seen this before. The Astros explode for a lot of hits and runs and they might ride the momentum from that for a game or two but then they slide right back into the dumpster to smolder and burn until the season comes to a halt at the end of September. Houston looked like they were going to get smoked again in the first inning last night. Springer finally got a hit to lead off a game and that hasn't happened in a while. Prior to last night he was just 2 for 17 since August 13th but last night he led off the game with an opposite field HR to give Houston a 1-0 lead. The Orioles came back with a vengeance in the bottom of the 1st scoring 5 runs on the strength of 4 home runs in the inning. Collin McHugh was the latest starter to suck the big one. He only lasted 3 innings giving up 7 runs, 6 earned on 9 hits, including all four homers in the first inning, with a walk and 4 K's. Thank goodness for Chris Devenski who is arguably the best long reliever in baseball. He's had success as a starter but when he's really shone is in long relief. Last night he went 4 innings allowing just one run, a solo HR by Pedro Alverez, with a walk and 2 K's. Children, tell Mr Devenski thank you. "Thank you Mr Devenski!" Well done children, now go and play. As good as Devenski was last night the Astros offense was even better. No, really, I'm serious. The Astros pounded out 18 hits including 4 homers of their own spread out over 9 innings. The coup de gras came early in the game in the top of the 2nd. With Baltimore leading 5-1 and probably feeling pretty good about themselves Houston came storming back with 5 runs of their own to retake the lead. The cool thing about their rally was it all came with two outs in the inning. Evan Gattis led off the inning with a single but the O's recorded a pair of K's on Marwin Gonzlez and AJ Reed then the roof caved in on Baltimore starter Wade Miley. Tyler White doubled scoring Gattis. Teoscar Hernandez singled scoring White. George Springer was hit by the pitcher giving the Astros men on 1st and 2nd. Alex Bregman doubled scoring Hernandez leaving Houston with men on 2nd and 3rd. Then, the best hitter in baseball came up and slapped a hit to right down the 1st base line. Once it got past the first baseman it just rolled its merry way into the corner for a two run double for Jose Altuve scoring Springer and Bregman. That was it for Miley and Correa came up and was retired on a grounder to short to end the inning but the Orioles had to be demoralized at this point now trailing 6-5 in only the second inning. Of course McHugh gave up the lead in the 3rd when he allowed 2 runs to give the O's a 7-6 lead but the offense wasn't done on the night. They scored in every inning but the 8th getting 1 run in the 4th, 2 in the 5th, 3 in the 6th, 2 in the 7th and they closed out the scoring with a solo HR by Teoscar Hernandez in the 9th. The final score was Houston 15 and Baltimore 8. The Astros hitters had big nights except Marwin Gonzalez and AJ Reed who failed to get a hit all night. 5 Astros hitters had multi-hit games: George Springer (4-5, 2 RBI's, 3 runs), Alex Bregman (3-5, 2 RBI's, 3 runs), Jose Altuve (3-6, 5 RBI's, 1 run), Evan Gattis (3-4, 1 RBI, 3 runs) and Teoscar Hernandez (3-4, 3 RBI's, 3 runs). As I said, let's not make too much of this game. In all likelihood the Astros might win another game or two off the momentum of this win but they will backslide into suck-dom again and lose 4 or 5 in a row. That's their pattern here lately and I don't expect it to change especially since the starting pitching has been so gawd-awful. It was nice to see the team bounce back and have a game like this but you just know it ain't gonna last. How 'bout them rookies! > Alex Bregman has finally overcome his horrendous start in the bigs to start hitting like he was in the minors. After his 3-5 night his BA is up to a nice .221. Yeah, I know, it's nothing to brag about but considering where he started from this is pretty good stuff. In his last 7 games Bregman is hitting .355 and in his last 13 games he's only failed to hit safely in one of them. Not freaking bad at all. > Teoscar Hernandez hasn't had to overcome a new guy slump. He's been hitting since he was called up August 12th when he started his career with a 2-4 night including his first big league HR against Toronto. In the six games he's batted in since his call up he has hit safely in four of them and had multi-hit games in 2 of those four. He's also played a nice center field. He got his second career HR in the 9th inning last night to complete the scoring for Houston in the game. There are guys who are clearly on the bubble or just not ready for the bigs yet. Tyler White is a guy you kind of root for but he's clearly not ready for prime time. In his last 30 games he's hitting only .168 and that isn't going to cut it. Another guy you like and root for is AJ Reed but he's just struggled in both his appearances with Astros this season. It is encouraging that he is hitting .286 in his last seven games and I would take that for sure if that's what he is. I would like to see more power from him than we've seen but I'll take the BA until he gets his confidence up. We just need to have players who aren't an easy out when the go up to the plate. Most of the time it looks like we have a bunch of pitchers in the lineup every night. Bregman and Hernandez look pretty solid right now but it's early yet. Tyler White was the AL Player of the Week way back in April but it hasn't been pretty since so, we need to tap the breaks on these guys a little until we see how they do the rest of the season. But, at least it's encouraging. P James Hoyt was optioned back to Fresno after Thursday's game and Brad Peacock was brought up. The reason given was the bullpen needed a fresh arm because there hasn't been a starter last a full 5 innings for a while now. The truth is Hoyt stunk. He just wasn't ready for the bright lights yet. He may be in the future and this stint in the bigs will give him direction on what he needs to work on back in AAA but Hoyt is one the few pitchers who really had no success in Houston. I have no doubt he'll be back and better for this experience. As for Peacock, he's never really showed me what all the fuss was about. I was mad when Houston traded Jarred Cosart to Miami and kept Peacock a few years ago because I didn't see any bang for that buck but in retrospect Cosart wasn't all that in Miami either. Cosart is now with the Padres and he's 0-1 in seven starts for the Pods so, I guess I'll try to keep and open mind about Mr Peacock for the time being. Peacock did pitch a hitless, scoreless 9th for Houston last night so that's a good start. The only thing that would be better is if Peacock was a lefty because with Tony Sipp struggling lately the Astros need another southpaw in the BP. Ken Giles was named the Astros new closer on August 3rd--two and a half weeks ago--and to date--he has had only 5 appearances and he has had just one save opportunity which he converted on August 9th against Minnesota. BTW the Astros still suck and their winning steak might end at one game as they face Baltimore's Chris Tillman who's 15-4 on the season. His 15 wins is 3rd best in the American League behind #1 JA Happ of Tornonto and #2 Rick Procello of Boston who each have 17 wins on the season. Mike Fiers takes his 8-6 record to the hill tonight but with the futility of the 'Stros starting pitching lately and the success of Tillman so far this one game winning streak may be over. BTW, can you believe JA Happ is leading the AL in wins? JA HAPP??????? Edited August 20, 2016 by eagle eye Quote
eagle eye Posted August 21, 2016 Author Posted August 21, 2016 The Astros won big again last night beating the Orioles 12-2. What has gotten into the Astros is puzzling because if they can produce offense like this why do they go such long stretches when they can't? It's a confounding problem that probably will never be answered. Houston finally got a starter to pitch more than 3 innings. Mike Fiers did a great job going 7 strong innings allowing just one run allowing just 5 hits and a walk with 7 K's. Brad Peacock got his second appearance since being called up and he gave up a run on one hit, a homer by Steve Pearce who was in the game for Manny Machado who was spared further humiliation in another blowout loss to Houston. Giving up a homer isn't a big deal when you lead 10-1 but you don't want to see that if it's just a 2-1 lead. Tighten it up Brad. Tony Sipp pitched a scoreless 9th allowing one hit. It's the best outing for Sipp in a while and it was good to see him not give up runs for a change. Today the finale of the 4 game series with Baltimore concludes with Dallas Keuchel trying to turn around recent poor, no piss poor outings. He was spared a loss in one of those outings when the game he began against Minnesota was officially rained out. In his last outing he wasn't so lucky. Against St Louis last Tuesday he went 5 innings giving up 6 runs on 6 hits and a walk. The damage might have been worse had Keuchel not recorded 7 K's in the game. He will hopefully take a cue from Mike Fiers outing last night. Lord knows the team and the bullpen need him to tighten himself back up. Today will mark the debut of Cuban star Yulieski Gurriel. The Astros signed him as a free agent way back on July 16th and he's had to acquire a work visa to play in the US and he's made a 15 game march up the Astros farm system from Rookie league Gulf Coast Astros to AAA Fresno. He hasn't been all that impressive in AA or AAA but he's been pretty limited in appearances in both places. Gurriel has had a fairly whirlwind spring training and Houston deemed him ready for the big time. He will be the Astros DH today with Alex Bregman playing 3rd base but in the long haul Bregman will likely have to move to left field. We will see if Gurriel ruins the mojo of the last two games or if the Astros can find some sort of consistency with Bregman and Teoscar Hernandez finally showing that a rookie can play in the bigs if he's ready. It actually took Bregman a while to show he was up to the task and Hernandez' has too small a sample size to determine one way or the other but signs look favorable. Speaking of ready for prime time Tyler White has had two different chances to prove himself at the big league level and he's pretty much failed both tests. He was the one Houston chose to option back to Fresno to make room for Gurriel. It's almost game time and it's about to rain---looks like nap time for me! Quote
eagle eye Posted August 22, 2016 Author Posted August 22, 2016 The Astros won their first series in goodness knows how long. It was an ordeal as the game was delayed over 4 hours as it seems that the Golden Triangle isn't the only place in the country that is having crap for weather. Even after they started they had to stop because another rain shower halted play for about 30 minutes after the 1st inning was complete. Despite all the delays two veteran pitchers answered the bell for their respective team. Baltimore's Yovani Gallardo went 7 innings allowing just 3 runs on 7 hits, 3 walks and 3 K's. Not a bad outing and numbers like that will win you a lot of games but Dallas Keuchel was just a little bit better. It was a glimpse of the 2015 Keuchel who went 8 innings allowing just 2 runs on 5 hits, a walk with 7 K's. Keuchel had what both he and AJ Hinch said was the best command of his pitches than he's had all season. The Astros got a run in the 4th to open the scoring on a single by AJ Reed scoring Carlos Correa. The O's answered in the bottom of the inning on a home run by 2B Jonathan Schoop. The Astros broke the game open in the 5th that began with a fielding error by 3B Manny Machado that allow Teoscar Hernandez reach base. George Springer followed with a single and after an Alex Bregman K Jose Altuve singled home Hernandez and Carlos Correa completed the scoring for Houston with a 2 run double to make the score 4-1. The way that Keuchel was pitching that was plenty of run support for the day. The Orioles came back in the bottom of the inning to score a run to tighten the score up to 4-2 but it was all Keuchel through the 8th inning. In the top of the ninth AJ Hinch replaced Teoscar Hernandez with Jake Marisnick in what was supposed to be a defensive substitution but Big Jake rewarded Hinch with a solo homer to make the score 5-2. Ken Giles came on in the bottom of the 9th for just his second save opportunity since being named the closer what seems like a month ago but it was a couple of days shy of 3 weeks. Giles got the save but it wasn't without some trouble. Mark Trumbo homered on an 0-2 pitch with one out to make the score 5-3. Then after a really nice play at 3B by Alex Bregman to get the 2nd out Giles had one man left to get the save. Chris Davis came up and hit what should have been a routine grounder to 1st but Marwin Gonzalez played patty-cake with the ball and a heads up play by Altuve saved the out. Giles was right on in covering first base and the Astros got the out but not before a replay challenge showed Houston had made the play by a nano-inch. Final score Houston 5 Baltimore 3. Houston beat a contending team on the road in a series they had to win. The road is still uphill all the way but if they had lost this series that would have been throwing dirt on the Astros playoff grave. There's a glimmer of hope now but it's pretty doggone thin. For the week Houston was .500 in their games losing two to St Louis and the opener to Baltimore but winning 3 straight against the Orioles was a good deal for the Stros. As we begin the last full week in August let's look at where the Astros stand. They are 8.5 games behind Texas for the division lead. It had been 10.5 but the Rangers lost two to Tampa Bay. Houston is now 2.5 games behind Seattle for 2nd place in the division after the Mariners lost two games over the weekend to Milwaukee. Houston is 3.5 games out in the Wild Card race trailing Baltimore Seattle and Detroit. You can see how big winning this series was for Houston and darned if they didn't come through. The Kool-Aid is still in the pitcher because I'm not drinking the "we're making the playoffs" drink just yet. Houston still has plenty of chances to screw themselves out of the postseason. This week they play 3 against Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh and they come back home after a day off to begin a weekend series against Tampa Bay. Pittsburgh is still in the playoff hunt so the series with them won't be any cake walk. Appreciate that Houston won and now they are back to 4 games over .500 because with this schitzo team it could all go away in a flash. Yulieski Gurriel made his Astros debut yesterday as the DH. He went 1-2 with a walk before having to leave the game early when he tweaked his right hamstring running to first. He and the team say it isn't anything to sweat and he should be in the lineup tonight in Pittsburgh but I'll believe that when I see it. Quote
eagle eye Posted August 23, 2016 Author Posted August 23, 2016 Astros over Pittsburgh 3-1 for their 4th win in a row. Doug Fister joined the racks of Houston starters who seem to be getting back on track with their quality starts. Fister went 7 innings allowing zero runs and only 3 hits and a walk with 6 K's. Will Harris pitched a scoreless 8th and Ken Giles got his 3rd save in as many tries. Giles can't seem to help giving up a run when he saves a game. Not a big deal when you lead by 2 or 3 like Houston did last night but the Astros are going to need him shut people down in those 1 run ballgames. It seems Giles has to have drama when he pitches as well. With 2 out in the 9th Gregory Polanco hit a ground rule double followed by David Freese who hit a shot down the 3rd base line. Alex Bregman made a terrific stop but his throw to 1st was wide right and Marwin Gonzalez couldn't handle the hop on the throw allowing it to go by him. Gonzalez got a favorable bounce off the infield wall and he was able to throw out Freese at 2nd base for the 3rd out but not before Polanco scored the Pirates only run. The replay of the final out was just a formality as the ball arrived at 2nd in plenty of time for Jose Altuve to make an easy tag on Freese who was unquestionably out. The rookies in the Astros lineup provided all the run support Doug Fister needed to run his record to 12-8. In the 5th inning of a scoreless ballgame AJ Reed reached first on a walk and Teoscar Hernandez jacked a bomb over the left field wall to give the Astros a 2-0 lead. Alex Bregman got his only hit of the game in the 9th when he also jacked on out over the left field wall for a an insurance run giving the Astros a 3-0 lead. After a couple of good games George Springer went back to his oh-fer schtick. Carlos Correa was oh-fer as well but the guy who is really puzzling is Marwin Gonzalez. Last year he hit .279 hitter and this year he's fallen off a lot. He's currently hitting .245 and he's gone 1-21 in his last 7 games. I hate the Astros hitting coach. Tonight Joe Musgrove tries to join the staff's rebirth of sorts. His last outing was just terrible so I won't give the details of it but he went into the last game against Baltimore with a 1-0 record in 3 appearances that included two starts and he had a 1.47 ERA. When he walked off the mound against the O's he had a 4.18 ERA. Yeah, it was a rough night in Baltimore that saw him give up 4 home runs and 8 total runs. So far Mike Fiers, Dallas Keuchel and Doug Fister have put together quality outings after bad starts. Let's hope Musgrove joins the party. Quote
eagle eye Posted August 24, 2016 Author Posted August 24, 2016 Houston didn't make it 5 wins in a row but that's okay. What the hell, even though all the other contenders keep winning, we can take a loss because the Astros are not going anywhere anyway. Pittsburgh got the better of the Astros winning 7-1. Houston didn't score until the 9th inning when (who else) Jose Altuve doubled in Alex Bregman who doubled ahead of him so at least they got to avoid being shut out. Aldo Nova confounded the Astros for a complete game win for the Pirates. In between innings he wailed on his guitar his only hit "Fantasy" from 1982. Okay, so it wasn't Aldo Nova the skinny white guy from Canada who was briefly famous in the early 80's. It was Ivan Nova the Hispanic man from the Dominican Republic who befuddled the Astros lineup. And he didn't play guitar between innings either but, I'll bet you know that already. How a guy with a 4.55 ERA befuddles anyone is beyond me but Houston did what I've been expecting them to do and that's slide back into yet another offensive slump. The biggest irony of all is the one guy who has been slumping even when the Astros were hot, Marwin Gonzalez, went 3 for 4 on the night. Of course with Altuve on 3rd in the 9th inning he struck out but that was kind of a given wasn't it? The root cause of the loss last night IMO was the failure of P Joe Musgrove to get anyone out in the 1st inning. My phone was lighting up every few seconds with another Pirates hit and another Pirates run scored. The first six batters Musgrove faced to start the game got a hit. After the first six hits and 4 fours allowed Musgrove settled down and retired the next 6 batters. Great, he got to the 3rd inning. It was then Musgrove allowed the Bucs Gregory Polanco to hit a pitch into the Pittsburgh night never to seen again giving the Pirates a 5-0 lead. In the sixth Tony Sipp got to throw batting practice for the Pirates as he allowed Polanco a fat pitch on the outside half that he drove into center field, well actually over the fence in center field, for his 2nd homer of the game. 6 zip at that point. Polanco factored into the Pirates final out as he grounded to 1B AJ Reed with men on 1st and 2nd. Reed began what could have been a 3-5-1 double play but Alex Bregman, who was covering 2nd because Carlos Correa came out of the game and Bregman moved over to SS, threw the ball into the Pirates dugout on the return throw to 1st that allowed Matt Joyce to score from 2nd. Just an all around crap game in what's turning into a crap season. Houston is playing as we speak in a get away game to end the series. Collin McHugh is on the mound for Houston while Pitt counters with Gerrit Cole. Right now in the bottom of the third I was about to say Houston was leading 2-0 but McHugh just gave up a homer to the Pirates Jordy Mercer. Fortunately, it was a solo shot so Houston is still leading 2-1. Houston scored 2 in the top of the 2nd on a 2-run Evan Gattis homer. Well, I guess we've seen the last of Luis Valbuena in a Houston uniform. Instead of returning to the Astros following a hamstring injury a couple of days ago he had a major setback in his rehab and it's bad enough that he needs surgery to repair a tendon in his right hamstring which means he's done for the season and since he's a free agent after the season is over, coupled with the emergence of Alex Bregman and the signing of Yulieski Gurriel, it likely means Valbuena is done as an Astro. Speaking of Gurriel, he strained his hamstring in his first game with Houston last week and he's only made one other appearance since. He's getting better and the Astros are targeting him to DH this Friday when the Astros return to Houston to play Tampa Bay. Game update: Top of the 4th and Houston has Carlos Correa on 2nd after he singled to lead off the inning and he advanced on a ground ball by Evan Gattis who was out at 1st. Marwin Gonzalez tripled to score Correa giving the Astros a 3-1 lead. AJ Reed struck out on 3 pitches. A terrible AB making it likely Gonzalez will be stranded at 3rd. Teoscar Hernandez was intentionally walked to get to Collin McHugh who promptly struck out on 3 pitches. Astros get the run back they gave up in 3rd and lead by 2 again. AJ Reed, for as big a guy as he is, is showing no consistency or power at the plate. When he hits the ball most of the time it's a ground ball on the right side of the infield. This guy was supposed to be a power hitter. He looks powerful as he runs back to the dugout after an AB. I'm out. Quote
eagle eye Posted August 25, 2016 Author Posted August 25, 2016 Houston beat Pittsburgh 5-4 to win the 3 game series 2-1 and end their 7 game road trip to Baltimore the Steel Town with a record of 5-2. We'll take that. Recently, there have been teams who have gone on 9 or 10 game winning streaks and if Houston is going to even sniff the Wild Card to get back into the playoffs they really need one or two of those. Houston had almost as epic of a collapse in August as they did in September a year ago when they blew a 5 or 6 game lead in the division to eventual AL West champs Texas. I'm sick of the doggone Rangers. Eff Them! The Astros don't have an easy path to that 10 game win streak. They get Tampa Bay at home followed by Oakland who has been a thorn in the Astros side since the All Star break then they begin September with a seven game road trip to those knuckle dragging Rangers and Cleveland. Cleveland is one of those teams who has been hot lately. To make any significant headway toward the Wild Card (the division is too far out of reach now, IMO) Houston needs, NEEDS, to go a minimum 12-2 or 10-4 at worst. If Houston loses one game per series for the next 4 series on average they have a shot at post season. Let's take a look at who the Astros need to beat to take a Wild Card spot. If the season ended today the Wild Card teams would be 1. Boston or Toronto (they are tied for the AL East lead with identical 71-55 records but one team will win the division and the other would be the Wild Card) and 2. Baltimore at 70-56. These are the next 4 teams close enough to call them contenders: Detroit 67-59 (3 game back of Baltimore), Seattle 67-59, 3-way tie all with 66-61 records and 4.5 games behind Baltimore - Houston, Kansas City (another hot team right now) and the Yankees. The next best record is 60-65 by the White Sox so I think you can safely say they are out of it. So, you can see for yourself Houston has their work cut out for them. It doesn't help one bit that Texas is 11-2 against the Astros this season. Houston has got to find a way to beat those.....gentlemen to make a serious run in September. Houston has 6 more games against them and the Astros need to win them all -- in a perfect world. The Astros have the day off before facing the Rays at home on Friday night. Fiers is coming off a very strong outing against Baltimore in his last start, let's hope he can keep that going. Quote
eagle eye Posted August 26, 2016 Author Posted August 26, 2016 Here's a link to an Astros.com article examining why Jose Altuve has become such a great hitter. After reading the article it seems like a recipe for all hitters to follow. The same things that plagued Altuve early on are problems for George Springer. Stuff like flailing away at bad pitches which is a way of saying he needs to cut down on his strike outs and all the rest of the stuff Altuve worked on every single player in the Astros lineup needs to do the same thing. I think big league hitters in general do themselves and their team's a disservice because they want to pull the ball all the time to get the home run when all they need to do is get a freaking hit. You can see Springer and Correa trying to use the whole field and when they do they are more effective hitters. But, Springer in particular, seems to have a hard time recognizing what is a good pitch to hit and what he needs to let go. That's the discussion I'd want to have with Altuve to find out just how he taught himself to be more selective. Realistically, this is George Springer's 3rd season in the bigs which is about when the light came on for Altuve so maybe there's hope and the people who said he will be nothing more than a .260 hitter will be wrong. This is Carlos Correa's first full season in the big leagues and his potential seems to off the charts good he just needs to learn all he can from Altuve because I think the Astros hitting coach stinks. As a matter of fact, Colby Rasmus and Evan Gattis should pay Altuve to tutor them in the offseason along with a couple of other players. How about this for a hitting mantra, Don't chase, Use the whole field, Get that macho home run notion out of your head and just hit the ball. As Ernie Banks, the HOF 2nd baseman for the Cubs, once said, "Hit 'em where they ain't.", seems like primo advice to me. http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/197636696/jose-altuve-has-become-one-of-top-sluggers/ BTW, the Rangers have won two in a row and since Houston was off last night they picked up a 1/2 game on the Astros. Seattle has lost 3 straight and now Houston trails the M's by just one game for second place in the division. As for the Wild Card, both Boston and Toronto have lost 2 straight and Baltimore lost so the race for the WC has tightened up a little. The monkey in that wrench is Detroit has won 4 straight which really sucks. The WC pecking order hasn't changed any but I'm sure the status won't stay quo as we roll into September and the nut cuttin' really begins. Quote
eagle eye Posted August 27, 2016 Author Posted August 27, 2016 Houston wins the opener against Tampa Bay 5-4 in a weird game. Houston led off the scoring with 2 runs in the 1st. The first run came in pretty conventional fashion. George Springer walked and stole 2nd. Alex Bregman singled advancing Springer to 3rd. Jose Altuve came up and hit a chopper to 3rd base that Rays tried to turn 2 on. Evan Longoria went to 2nd to get Bregman but Altuve was to fast to complete the double play. Springer scored from 3rd to give the Astros a 1-0 lead then things got a little weird. Rays starter Drew Smyly tried to pick off Altuve at 1st but the throw got away from 1B Brad Miller allowing Altuve to advance to 2nd. When Altuve got to second he looked back at 1B and saw Miller lob the ball back to Smyly and alertly Altuve took off and easily took 3rd ahead of a late throw from Smyly. After Carlos Correa walked to give Houston men on 1st and 3rd. Evan Gattis followed with a single into center field scoring Altuve making the score 2-0 after one inning. Jake Marisnick hit a solo homer in the 2nd extending the lead to 3-0. Mike Fiers was pretty good but the times he wasn't cost him. In the Rays half of the 3rd Rays OF Mikie Mahtook doubled to right center but he tried to stretch it to a triple but the relay from Jake Marisnick to Carlos Correa nailed Mahtook at 3rd. The Rays Corey Dickerson followed with a double then things got weird again. With Logan Forsythe batting Fiers uncorked a wild pitch to allow Dickerson to advance to 3rd then, on ball 4 to Forsythe, Fiers threw another wild pitch scoring Dickerson from 3rd making the score 3-1. Fiers got out of that inning without any further damage but weird wasn't over in this game. In the 5th Corey Dickerson led off the inning with another double and he was advanced to 3rd on a sac bunt. Again with Logan Forsythe at the plate Fiers let loose another wild pitch that scored Dickerson from 3rd. In the seventh the Rays finally scored in a more conventional fashion. Logan Morrison doubled and was advanced to 3rd on a sac bunt by Mikie Mahtook. Corey Dickerson followed with his 3rd double of the game scoring Morrison tying the game at 3. In the top of the 9th that old 2 out kryptonite struck the Astros again when Ken Giles, on a 2-0 count Mikie Mahtook jacked a bomb over the train tracks in left field to give the Rays a 4-3 lead. Giles got the last out of the inning but Houston hadn't scored since the 2nd inning and things looked bad with the Rays ace closer Alex Colome coming on to shut the door on the Astros. That's when things got weird again. Carlos Correa led off the inning for Houston and he took the first pitch Colome threw yard over the wall in right field to tie the game. That isn't the weird part. That came when Evan Gattis followed on 3-2 pitch up around his chin he jacked his own bomb over the train tracks in left for a walk off home run to beat the Rays 5-4. Game 2 is today 6:10 PM. Dallas Keuchel goes for Houston and Blake Snell will pitch for the Rays. Here's Altuve's heads up base running that led to the Astros 2nd run: http://m.mlb.com/hou/video/topic/182432298/v1099294583/tbhou-altuve-takes-advantage-of-error-in-the-1st/?c_id=hou Here's the relay from Marisnick to Correa to Bregman that nailed the Rays Mikie Mahtook at 3rd: http://m.mlb.com/hou/video/topic/182432298/v1099421983/tbhou-marisnick-correa-and-bregman-nab-mahtook Here's Gattis improbable walk off homer to win the game: http://m.mlb.com/hou/video/topic/182432298/v1100158483/tbhou-gattis-hammers-a-walkoff-homer-to-left-field Quote
eagle eye Posted August 28, 2016 Author Posted August 28, 2016 Houston took game 2 of their series with the Tampa Bay Rays by a score of 6-2. A lot of stuff occurred as a result of the win. 1. Dallas Keuchel got his 9th win of the season improving his record to 9-12. It is his second win in a row which has not been an easy task for him. He's now beaten Baltimore and Tampa and he's knocking on the door of double digit wins for the 3rd season in a row. It is conceivable that he could actually end up with a .500 record or better for the season if he continues his good pitching of late. This is a situation of counting chickens pre and post hatching so let's just say, 'good for Dallas' and move the hell on. 2. Coupled with a Seattle loss Houston is again tied with the Mariners for 2nd place in the AL West. Not only that, but a couple of other Wild Card teams also lost like Detroit and Baltimore tightening up the race some. Houston and Seattle are now 2 games off the Wild Card pace with Detroit just a game ahead of them. 3. Free agent signee Yuli Gurriel got his first two major league RBI's as he went 2-3 with a walk and no K's on the night. After a bit of a stumble coming out of the blocks when he pulled his hamstring in his first official game with the Astros he came back on Friday night going 1-3 and he's backed that up with his first multi-hit game and his first RBI's of his MLB career. Good stuff and the hope is he can keep it going because Houston has needed some help in the back half of the batting order. 4. Jake Marisnick's bat has held him back as a big leaguer but nobody can deny he's one of the best center fielders in baseball defensively. He proved that once again with a diving catch of a lined shot toward the gap in right-center to lead off the Rays 6th inning. I certainly prevented a big inning from getting started because if Marisnick hadn't made the play Matt Duffy's hit would have been at least a double and considering Tim Beckham and Mikie Mahtook singled right after Duffy's out and you could see how that inning could have turned out badly for Keuchel and the Astros. Who knows if Beckham had made the base running mistake he made on Mahtook's hit if Duffy had doubled. Mahtook hit a ground ball to 3rd and Alex Bregman's throw was just a tick too late giving Mahtook an infield hit but Marwin Gonzalez' heads up play realizing Bechham took too big a turn around 2nd base leaving him in no man's land between 2nd and 3rd. Marwin ran Bechham toward 3rd then he threw to Carlos Correa covering the bag for Bregman who then ran Beckham down tagging him out just before 2nd base for the 2nd out of the inning. The Astros got out of the 6th without allowing a run and it all started with Marisnick's diving catch. http://m.mlb.com/hou/video/v1104016183/tbhou-marisnick-lays-out-for-an-amazing-diving-grab/?tcid=mm_hou_vid&c_id=hou 5. Evan Gattis is heating up at just the right time. Last night he went 2-4 including the walk off home run to win the game. Tonight he went 3-2 with a walk, an RBI and run scored. He is now hitting .248 and he has actually been catching more than Jason Castro because of his bat. Gattis has shown to be a pretty good catcher and he actually bats better when he plays a position rather when he is the DH. Right now the Astros are using Yuli Gurriel as the DH and Houston is putting their best offense on the field which means Castros and his anemic .215 BA. In his last 3 games Gattis his hitting .500 (5-10) and his last 7 games he's hitting .435 (10 for 23 w/ 6 RBI's and 7 runs scored) and if you go back 15 games he is hitting .388 (19 for 49). If Gattis can keep up the pace he may be the Astros starting catcher in 2017 because Castro is a free agent at the end of this season and the Astros could just let him walk. Gattis' defense has been really good too as evidenced by a strike out throw out double play made by Gattis in the top of the 1st. The throw was right on the money allowing Jose Altuve to make the tag. Gattis over 50% nailing potential steal attempts throwing out 12 of 23 base runners. He has a .997 fielding percentage which is top notch. He might look much older but he's only been in the bigs 4 years counting 2016 so he's definitely got his best baseball ahead of him. http://m.mlb.com/hou/video/v1103339983/tbhou-astros-turn-strike-em-out-throw-em-out-dp/?tcid=mm_hou_vid&c_id=hou 6. The Astros defense has been pretty good this season but recently it has been excellent. Alex Bregman has made some awesome plays at third saving hits left and right. The only gripe you could have is his throws to 1st have been an adventure. You aren't really sure if the throws will end up in the 1st baseman's mitt of in the front row of the stands but he hasn't logged enough games at 3B in his career so you can forgive a little inconsistency in his throws. The young man will get better and he will likely be the reason Houston let's Luis Valbuena go at the end of the season. For a real kick in the teeth check this out, the Astros let Carlos Gomez go because he just wasn't producing as a hitter and he was injured as much as he was healthy. They got rid of him in favor of adding yet another rookie, Tony Kemp, to the lineup seeing more upside. About a week after he cleared waivers the Rangers signed him to a minor league deal. That was on August 20. On Thursday the Rangers designated OF Drew Stubbs to AAA and brought Gomez up to the big club. In his debut with the Rangers against Cleveland on Thursday night Gomez cranked a 3 run home run in his first AB for the Rangers on the way to a 9-0 win for Texas in the series opener. The laugh is on the Rangers as Gomez just went 1-4 in that game, he went 0-4 in Friday night's 12-1 loss to the Tribe and he went 0-4 with 3 K's in tonight's 7-0 win. So far as a Ranger he's gone 1-12 with one hit, 3 RBI's and a run scored. Keep it up Carlos and Houston may catch the Rangers yet! Quote
eagle eye Posted August 30, 2016 Author Posted August 30, 2016 The Astros went 4-2 last week winning both series they played by a 2-1 margin. They beat the Pirates and the Rays and curiously enough they have climbed into second place in the AL West and they are only 2 back for the 2nd Wild Card spot. The Astros couldn't complete the sweep of Tampa because it was their Sunday to suck and they did so top to bottom and even the pitching staff got into the act. The final was 10-4 and it was a crappy game for a crappy weather day. Thank goodness the Texans made Houston proud. So, the scenario heading into the new week was not bad. Houston was climbing up the ladder back into contention and they didn't look terrible doing it. Their starting pitching made a huge turnaround with Mike Fiers, Dallas Keuchel looking much better. Doug Fister was just a tick off as the Rays chipped and dinked and doinked their way to 4 runs in the first 4 innings. The defense didn't do Fister any favors as a couple of errors set the table for 2 unearned runs out the 4 Fister allowed. He wasn't terrible but he wasn't sharp either. Who was terrible was the bullpen who allowed six runs over the final two innings to put the game totally out of reach for the Rays. Michael Feliz was the main suck master as he allowed 4 runs on 4 hits including a 2-run HR by Matt Duffy in just 2/3 of an inning work. Feliz didn't walk anyone and he didn't strike anyone out but he pitched a heckuva batting practice. Tony Sipp continued his trend of giving up runs in a short amount of time. He relieved Feliz and he allowed 2 hits and walk and another run in his 1/3 of an inning of work. Sipp has been really awful lately sort of like the whole bullpen except for Chris Devenski. Devenski relieved Fister in the 5th and he didn't allow a run to score and he gave up just 2 hits in his 2.2 innings of work. When Devenski walked off the field at the end of the 7th Houston was trailing Tampa 4-3 and could have mounted a comeback but that's when Michael Feliz went to work, so to speak. Brad Peacock came in and put the icing on the cake with a lousy 9th inning in which he allowed another run on a Nick Franklin HR. Oh well, you can't win 'em all I guess. Houston started out their series with Oakland pretty well I'd say. They beat the A's 6-0 on a night that saw Joe Musgrove return to form allowing no runs in 5.1 innings, the return of to the field of Luke Gregerson and hold in one inning of work by Pat Neshak. Brad Peacock finally pitched in a game he didn't allow a run and he did it by shutting out the A's pitching the 8th and 9th innings to complete the shutout. Jose Altuve got a solo HR in the 6th giving him 22 on the season. Jose continues to struggle a bit, in his last 7 games he's gone 5-29 for a .172 BA. In his last 15 games he's hit just .286. I have no doubt that he will bust out of the this funk he's in and go on a tear. Game 2 is tonight with a struggling Collin McHugh on the mound for Houston. They said on the radio last night that pitching coach Brent Strom found a mechanical flaw in McHugh's delivery that may have caused all his recent problems. They said Strom identified an issue with McHugh's right foot coming up off the ground causing him to pivot on his toes. We'll see if that is the magic bullet that gets McHugh back on track. The A's send Kendall Graverman to the hill to face the Astros. The Astros got some good news, OF Colby Rasmus is coming back and could be in the Astros lineup as soon as tonight. He has been off just shy of 3 weeks after having a cyst removed from his right ear. It remains to be seen if the cyst had anything to do with the 3-66 slump he was in when he went out. If nothing else the time off surely couldn't have hurt. Inner ear problems could throw a person off their game and the cyst could have contributed to his batting troubles. It didn't affect his fielding at all but what the heck, Teoscar Hernandez has been struggling after a hot start so Rasmus' return may be just the tonic that Houston needs. Because the minor league season is nearly over the Astros opted not to try to send Rasmus on a rehab assignment they are just going to grab him by the britches and toss him in the water to see if he can swim. As for the Wild Card, Houston is tied with Kansas City 2 back of Baltimore for the second WC spot. The Orioles lost last night as did Seattle (to the Rangers) and Detroit, who is a game ahead of Houston and KC, beat Toronto last night. 3 teams are within 2 games of one another with Seattle and the Yankees in the conversation just a game and a game and half behind respectively. Forget about winning the division. Houston is currently 8.5 games behind Texas, who has the best record in the AL. After Houston finishes with A's on Wednesday they get a day off on Thursday then the real nut cuttin' begins. Houston's schedule turns absolutely brutal with Houston facing the Rangers (3), Cleveland (4) on the road and Chicago Cubs (3) and the Rangers (3) again at home. When that stretch of 13 games is over we should know whether or not there is a playoff berth waiting for Houston. Four series against division leaders with 3 of the teams in the top 4 in wins baseball this season. The Cubs lead all clubs with 83 wins, Texas is next with 78 and Cleveland has the 3rd best record in the AL with 74. Holy crap. So, don't blame Houston too much if they are looking a bit ahead even though the series with Oakland still going on. Yep, September is going to be a very interesting month and we'll find out if these 2016 Astros deserve a spot in the post season dance. Quote
eagle eye Posted August 31, 2016 Author Posted August 31, 2016 The Astros did activate Colby Rasmus yesterday and they stuck into the lineup last night without benefit of a minor league rehab assignment. All he did was hit a home run in the bottom of the second inning in his first AB after missing 3 weeks because he had a cyst removed from his inner ear. That came after he completed a double play in the top of the inning on fly out throw out at home plate to end the inning. Rasmus was in deep left field near the warning track when he hauled in a fly ball hit by A's 2B Max Muncy. Ryan Healy, who at 3rd, tried to score on Muncy's hit but Rasmus threw all the way from left to Jason Castro at home without a hop. The throw was a little off line but Castro caught the ball and completed the tag of Healy to complete the double play and end the inning. It was a nice homecoming for Rasmus and it was a nice game for starting pitcher Collin McHugh too. McHugh has struggled his last few outings but a small change in his mechanics seemed to have done the trick. McHugh went 6 innings giving up no runs on 4 hits, a walk and five Ks. It was a typical McHugh game, he didn't dominate and he had to pitch out of trouble some but in the end he got the job done and he turned in his first quality start in a quite a while. All that translates in another Astros win this time beating Oakland 3-1. That was a good thing as Houston gained a little breathing room between themselves and Seattle who blew a 9th inning one run lead losing to Texas 8-7 on a Redneck Oh-der two run walkoff homer. Houston's win keeps them on pace with Baltimore and Detroit who both won last night just 2 games out for the 2nd Wild Card spot. Houston has now won the series against the A's giving them 4 series wins in a row and they will be going for the sweep this afternoon at 1:10 PM when Mike Fiers faces off against the A's Ross Detwiler. Fiers will try to keep the trend of quality starts going, a trend he started back on August 20th when he led the Astros over Baltimore going 7 innings and he backed that up going 6.1 innings against Tampa last Friday both wins by the Astros. Here's an article from Astros.com talking about Colby Rasmus return along with video of his home run and his put out at home. http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/198529516/astros-colby-rasmus-makes-immediate-impact/ Quote
eagle eye Posted September 1, 2016 Author Posted September 1, 2016 August was a wild month of baseball if you're an Astros fan. If you remember Houston started the month losing. In the first ten days in August Houston went 3-6 but they seemed to have found something because after getting a rainout on a Wednesday game against Minnesota in which they were well on their way to losing for a 7th time they got a reprieve. The Astros came back the next day and swept a double header with the Twins in which they pounded out 25 runs in the two games along with a buttload worth of hits. The momentum carried over into the Friday opener in the series in Toronto with a 5-3 win but it was all smoke and mirrors because the Blue Jays took the last two games of the series and Houston went on to lose 3 more after that for a 5 game losing streak. All that and it was just August 18th. Through that first half and 2 days of the month the offense took an extended nap except for those two games in Minnesota and the starting pitching went on a vacation as they all strung together one bad start after another. The Astros fell out of contention in the division and looked like they were on their way out the Wild Card door as well as Seattle overtook and passed Houston for 2nd place in the AL West. I personally stuck several forks in them because I thought they were done. The second half of the month was a whole different story. The Astros took 3 of 4 against Baltimore and proceeded to win their series with Pittsburgh and Tampa and they closed out the month sweeping the A's and they are back in the Wild Card picture once again. The win in the A's series finale last night was a microcosm of the month. For the first half of the game the Astros weren't very good but the rallied in the end with 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead which new closer Ken Giles nailed down with a 1-2-3 9th. It took a little luck because the Astros were down to their last strike of the 8th inning when Alex Bregman swung and missed on strike 3 but the ball got by the A's catcher allowing Bregman to get to first and it also allowed George Springer, who tripled ahead of Bregman's AB, to score. Jose Altuve capitalized on the good fortune Bregman got on the strikeout-wild pitch by hitting a triple of his own tying the game at 3. The A's walked Carlos Correa intentionally opting instead to face Evan Gattis. Bad mistake because Gattis hit a single to left scoring Altuve giving the Astros a 4-3 lead and that's how the game ended. As late as the 7th inning you would never have believed the Astros could come back in much the same way you would have never thought Houston could come back from the dismal first half of August when nothing seemed to be going right. For the month Houston was 16-13 making August the 4th month in a row Houston had a winning record which, believe it or not, hasn't happened since 2001. Despite that Houston trails the Rangers by 8.5 games in the division and they are just 1 game out of the 2nd Wild Card spot behind Detroit and Baltimore who are both tied for the 2nd spot. Way back on August 18th you would never have imagined Houston would be where they are right now. It's time I freshed up my voodoo curse on the Rangers because tomorrow night the Astros travel to Arlington for a series against them. I really don't care about winning the division right now because it looks like that mountain is just too high but Houston needs to keep winning to stay in the hunt for the playoffs. They play the Rangers six time in the next 2 weeks with series against division leaders Cleveland and Chicago Cubs in between. By September 14th we will know if Houston is a contender or a pretender. Houston will close out September playing the rest of the division with 2 series against the Mariners and Angels and a series with Oakland. Cross your fingers that my booster curse derails the Rangers. When I put the curse on them just after the All Star break the Rangers went 2-12 over the next two weeks. Houston could use a collapse like again but I wouldn't could on it. Now where that's darn chicken? Quote
eagle eye Posted September 2, 2016 Author Posted September 2, 2016 Okay, it's time to suck it up because things start getting real tonight at 7 o'clock in Arlington. For the next 13 games Houston will play division leading Texas twice in home and home 3 games series and sandwiched in between they play 4 games against division leading Cleveland in Cleveland and 3 games against NL Central division leading Chicago, the team with the best record in baseball, in Houston. These 13 games over two weeks will make or break the Astros chances for the post season. No bull, no fluff, just all the cards on the table. The bottom line is Houston needs to get hot and stay hot or by September 14th they can start making offseason plans because the playoffs will not be on the table for them any more. The Astros will finish out the month playing the Angels, Mariners and A's but those games won't mean squat if Houston screws the pooch over the next two weeks. You feelin' me? You see how important and how friggin' difficult the next two weeks will be? The encouraging things to take into the next couple of weeks are 1) the starting pitching has been much better lately. After a bad slump in the first half of August the staff has looked much, much better since around August 18th. Even Collin McHugh who had been struggling while the other starters rebounded looked pretty good in his last outing after the pitching coach, Brent Strom, noticed a glitch in his delivery. Fixing that glitch seems to have helped. 2) The return of Colby Rasmus makes the defense better and if the Colby Rasmus who was tearing up the baseball in April and May is back it should give the Astros a huge boost offensively. We'll see if it was really that cyst in his inner ear that caused his BA to nosedive after the All Star Break. 3) The emergence of Evan Gattis as the starting catcher. Gattis has been awesome defensively. He's every bit as good a backstop as Jason Castro and he calls a good game for the pitchers and he is above .500 in putouts on attempted steals. People have to think twice about running on Gattis. Fine, that defense but get this. The more Gattis starts at catcher the better he hits. No foolin'. Stats show that went Gattis plays catcher his batting average is better than when he is the DH. Not only that but he's found his groove as a hitter based on these stats: In his last 7 games he's hitting .368 with 7 RBI's, 4 runs scored, 5 BBs and only 3 Ks. In his last 30 games his line is .317/15/13/11/31. The 31 Ks are a little frightening but right now Gattis is wielding a hot stick at just the right time. 4) The emergence of Alex Bregman. He has a horrendous start to his MLB career but he never gave in and his defense has been very good. His .237 season BA is not indicative of the hole he had to climb out of after starting off his big league career 1-22. It took him 5 games just to get a batting average and at one point after he was called up he was hitting .048 so to be sitting where he is now is pretty dang good. Things we hope: 1) Jose Altuve has been in a slump losing 15 points off his batting average dropping from his season high .366 BA to his current level of .351. He's still leading baseball in BA and top ten in most of the batting stats you want to throw out. He's just 17 hits shy of his third 200 hit season in a row and he's almost assured of winning another batting title and possibly AL MVP. Boston's David Ortiz may have something to say about that and because he's supposedly in his final year of his career he might be the sentimental favorite but Altuve deserves it. In his last 7 games Altuve is hitting a paltry .143 but he's gone through a slump like this before this season and he rebounded to raise his batting average 26 points. If ever there was a spark to ignite a rebound it was the 8th inning triple that scored the tying run in the series finale with Oakland on Wednesday that helped Houston complete the sweep of the A's. If Jose gets hot again beginning tonight I like the Astros chances. 2) Yuli Gurriel is the hitter for Houston that he's was thought to be when Houston signed him shortly before the trade deadline. His BA is .318 but you can't go by that because he's had only 22 ABs since being activated. Too small a sample size but he makes contact. Against Oakland on Wednesday he went 0-4 but he did not strike out at all. In those 22 ABs he's only struck out twice. What a breath of fresh air to have a guy who has more hits than Ks in the lineup. The Astros need Gurriel's bat to succeed over the next 2 weeks. 3) AJ Hinch doesn't put a weak ass batting lineup on the field. In their loss to Tampa last Sunday the back half of the batting order was Marwin Gonzalez (.253), AJ Reed (.173), Jason Castro (.217) and Jake Marisnick (.214). Gonzalez' .253 is not telling the whole story because he's been mired in a slump for a while as he's battled a nagging hamstring issue. Hinch cannot put a weak lineup on the field in this next 2 weeks. He's also got to abandon that lefty vs righty, righty vs lefty stuff because it's a baseball cliché that isn't as true as it once was. Put your best hitters on the field regardless of who is pitching and play some ball. 4) I, and all Astros fans hope that Houston kicks the stuffing out of the Rangers. In a perfect world Houston will go 6-0 in the last six games vs the Rangers. It probably won't be enough to win the division but it sure will be satisfying to beat those-----gentlemen-----for a change. Quote
eagle eye Posted September 4, 2016 Author Posted September 4, 2016 All you need to know is the Astros have given up 29 hits and 25 runs in two games. F**k the Astros for the choking dogs they are and double F**k the Rangers. They are almost at the level of the Philadelphia teams on my list of most hated things in my life. I really, really, really hate the Rangers and I guess that is one reason MLB put us both in the same league and the same division. If that's the case then F**k MLB. This has been a lousy day. Oklahoma lost, LSU lost and the Astros have lost two in a row. Not much else to crow about. The TAMU win was okay but Lamar's collapse in the second half is the end of a truly crap day. Coastal Carolina is good but Lamar choked that game away in the second half and I have to go to bed now in a really foul mood. Kids, tell all these teams that let me down today thank for f**king up daddy's day. Thank you crappy sports teams. Good, now go to bed and behave or go out and set fire to something. Quote
eagle eye Posted September 5, 2016 Author Posted September 5, 2016 The Astros went 4-2 for the week but it's not as good as it could've, or should've been. Even though Houston salvaged a win yesterday it didn't come without a fight. The final score of 7-6 is just about a messed up as it gets considering Houston was ahead at one point 5-0. You can thank the Astros pitching staff for basically sucking the big one all weekend. One of the things that was on the plus side in my post prior to the beginning of the weekend was how the starting pitching was back on the roll that got them out of the funk they started the season in. Doug Fister, Joe Musgrove and Colin McHugh seemed determined to just throw batting practice for the Rangers. In the three games Houston pitching game up 28 runs on 40 hits and 12 walks. Is that pitiful or what? It's a stroke of luck the Astros managed to salvage one win in the face of this onslaught. What's messed up is Houston scored 19 runs on 28 hits and a whopping 15 walks. The Astros scored enough runs to win games if not for the barren wasteland known as the pitching staff. It's not like the Astros do some choking of their own. They were 8 for 31 with RISP. Jose Altuve has definitely not broken out of his slump. in the series against Texas he went 1-11 with 3 walks. The Astros end the weekend still in 2nd place in the AL West but they lost a game to Texas and are now 9.5 back but winning the division was a bit of a pipe dream anyway. The real shot Houston has at the playoffs is in the Wild Card and losing 2 of 3 didn't help much. Houston lost a game in that race too. Baltimore and Detroit are still tied for the 2nd Wild Card spot but they are now 2 games up on Houston. Right now it's still a 6 team race to the finish with the Yankees, Royals and Mariners still a big winning streak away from challenging for that 2nd WC but, for now it's a three team race between the Orioles, Tigers and Astros. Houston heads into a 4 game series with Cleveland beginning today and it doesn't look great for the home team considering Cleveland is in the midst of a 6 game winning streak. Glass half full people can point to the fact that Houston is 7-3 in their last 10 games. Okay, I'll give you that but the pitching has sucked. Colby Rasmus is not hitting well and neither is Carlos Correa. George Springer had a nice game yesterday but he was oh-fer in the first two games against Texas. Your leadoff man needs to get on base more than he has recently. If I sound like a glass half empty guy you're right. I just don't see the magic of last year's late season run in the Astros future. Pitching, hitting and defense make up the triangle for winning teams but you take one away it just ain't happening. Take away 2 and you've got Houston. Yes, I know, Houston hit the ball but not nearly enough when it counted and that's what I'm talking about. Damn, I hate the stupid Rangers. Quote
eagle eye Posted September 6, 2016 Author Posted September 6, 2016 Houston won behind decent pitching by Mike Fiers and the bullpen. Thank goodness for small favors. The 6-2 opening win against Cleveland but before we start hootin' and hollerin' let's tap the brakes a bit. There are still 3 games left against the Tribe and we have only won one so far. Jose Altuve had his first multi-hit game in a while going 2-5 but that doesn't mean he's not still in a slump. One game does not a slump break but it's a good sign. Alex Bregman is on fire as he went 2-4 last night and he's now batting .266. I don't know where that's coming from but I hope he keeps it up. George Springer got on base 3 times last night which is a good formula for scoring runs. Colby went 2-5 for his first multi-hit game since coming off the DL. In fact, only Evan Gattis failed to get a hit last night of the guys who started the game. Remember, it's just one game, don't get your hopes up too high lest you have your heart broken again. Tonight it will be Brad Peacock going for Houston because Dallas Keuchel has soreness in his shoulder and he's been scratched from the lineup and from throwing for the time being. I hope Peacock will be on a very short leash because he has a bad habit of producing disappointing starts for the Astros. It gets better, the Indians are sending their ace, Cory Kluber, to the mound tonight. Just one game, folks. The Astros Carlos Correa did make some spectacular plays at short last night. Here's an article from Astros.com with accompanying video of the Wizard of Crockett Street. http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/199778248/correa-makes-two-head-turning-plays-vs-tribe/ The Astros have made two more call-ups from the minors. They brought up C Max Stassi and P Kevin Chapman to the big club. They join pitchers Brad Peacock, Jandel Gustav and James Hoyt, 1B Tyler White and the Astros best pitcher in the minors this year and Houston Native Brady Rodgers. Quote
eagle eye Posted September 7, 2016 Author Posted September 7, 2016 One game does not a slump bust. Case in point, on Monday both Jose Altuve and Colby Rasmus both has multi-hit games but last night they both went oh-fer on the night. Now, the good news is Houston won the game 4-3 actually getting the better of Cleveland ace Cory Kluber. As unlikely as this scenario was it was further complicated by Houston having to start perennial under achiever Brad Peacock. Now, I will say that last night was the first time I've seen Peacock pitch in a year or two and I actually didn't realize it actually Peacock on the mound. Why? Because he has remade his body. He is no longer the rolly-polly cherub that he used to be. Somebody in the minor leagues must have told him he would never make it in the bigs as an over weight slob. Only David Wells really got away with that. Well, there was Atlanta pitcher Terry Forster who David Letterman used to call the fattest man in baseball but the point is the list is pretty short. As it was, Peacock pitched pretty well allowing just one run in 3.2 innings of work. He got into a bit of trouble in the 4th and he got the hook but he wasn't meant to go deep into this game. Truth be told he probably lasted about as long as AJ Hinch expected when they called him up on Monday. The bullpen took over and they outlasted the Indians the rest of the way. It's too bad Peacock couldn't go 5 innings to qualify for the win but to outduel Kluber he certainly did his job. James Hoyt, who had his chance about a month ago and was literally knocked out of the bigs because he was so bad finished the 4th and he pitched the 5th allowing no runs. When Peacock left the game he had a 4-1 lead and Hoyt did his part to keep it that way. Hoyt was followed by Chris Devenski and Will Harris who each pitched a perfect 6th and 7th inning respectively. Luke Gregerson came in pitched a perfect 8th except for a leadoff home run by C Carlos Santana who Oye Como Va'd a bomb into the right center field bleachers. Ken Giles continued his trend of allowing at least one run an appearance but it wasn't all his fault. He allowed a hit and a walk and with the runners on 1st and 3rd the runner on 1st tried to steal 2nd when Evan Gattis made a rare bad throw that got away from Jose Altuve into center field allowing the man on 3rd to score. Giles retired the next two batters to close the game but, as usual, not without some tense moments getting there. The one bad thing from last night is virtually every team in contention in the Wild Card race won. That would be Detroit, Boston, Baltimore and the Yankees and Royals as well. On one hand it's good Houston won and thereby not lost any ground in the playoff chase but on the other hand couldn't one of these friggin' teams have lost? Sheesh. If you think about it Houston is doing all this winning, 4 in a row now, without their two best pitchers. Lance McCullers has been out for a few weeks with a bad elbow and Dallas Keuchel has missed his last scheduled start and also his rescheduled start because of shoulder inflammation. Not a bad run with 2/5 of their starting rotation out of commission. Speaking of which, Houston is bringing their #4 ranked prospect David Paulino up to make a start in the series finale against Cleveland on Thursday. If Houston is going anywhere it appears it's going to be the rookies who will carry the team. Apparently, the future is now. What the hell, let's play ball! Tonight Houston sends a more familiar name to mound in Doug Fister (12-10) against Carlos Carrasco (10-7). Hold your breath because judging by Fister's last start, which was just awful, it looks like advantage Cleveland yet again. Quote
eagle eye Posted September 9, 2016 Author Posted September 9, 2016 The Astros completed the first have of the gauntlet of games that promised to hold their playoff hopes in the balance. This seven game road trip wasn't terrible but it wasn't what Houston needed either. They went 3-4 in the last seven games going 1-2 against the Rangers to begin the road trip and they split with Cleveland 2-2 in the four games they played to begin this week. It has to feel like a kick in the groin to finish the series in Cleveland with two losses after taking a 2-0 lead to start the series. The problem was Doug Fister had his 3rd bad outing in his last 5 starts on Wednesday. Yet another game when he couldn't get out of the 5th inning without the roof caving in on him. Houston went into the bottom of the 5th with a 3-2 lead but by the time Fister and reliever Kevin Chapman finished they had allowed 4 runs and had surrendered the lead. By then it was 6-3 and you could stick a fork in the Astros on the day. They got a 2 run homer in the 8th by Yuli Gurriel, his first as an MLB player, to tighten up the score to 6-5 but it just made the game look closer than it really was. Yesterday afternoon the Astros had to start their #4 prospect David Paulino because of injuries to Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers and he did okay for 2 innings then the roof caved in on him. He allowed two runs and had runners on 2nd and 3rd when he threw a curve ball that hit the dirt in front of the batter. The trouble was the ball bounced up and hit the bat of the hitter and caromed away toward the Astros dugout. The reason it was trouble is because the ump didn't see the ball hit the bat and he assumed it was a wild pitch. Jason Castro did see the ball hit the bat and he never even bothered to chase after the ball. In fact, he turned to the ump with his hand out to get a new ball. The ump didn't give Castro anything but a blank stare as the two runners both scored. AJ Hinch was out of the dugout almost immediately to argue the non-call. What happened was everyone found out the play was not reviewable and Hinch got himself tossed for arguing with the ump. A two run 3rd suddenly became a 4 run inning. As an official stat in the box score is the last two runs scored on a wild pitch even though that is not what happen. It probably didn't matter because another rookie came into the game in the 4th and he just stunk up the joint. Poor Brady Rodgers came in and was battered by the Indians to the tune of 5 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks with a strike out. Rodgers threw 42 pitches in just one plus innings of work and when he left the game in the 5th inning the Astros were down 6-3 but Michael Feliz allowed one runner he inherited from Rodgers plus one of his own when he allowed a 2 run HR to Carlos Santana to extend the Indians lead to 10-3. Houston had scored a run in the top of the 5th to make the score 6-3 but the 4 runs in the bottom of the inning put the game away for the Tribe. Houston made a comeback of sorts as they scored 4 runs, 2 in the 6th and 2 in the 7th but the pitching had dug a hole too deep for the Houston offense to overcome. The Astros allowed just 2 and 3 runs in the first two games of the series and won both games. In the final two they gave up 6 and 10 runs and lost both games. It's not too hard to figure out the common denominator for these games. Pitching. When it's good Houston wins and when it's not Houston looks like crap. The seven runs came even without Carlos Correa who had to go back to Houston to get his left shoulder looked at. He had been experiencing pain since a bad throw to 2nd on a steal attempt by Cleveland on Tuesday caused him to have to lunge behind him to catch the errant throw causing him to fall hard on his extended left arm. He when back to Houston on Wednesday to have tests run to check the status of his shoulder. It is hoped he will be able to play when the Astros begin a weekend series with the Cubs beginning tonight. The also were able to score 5 runs on Wednesday and 7 on Thursday despite the fact that Jose Altuve continues to struggle at the plate. In the last two games he was 2-9 with a notable 0-4 yesterday. What has happened is Yuli Gurriel has begun to fulfill the promise Houston saw when they signed the Cuban expatriate in July. The last two games he's gone 2-4 in each game with a home run in each game. You can't blame Yuli for any lack of offense. In his last 7 games he's hitting .346 with 6 runs scored, 5 RBIs and 2 HR's. Anther guy who had a good couple of games was Colby Rasmus. Yesterday he went 1-3 with the one hit a 2 run HR to tighten the score to 10-5 in the top of the 6th. On Wednesday he also went 1-3 with the one hit a 2-run homer in the fourth inning to give Houston a 3-2 lead at the time. The inexplicable thing was in both games the Astros pinch hit for Rasmus simply because of the old righty vs lefty pitching axiom that drives me crazy. Rasmus is not only capable of hitting home runs to get you back into a game he is also a plus defensive outfielder. He's certainly better than Teoscar Hernandez who came in for him in both games. My gripes about AJ Hinch are his adherence to baseball clichés without looking at the situation and his continued tolerance of a bad hitting coach. The Astros keep giving us hope in a perverted sort of way because when they win the other Wild Card contenders also win and when the contenders lose the Astros also lose. They can't make up any ground but they aren't losing any ground either. It's freaking maddening. Both the Orioles and Tigers had yesterday off so Houston lost 1/2 game to them but to make matters worse is the Yankees passed Houston on the strength of their 5 game winning streak. The Cubs and Rangers loom ahead and with 2/5 of their starting pitching staff out of commission things look pretty bleak. There are only 22 games left in the season so there is no time for excuses. Pitch better, hit better, play defense better or go home. Nothing a nice 22 game winning streak wouldn't cure but that ain't gonna happen. Quote
eagle eye Posted September 10, 2016 Author Posted September 10, 2016 Yesterday I alluded to a nice 22 game winning streak and the Astros countered with a shutout 2-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs. The Astros pretty much ran themselves out of the game last night as they were caught stealing on a several occasions and they also tried to stretch a double to a triple that ended badly as well. The pitching was pretty good as starter Joe Musgrove rebounded from a couple of bad starts to go 6 full innings allowing just 3 hits. Unfortunately, one of those hits was a 2-run HR by Cubs LF Kris Bryant which was the only the only runs scored on the night. Bryant's dinger came in the 5th inning but Houston had their chances to score. The best chance the Astros had to score was in the bottom of the seventh with Yuri Gurriel on 3rd and Marwin Gonzalez on 1st and Colby Rasmus at the plate with 2 out. If this was September 2015 then maybe there was hope but not in 2016. During Rasmus AB Gonzalez stole 2nd giving Houston men on 2nd and 3rd representing the tying runs. If Rasmus homers the Astros take the lead despite a good night on the mound by the Cubs John Lester but, as I said, not last night. Rasmus worked a 3-2 count and the situation was ripe for a Colby jack but instead he got a pitch which is a left handed batter's dream, low and on the inside half of the plate but instead of knocking the cover off the ball Rasmus was in full on spectator mode as he watched as the ump rung up strike three to end the inning. During this most pivotal stretch of games that will basically define their season they are found wanting. So far, 8 games into this 13 game stretch they are just 3-5 but oddly enough they are still only 2.5 games off the 2nd Wild Card spot. The Tigers and Yankees both won. Detroit and Baltimore are tied for the 2nd spot just a game behind Toronto who fell out of 1st place in the AL East behind Boston's 3 game winning streak. The Astros are playing the Cubs in an afternoon game with Collin McHugh on the mound facing off against Chicago's John Lackey. Right now after 7 complete innings the Astros lead the Cubs 2-1 but they missed out on a chance to extend their lead when George Springer was thrown out at home when he tried to score from 2nd base on an Alex Bregman single. I didn't see the play but I blame 3B coach Gary Pettis just out of general principal because I think he stinks as a 3B coach. McHugh went 5 innings allowing just 2 hits with 3 BBs and 6 Ks. Houston scored on a HR by Alex Bregman in the 3rd inning and Jose Altuve scored from 3rd later in the inning on a bunt by Marwin Gonzalez. While I was piddling around the Astros managed to get thru the 8th and 9th innings and win the game by a final score of 2-1. Will wonders never cease? McHugh got the win and Giles got the save. The Astros are reporting that Carlos Correa could be back in the lineup tomorrow which is good news but the status of Dallas Keuchel is still up in the air. It's possible that he may be done for the season with that left shoulder inflammation. Quote
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