2016 Houston Astros Regular Season

[eagle eye]

Of course the only thing that could put a damper on opening day is the weather. Guess what? The weather in New York sucks. It's cold and the 95% chance of rain pretty much means it's going to be a miserable day in the Bronx. Now, they could rain out and play tomorrow because it's an open day. The reason there is an open day after opening day is something I can't answer why but the forecast today is just terrible coming on the heels of a winter storm that saw snow fall from the Midwest to the northeast coast. The low overnight was 37o and tonight's overnight low is 23o with a high tomorrow of 41o! I don't understand why the new Yankee Stadium was built without a retractable roof given the climate in the Big Apple. I thought the same thing when they built the new Giants/Jets stadium in New Jersey. Why would you not build a covered stadium in a climate that gets really hot and extremely cold? Tuesday is supposed to be sunny but pretty cool, the high forecast to be 41o. Why don't they have a covered stadium? Stupid yankees. Todays game will probably not begin at 11 AM EDT, 12 PM CDT and I am so disappointed. There should not be a game in an open air stadium scheduled in early April from Chicago to Boston including New York. There are plenty of stadiums that do have covers, play there. Hell, even Milwaukee has a retractable roof stadium and it's a good thing too because it's colder than brass balls there now and that is Houston's weekend destination. You know they will be able to play without having to freeze to death so, there's that. If the games are actually able to be played in New York this week I pray that nobody gets hurt. If they have to wait until tomorrow to play it will at least be sunny and Wednesday is supposed to be decent too but Thursday has rain forecast. I hope the team, the starting pitchers especially, gets out of New York without an injury. Opening day in New York--sweet (that is dripping with sarcasm).

Here's my opening day lineup forecast (when and if they get to play).

1. 2B Jose Altuve
2. RF George Springer
3. SS Carlos Correa
4. LF Colby Rasmus
5. 3B Luis Valbuena
6. CF Carlos Gomez
7. DH Preston Tucker
8. 1B Tyler White
9. C Jason Castro

SP: Dallas Keuchel (We knew that already)

If was reported on the Bleacher Report that the Astros would name who their closer would be yesterday. If the Astros made a decision they either forgot to tell the media or the media forgot to report it. My guess it will be Ken Giles. AJ Hinch has an out on this one because last season's closer Luke Gregerson missed most of the spring with a strained muscle in his chest. That would be the reason Hinch could give rather than just admit Giles was paid a lot of money to come in and close for the Astros. That would be a bit of a slap in the face to Gregerson and Hinch is pretty conscientious about respecting his veteran players.

Here's a link from the Bleacher Report article grading the Astros opening day 25 man roster.

http://climbingtalshill.com/2016/04/03/houston-astros-grading-the-25-man-roster/

[eagle eye]

Damn, I hate it when I'm right sometimes. As I predicted earlier the Astros-Yankees game has already been postponed due to bad weather according to the Yankees twitter account. There has not been an official announcement as yet but there should be one soon. The game is scheduled to made up tomorrow when sunny skies are predicted but it will be a cool afternoon game as the high temperature tomorrow is only supposed to be 41o.

[eagle eye]

This has got to be the best week in sports for the whole doggone year. Monday is opening day for baseball for all but a few teams, the finals of the NCAA men's basketball tournament and the Masters golf tournament. 3 teams actually began the 2016 MLB season on Sunday but the lion's share of teams began yesterday. I'm glad the Astros and Yankees was delayed a day because of weather because, in all honesty, the men's final last night deserved a day of its own. Don't tell Cinderella didn't come to this dance because when it was all said and done she won the whole darn thing. 'Nova was the 2 seed in a weak South regional bracket and nobody honestly thought they would go very far. But, like the Energizer Bunny they just kept going and going and going. One of the biggest surprises of the men's tourney was the absolute beat down of Oklahoma in the semi-final game on Saturday and the game last night was contrast in styles. 'Nova is a 3 point shooting team who shot lights out over the past 3 weeks while North Carolina runs off its low post game and dominance on the boards. It all came down to one last shot by 'Nova at the buzzer to break a 74-74 tie with yet another 3 ball to win the championship. It is the first time since NC State beat Houston's Phi Slamma Jamma team that featured Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler with a last second dunk to complete the upset of the heavily favored Cougars. I'm glad Houston didn't have to lose their opening day to that game. Now today, the Astros will play their first game of the season in the Bronx on what is forecast to be a sunny but cool day. Keuchel vs Tanaka in a rematch of the AL Wild Card game last October. Nice. I've got my brand new Astros hat on and when I get off work I am going home and getting ready to go watch Lamar take on Nichols at the Beck. I want to see if the Cards can extend their current winning streak to 11 games. Baseball is in full swing now and my favorite golf tournament begins Thursday. Yep, best sports week ever.

[eagle eye]

Here we go folks. The 2016 baseball season is under way.

Top of the 1st

1. Altuve ground out 6-3 - 1 out
2. Springer flies out F-8 - 2 out
3. Correa strikes out swinging - 3 out

Astros 0 Yankees 0

[eagle eye]

Bottom of 1st

1. Ellsbury strikes out swinging - 1 out
2. Hick four pitch walk - Man on 1st 1 out
3. Rodriguez hits into a double play 4U-3 - 3 out

Astros 0 Yankees 0

[eagle eye]

Top of 2nd

4. Rasmus ground out 4-3 - 1 out
5. Gomez strikes out swinging - 2 out
6. Valbuena grounds out 3-1 - 3 out

Astros 0 Yankees 0

[eagle eye]

Bottom of 2nd

4. Teixeira flies out F-7 - 1 out
5 Beltran ground ball to center field - man on first 1 out
6. McCann walks on 5 pitches - men on 1st and 2nd 1 out
7 Headley grounds out 6-3; Beltran to 3rd and McCann to 2nd - 2 out
8 Castro doubles to left; Beltran and McCann score - Yankees 2 Astros 0 2 out
9 Gregorius grounds out 6-3 - 3 out

Astros 0 Yankees 2

[eagle eye]

Pretty chilly in NY today. Currently sunny and 38o with a wind chill of 29o.

Top of 3rd

7 Tucker lines out to left F-7 - 1 out
8 Gonzalez grounds out 3U - 2 out
9 Castro flies out to left F-7 - 3 out

Astros 0 Yankees 2

[eagle eye]

Bottom of 3rd

1 Ellsbury pops up to 3B F-5 - 1 out
2 Hicks struck out looking - 2 out
3 Rodriguez walks in 6 pitches - man on 1st w/ 2 out
with Teixeira batting Rodriguez steals 2nd on a 2-2 count
4 Teixeira walks on 7 pitches - men on 1st and 2nd w/ 2 out
5 Beltran pops out to 2nd F-4 - 3 out

Astros 0 Yankees 2

Keuchel has walked 4 batters in his first 3 innings. Little off + a little squeezing by ump. Keuchel has worked hard in the 2nd and 3rd and he's thrown a total of 60 pitches in 3 innings.

[eagle eye]

Tanaka has faced the minimum so far and the top of the Astros order finally comes back up.

Top of 4th

1 Altuve doubles to left field on a 3-2 pitch - man on 2nd no out
2 Springer on a 3-0 pitch get an infield hit to 3B; Altuve to 3rd Springer on 1st - no out
3 Correa grounds to 3B; 5-4 out at 2nd; Altuve scores; Correa on 1st - 1 out Astros 1 Yankees 2
4 Rasmus grounds softly to 2B 4-3; Correa to 3B - 2 out
With Rasmus batting Correa steals 2B on a 2-1 count
5 Gomez strikes out looking - 3 out

Shitty AB for Gomez. I don't like this guy but Tanaka got Rasmus and Gomez and stopped the bleeding.

Astros 1 Yankees 2

[eagle eye]

Bottom of the 4th

6 McCann looping fly ball single to center field - man on 1B no out
7 Headley strikes out swinging - man on 1B 1 out
8 Castro grounds into a double play 5-4-3 - 3 out

Astros 1 Yankees 2

[eagle eye]

Top of the 5th

6 Valbuena grounds out 4-3 - 1 out
7 Tucker doubles to right field corner; man on 2B 1 out
8 Gonzalez (pick off attempt of Tucker on 2B by Tanaka fails) strike out on foul tip; man on 2B 2 out
9 Castro grounds out to the pitcher 1-3 - 3 out

Astros 1 Yankees 2

Tanaka has had to work the last two innings and he is up to 71 pitches through 5 innings. Keuchel begins the Yankees half of the 5th with 73 pitches. Keuchel could use an easy 1-2-3 inning right here. He will have the top of the Astros batting order coming up in the 6th so he needs to sit down the Yanks here in the 5th.

[eagle eye]

Bottom of 5th

9. Gregorius ground out to 2B 4-3 - 1 out
1 Ellsbury grounds out to 2B 4-3 - 2 out
2 Hicks flies out to center field F-8 - 3 out

Astros 1 Yankees 2

Keuchel got just what he needed, an easy inning. He needed only 11 pitches to get the Yankees out in order. He walks off the mound with 82 pitches thrown. He probably has one more inning so Houston's offense needs to crank it up right now.

[eagle eye]

Top of the 6th

1 Altuve grounds out to SS 6-3 - 1 out
2 Springer grounds out to the pitcher 1-3 - 2 outs
3 Correa homers on a 1-0 pitch to right field - Astros 2 Yankees 2 - 2 out
4 Rasmus walks on 7 pitches (nice job coming back from a 1-2 count to get the walk; man on 1B - 2 out
Masahiro Tanaka relieved by RHP Chason Shreve. Tanaka's line: 5.2 innings/2 ER/1 BB/4 K's Rasmus is Tanaka's responsibility
5 Gomez taps back to the pitcher 1-3 - 3 outs (I'm sorry, I have no patience with this guy)

Astros 2 Yankees 2

[eagle eye]

Bottom of 6th

3 Rodriguez lines out to SS L-6 - 1 out
4 Teixeira grounds out to the pitcher 1-3 - 2 out
5 Beltran flies out to deep center field F-8 - 3 out

Astros 2 Yankees 2

Keuchel needed only 8 pitches in the 6th. It depends on how he feels and what A J Hinch feels Keuchel should go but he can go one more inning IMO. He's up to 90 pitches so he's right on the borderline of what his limit should be for a first start. Wind is brutal 14 mph out of the north and they still have a wind chill of 29o.

[eagle eye]

Top of the 7th

The bottom of the Astros order hasn't done squat today. They need to pick it up.

6 Valbuena soft ground ball out to 2B 4-3 - 1 out
7 Tyler White pinch hitting for Preston Tucker (stupid move because Tucker is the only guy to get a hit from the 5 hole down to the 9 hole. I would have pinch hit for Valbuena) Tyler White singles to center field for his first major league hit; Man on 1B w/ 1- out
8 Gonzalez strikes out swinging on 6th pitch on check swing. - 2 out
9 Castro strikes out swinging on 7th pitch - 3 out (shitty AB by Castro)

Astros 2 Yankees 2

[eagle eye]

Bottom of the 7th

Keuchel comes out for the 7th inning but LHP Tony Sipp and RHP Will Harris are both warming up in the Astros bullpen

6 McCann strikes out swinging on 3 pitches - 1 out
7 Headley pops out to 2B F-4 - 2 out
8 Castro strikes out swinging on six pitches - 3 out

Astros 2 Yankees 2


Keuchel has retired 11 batters in a row and he's thrown 106 pitches. You have to feel Keuchel has done his job. If he is going to get the win the offense needs to step up. Fortunately the top of the Astros order is up.

[eagle eye]

Top of the 8th

Pitching change Chason Shreve is replaced by Dellin Betances.
Shreve's line: 1.1 innings/0 R/1 hit/0 BB's/2 K's

1 Altuve walks on 5 pitches; man on 1B no out
2 Springer flies out to left F-7 - man on 2B - 1 out
On a 0-1 count Altuve steals 2B
3 Correa grounds back to pitcher 1-3 but throwing error on Betances down the right field line. Correa safe at 1B; Altuve scores from 2B; man on 1B - 1 out Astros 3 Yankees 2
Yankees dispute the call saying runner ran in the field of play and interfered with play. Call upheld play by umps. Yankees manager Joe Girardi has announced that the game is being played under protest.
4 Rasmus walks on 6 pitches; men on 1B and 2B - 1 out
On a 2-2 pitch Correa attempts to steal 2B. Correa called out. Astros challenge the call. Call is overturned and Correa steals 2B.
5 Gomez strikes out swinging; men on 1st and 2nd - 2 outs (3rd K on Gomez today - did I mention I don't like him?)
6 Valbuena lines a single to left; Correa and Rasmus score; Valbuena advances to 2B on the throw to the plate; Astros 5 Yankees 2 - 2 out
Pitching change Betances replaced by Johnny Barbato
Line for Betances; 2/3 inning pitched/3 R; 1 ER/1 hit/2 BB's/1 K
7 White hit by pitch on the hand; men on 1st and 2nd; White stays in the game - 2 out
8 Gonzalez strikes out swinging - 3 out

Astros 5 Yankees 2

[eagle eye]

Bottom of the 8th

Pitching change; Keuchel replaced by RHP Ken Giles
Line for Keuchel; 7 innings/2 ER's/3 hits/4 BB's/5 K's

9 Gregorius hits HR on 2-2 pitch to right center field; Astros 5 Yankees 3 no out
1 Ellsbury strikes out swinging on 9th pitch - 1 out
2 Brett Gardner pinch hitting for Hicks; Gardner strikes out looking on 4th pitch a 95 mph fastball - 2 out
3 Rodriguez grounds out to SS 6-3 - 3 out

Astros 5 Yankees 3

Seems as though Giles got pissed off after giving up the lead off HR to the Yankee 9 hitter. Set the Yankees down in order after that with 2 K's

[eagle eye]

Top of the 9th

This is a situation I can see Gregerson blowing. I hope Houston gets a couple of insurance runs.

9 Castro strikes out swinging - 1 out
Castro had a good spring but he sucked today going 0-4 with 2 K's. Looking just like last year.
1 Altuve lined out to left field F-8 - 2 out
2 Springer strikes out swinging on 3 pitches (all sliders) - 3 out

Astros 5 Yankees 3

Bad AB's by Castro and especially Springer who chases 3 pitches off the outside of the plate. It's all up to Gregerson now----God help us.

[eagle eye]

Bottom of the 9th

Pitching change; Luke Gregerson comes in for Giles
Line for Giles: 1 IP/1 R/1 hit/0 BB's/2 K's

4 Teixeira grounds out to SS 6-3 - 1 out
5 Beltran strikes out swinging on 3 pitches - 2 out
6 McCann grounds out to 1B 3-1 -3 out

Astros 5 Yankees 3

Final line for Barbato: 1.1 IP/0 R/0 Hits/0 BB's/0 K's
Final line for Gregerson: 1 IP/0 R/0 Hits/0 BB's/1 K
WP: Keuchel (1-0)
LP : Betances (0-1)
SV : Gregerson (1)

2B Altuve (1); Tucker (1)
Correa 2 RBI's; Valbuena 2 RBI's
HR Correa (1) 6th inning off Tanaka 0 on 2 out
Team RISP: 2-11
Team LOB: 6
SB: Correa (2); Altuve (1)




R

H

E



Astros

5

6




Yankees

3

4

1




Houston has not lost an opening day game since joining the American League in 2013.
The Yankees have now lost 5 opening day games in a row.
The game was the 2nd coldest on record played by the Astros.
The Astros are tied for AL West lead with Texas by one game after one game. Just joking.

[eagle eye]

Yesterday's game was a testimony to the value of grit and determination. Dallas Keuchel didn't have his A game. He allowed a base runner in every inning in the first 5 innings. He made a mistake to the Yankees #8 hitter Starlin Castro who hit a 2 run double in the 2nd inning and that was after Keuchel gave up a single and a walk to set the table for Castro. It was cold and windy and the only saving grace was that the sun was out and shining brightly. During the radio broadcast the guys were talking about how the conditions affect the pitchers. About how, when it's cold and the air is dry, the baseball feels more like a cue ball and you do anything to get some moisture on your hands. Despite the fact that he struggled for 5 innings didn't deter Keuchel. He found another gear and shut down the Yankees offense in the sixth and seventh to not only get a quality start, it was a Cy Young worthy start. Two runs in seven innings of work is stellar especially when you consider the weather conditions.
The top of the Astros line up did their job. They scratched and clawed for every run they got. Of course the go ahead run in 8th was scored on throwing error by Yankees pitcher Dellin Betances who was trying to get Carlos Correa out on a dribbler up the first base line. Betances chunked the throw over 1B Mark Teixeira's head into right field with allowed Jose Altuve to score from 2B. Correa was 1-4 officially but he did reach on a fielder's choice play and he scored both times he was on base. He also had 2 RBI's in the game including a solo HR in the sixth inning to tie the game at 2. Preston Tucker was 1-2 in the game before being pulled for pinch hitter Tyler White who got his first big league hit in his first AB. White was hit on the hand by a pitch in his 2nd AB. White stayed in the game but he is listed as day to day for the time being but x-rays on his hand were negative so that is a good thing. Carlos Gomez and Marwin Gonzalez had terrible games at the plate. Both were 0-4 with 3 strike outs and Gomez especially looked lost. I expected more from Gonzalez who got the start at 1B. If I were managing I would have pinch hit for one of those guys instead of Tucker. But, it all worked out and Houston got a gutsy win in the Bronx.
The Astros send Colin McHugh to the mound this evening and the Yankees counter with Michael Pineda in a 6:05 PM CDT start. Of course a win tonight would guarantee the Astros win the opening series against the Yankees and that would be a nice way to start the season.

[eagle eye]

Did you hear that? That big ol' thud sound? Maybe it was drowned out by all the cracks off the Yankees bats. Last night's game was ugly from the git-go. 2015 19 game winner Colin McHugh was barely able to record a single out before he gave up 6 runs when he got the hook by A J Hinch. The trouble was Michael Feliz wasn't much better. He lasted 4.1 innings giving up the same 6 runs. By the end of the 3rd inning McHugh and Feliz had dug a hole the Astros bats couldn't dig their way out of because the Yankees had scored 12 runs. The Astros bats tried to get them back in the game but they didn't have enough firepower to keep up with the Yankees onslaught.
Houston jumped out to a one run lead in the top of the first then the bottom fell out. McHugh gave up six in the bottom of the frame with Feliz allowing runners charged to McHugh scoring before getting the final out. Houston tried making a comeback in the 2nd by scoring 4 runs which featured a grand slam HR by George Springer making the score 6-5 Yankees after 1-1/2 innings. In the 2nd and 3rd NY tacked on 3 more runs in each inning so by the end of the 3rd the Yanks led 12-5 and that was pretty much all she wrote. The rest of the game was an exercise in futility. When it was all said and done the Astros lost 16-6 in a game that I'm sure McHugh would love a do-over because that is definitely not the way he wanted to begin his 2016 campaign. I'm not making excuses for him because Dallas Keuchel had worse conditions but the weather was cold and the wind was blowing hard and last night it was blowing out toward the outfield whereas on Tuesday the wind was blowing in and Keuchel was a definite beneficiary of that. McHugh had trouble locating his pitches and he just didn't have his best stuff. I think he was victimized by the cold and windy conditions and stuff like that happens. I'm going on the premise that last night was an anomaly and not the rule.
One thing you hope isn't an anomaly was the night Carlos Correa had. He went 4-5 with two HR's and he's looking like the superstar he's been touted as coming into the season. Yesterday was Correa's first opening day in the bigs and, assuming he doesn't get hurt, 2016 will be his first full season in the bigs. You'd have to say he's looking good so far. Tyler White played his second career big league game last night and he made his first start in the field at 1B. Last night he went 2-4 at the plate and showed no ill effects after being hit in the finger by a pitch late in yesterday's game. Colby Rasmus bounced back after an oh-fer game Tuesday as he went 2-4. In all Houston banged out 12 hits and scored six runs but it was far too little after the poor night the pitching staff had.
The next man up for Houston today is Mike Fiers who, coming from Baltimore, should be used to pitching in cold weather conditions. At any rate he will be on the hill for Houston and RHP Nathan Eovaldi will be pitching for the Yanks as Houston looks to wrap up this first series win this afternoon beginning at 3:05 CDT.

[eagle eye]

The pitching staff was perceived as a strength coming into the season didn't show up after Tuesday, period. After Colin McHugh got bombed Wednesday along with every reliever that came in after him the hope was that Mike Fiers would be able to hold up and help the Astros win the series. Didn't happen Fiers gave up 5 runs in 5 innings and a couple of innings later the supposed savior of the bullpen, the high dollar guy that cost us former #1 draft pick Mark Appel, gave up a 2 out 3 run homer to Mark Teixeira to break a 5-5 tie and that's how the game ended giving the Yankees the opening series win with an 8-5 victory. In the final two games the Astors had double digit hits in both games and scored 6 and 5 runs and lost because the pitching staff gave up at total of 24 runs in the final two games, 16 on Wednesday and 8 yesterday. In most games you play scoring 5 or 6 runs is enough to win and Houston did that despite the fact that it took 9 AB's before Carlos Gomez got his first hit of the season or they got zero production at the plate from the catcher spot. Both Jason Castro and Erick Kratz went oh-fer for the entire series. Also the Astros scored 5 runs yesterday without the top 3 hitters in the lineup never got a hit or reached base in a way for the game and second four in the lineup carried the game for Houston. Rasmus, Gomez, Valbuena and White carried the game offensively for Houston. Let's not forget about Preston Tucker who had a hit in two AB's with an RBI and a run scored. The fact is Tyler White has come out smoking hot at the plate and yesterday was his best day yet going 3-4 with four RBI's including a 2-run HR and Preston Tucker has been pretty darn good to as he contributed the other RBI and scored a run in only 2 official AB's.

Early bitches:
> I have the opinion that AJ Hinch is too in love with the righty vs lefty, lefty vs righty dynamic when the opposing team changes pitchers. In both the final two games of this opening series Hinch pulled a guy with a hot bat out of the lineup because the new pitcher threw from the opposite side that starter threw from compelled Hinch to pull the batter even though the guy swung a hot bat an inserted a guy who hit from the other side. Personally, I don't pull a guy with a hot stick out of the lineup especially when the guy I'm putting in hasn't done squat for me. Tuesday and yesterday Hinch did exactly that. He pulled Preston Tucker who has been hitting the ball well since the season began and who was 1-2 with an RBI yesterday for Marwin Gonzalez who hasn't gotten a hit yet and Tuesday he pulled Tucker who was the only man in the bottom third of the lineup who had been hitting the ball for Tyler White who ended up getting his first big league hit. The trouble was Marwin Gonzalez and Carlos Gomez hadn't done anything and should have been the ones yanked rather than Tucker. This bitch is one I've had with Hinch since last year.
> WTF has happened since Houston has left Florida is crazy. This pitching staff looked pretty good in spring training and after Keuchel's gutty performance on Tuesday the pitching staff has been awful. Maybe I'm not giving the Yankees enough credit. They were a playoff team a 6 months ago. You can't judge a season by 3 games but I'd sure would have liked the pitchers come out better than what they've shown. It will be nice to get Lance McCullers back.
> I hate to keep harping on Ken Giles. The deal that allowed Houston go get him from Philadelphia was on Houston paid much too dearly for IMO and his poor spring and so-so start to 2016 hasn't exactly been what we paid for. In 2015 Giles gave up only 2 HR's all season but in just 2 appearances in 2016 he's given up two HR's. The first wasn't a disaster but it wasn't good either. It was Tuesday and Houston and Dallas Keuchel has scratched out a 5-3 lead when Giles gave off a lead off HR in the 8th inning to help NY close the gap to 5-4. He retired the Yanks in order after that so it was no harm no foul. Yesterday was different. Houston was tied 5-5 when he came on, again, in the 8th and allowed 2 base runners followed by a 3 run HR to give the Yankees the lead and eventually the win. Not good Ken.

This has been a week of firsts for Houston's newest first baseman Tyler White. On Tuesday he got his first major league AB and his first major league hit in that at bat. In his second AB he was hit by a pitch for the first time as a major leaguer. On Wednesday he played a position for the first time as a major league because he was a DH for the first time on Tuesday. Wednesday he got his first HR and his first RBI as a major leaguer. It was the first time he had 4 AB's in a major league game and he got his first ever multi hit game going 2-4. Yesterday White got his first 3 hit game as he went 3-4 and he had his first 4 RBI game as a major leaguer. There are a lot of "firsts" White has experienced in his first 3 games as a major leaguer but he is what has been advertised. A guy who doesn't strike out very often and guy who puts the ball in play with a little bit of power. So far after three games White is hitting a freakish .667 with an OPB of 1.811 in just 10 official AB's plus he's been on base in 9 of those 10 AB's because he was hit (get this) by the first major league pitch of Yankees reliever Johnny Barbato. He'll come back to earth at some point with some less favorable firsts but right now he has got to be riding around on cloud nine.

The Astros left NY and will begin a 3 gamer with Milwaukee tonight. Scott Feldman (5-5 in 18 starts with a 3.90 ERA of in 2015) will pitch for the Astros and Chase Anderson (6-6 in 27 starts with a 4.30 ERA in 2015) will go for the Brewers. It is a very early interleague series for both clubs but Houston and Milwaukee are old division rivals from the days when Houston was still in the National League.

[eagle eye]

What the hell is going on here? Our starting pitchers have SUCKED! Even Keuchel wasn't very good early in the opener in NY but at least he righted the ship and went 7 strong. Nobody else has done squat. Now, I will admit while Feldman wasn't very good early he made a bit of a comeback after the 2nd inning pitching two shutout innings after giving up 4 in the first two. 3 in the 1st and 1 in the 2nd to spot the Brewers a 4 run lead. Josh Fields came on in the 8th to give Milwaukee a 6 zip lead. Houston mounted a comeback in the 9th scoring 4 runs mainly on the strength of a Tyler White 3 run jack but the rally fell short after Colby Rasmus was called for an illegal slide into 2nd base on a Jose Altuve ground ball to 2nd base. Rasmus was out by a mile but the ball was hit too softly to get Altuve but the umps called Rasmus on the Utley rule which meant Altuve was out as well. AJ Hinch was one pissed off camper and he challenged the call but it was upheld. He was still fuming about it after the game. This incident was the 2nd enforcement of the Utley rule so far this season and in both instances it was pretty much a bogus call IMO. Houston can't get out of their own way to this point in the season and to lose to a team that is considered to be not very good is just too much to bear. You look forward to the season getting started and have such high expectations going in that for Houston to be 1-3 at this point sucks the big one.
Without rookie Tyler White Houston would have been humiliated over the past week. Yesterday's game could easily have a been 6-0 shutout if not for White's heroics. So far in 4 games White has had 13 AB's with 9 hits (no misprint--9) including 2 doubles, 2 HR's and 2 runs scored with 7 RBI's and 3 K's. The only thing White hasn't done is draw a walk but who's complaining? It sure as heck is not me. White's 9 hits broke a franchise record of 5 in 4 games by Ken Caminiti way back in 1987. Gee whiz is this kid on a streak! Too bad the rest of the team isn't keeping some sort of pace. I suppose you could Carlos Correa and Preston Tucker are doing their part but it's not enough to offset the total crap of the starting pitching so far. It doesn't help that Jose Altuve and George Springer are colder than a carp in an ice chest. Springer actually has more K's than hits so far.
Houston has made a couple of roster moves this past week. After getting carved up by the Yankees hitters on Wednesday Michael Feliz was optioned to AAA Fresno. To take Feliz' spot Houston called up P Chris Devenski from Fresno. Devenski didn't make it in time to play in any of the games against the Yankees but he made the trip to Milwaukee with the team and he actually got to pitch 3 innings in relief of Scott Feldman. He did a nice job giving up no runs on just one hit with 4 K's and no walks. That, my friends, is a quality relief appearance. Of course Josh Fields came on in the Brewer's 8th and allowed 2 more runs. I'm about done with Fields. Yeah, he can throw hard but he sucks at getting people out on a consistent basis. Sure makes all the pitchers Jeff Luhnow has been throwing away in trades seem all the more worse.

Doug Fister (5-7 in 15 starts and 25 appearances with an ERA of 4.19 in 2015) will try to stem the tide of bad starts tonight when he takes the hill against the Brewers. Milwaukee counters with RHP Wily Peralta (5-10 in 20 starts with an ERA of 4.80 in 2015). The first pitch is at 6:10 CDT. If the Astros beginning to the season wasn't tough enough Houston returns home Monday to begin a series with defending world champs KC Royals. If Houston doesn't clean up their act and pronto they could find themselves in a hell of hole starting the season.

[eagle eye]

Doug Fister wasn't great but he was good enough for Houston to get a 6-4 victory last night. He went 5 innings and threw 86 pitches and gave up 3 runs on the way to his first victory as an Astro. Colby Rasmus was the offensive hero last night as he went 2-3 including 2 home runs and a sac fly and he accounted for 4 of the Astros runs. The amazing Tyler White continued his run at the plate extending his hitting streak to 5 games as he went 1-2 with a walk and the other 2 RBI's. He hit another home run as he Rasmus went back to back in the 5th inning which gave Houston a 6-1 lead after 5 innings. The win ended a 3 game losing streak the Astros endured since an opening day win over the Yankees.
I don't know if Gary Pettis (Astros 3rd base coach) is just following orders or he just sucks at base coaching. I have been pissed at him several times from last April to now and he really pulled a boner last night. Carlos Gomez, in the 8th inning, laid down a perfect bunt and forced the 3rd baseman for the Brewers to rush his throw which went over the 1st baseman's head and into foul territory down the right field line. Before Gomez reached 2nd base he picked up Pettis who was waving him on to 3rd base but Gomez was thrown out on a play that wasn't all that close. Instead of having a man in scoring position with one out the Astros ended up with nobody on and 2 out. Given the Astros pitching woes an insurance run would have looked good going into the 9th inning. Speaking of pitching woes Pat Neshak came in to start the sixth inning and after recording the first out on a fly ball to center and strike out of former Astro Chris Carter Neshak gave up a solo HR to Brewers CF Kirk Nieuwenhuis which made the score 6-4 at the time. Fortunately, the score held up and Houston got a much needed win.
Dallas Keuchel (1-0, 2.57 ERA) makes his second start of the season today. He goes up against the Brewers Jimmy Nelson (0-1, 2.45 ERA) as Houston goes for the series win over the Brewers.
The rest of this month is pretty brutal schedule-wise. In order the face Kansas City at home for 4, Detroit at home for 3, Texas in Arlington for 3, Boston at home for 3, Seattle in Seattle for 3 and the finish the month in Oakland facing the A's. A win today is pretty big as Houston goes through a really tough part of their schedule. April could literally be a make or break month for the Astros.

[eagle eye]

People thought that the 4 walks Dallas Keuchel gave up in his opening game against the Yankees was an anomaly. It wasn't "Keuchel-like" at all. Well, how are we to explain the SIX walks Keuchel gave up today? The walks go along with the 6 hits, 3 were doubles, that resulted in 3 earned runs on his line score. Keuchel also recorded 8 K's or his day could have been much worse. If you give up 3 runs in 5.2 innings you would have to think you've done your job and he did. Keuchel had 110 pitches which means he battled his behind off which is VERY "Keuchel-like". Unfortunately, Keuchel got no run support. In fact, the offense got only 3 lousy hits off Milwaukee pitching. Jose Altuve got a lead off home run to give the Astros an early 1-0 lead and after Keuchel gave up 2 runs in the bottom of the 1st the Brewers had a 2-1 lead which expanded to a 3-1 lead after Keuchel gave up a run in the bottom of the 4th. In the top of the 5th Preston Tucker hit a solo HR to pull the Astros to within 1 run. Neither Houston nor Milwaukee scored again so the Brewer hung on for a 3-2 victory and the series win over the Astros who have now lost their first two series of the season with a brutal part of their schedule coming up beginning Monday against Kansas City. The Astros had Jose Altuve on 2nd base with one out in the top of the 3rd he got picked off by Brewers catcher Martin Maldonado when he led off the base too far. One thing Houston has not learned to correct from last year is boneheaded base running errors. It reached out an bit the Astros again in the 4th when Carlos Correa on 1st base due to a walk to lead off the inning he was picked off by starting P Jimmy Nelson. Houston had a bit of a rally going in the 8th when, after a Carlos Gomez pinch hit K, Luis Valbuena walked and Jake Marisnick pinch-ran for him. Next up was Jose Altuve hit a comebacker to the mound but P Michael Blazek made a bad throw and the ball ended up in left center field allowing Marisnick to advance to 3rd and Altuve ended up on 2nd. Two runners in scoring position with your 2 and 3 hitters coming to the plate needing just a fly ball deep enough to score Marisnick from 3rd. A base hit and the Astros take the lead. But, it wasn't to be because George Springer hit a fly ball into shallow center field not nearly deep enough to score the runner at 3rd and Carlos Correa grounds out to short. Today's game was the lowest run output by the Astros so far this season and as you might expect it cost them the game and certainly cost Keuchel a loss.

The Astros got some good news last night after Evan Gattis when 3-4 with a HR in his rehab game with AA Corpus Christi. So far in 3 games Gattis has gone 5-12 in 3 games with the Hooks and after last night's game Gattis sent AJ Hinch a one word text that said, "Ready". Gattis took the day off today but he will be in the Hooks lineup on Monday in what is considered his last rehab game at Corpus. It is being reported that Gattis will play for the Astros at some point during the upcoming Kansas City series beginning Monday and lasting through Thursday. Gattis has changed his look recently shaving off his beard and the hair on his head for a much cleaner look that last year's "caveman" persona.


http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/45/21/37/9770959/4/920x920.jpg

Colin McHugh will look to redeem himself tomorrow when he pitches the home opener against Kansas City tomorrow night. KC will have Chris Young on the mound for the Royals.

Maybe I'll just leave the Astros alone this week and not post at all. Maybe this crappy start to the season is my fault. I hope not, I hope it's just the Astros coming into the season taking some things for granted that have not been coming through as planned. A little road bad luck slap in the face that hopefully snap the team out of the this funk before things get ugly.

[eagle eye]

The Astros are 1-1 so far against the defending world champion KC Royals. Colin McHugh made a nice comeback from his first start. I think it was funny that his ERA going into the game with KC on Monday night was 135.0 after he went 1/3 of an inning surrendering 6 ER's. On Monday night he went 7 shutout innings and he worked his way out of a couple of tough jams and came out unscathed. Colby Rasmus continues getting hits and driving in runs. I don't know what kind of epiphany he experienced in the off season but that young man is en fuego! Houston won the opening game against KC 8-2 with strong performances from the top of the lineup. The only bitch you could list is Houston is still prone to bonehead base running plays. These are plays you don't see much after the little league level. Last night George Springer got picked off 1st base after drawing a lead off walk in the inning. Later, in the same inning Carlos Correa was on first and when Colby Ramsus hit a sharp line drive to 2B the Royals 2B Omar Enfante jumped up and appeared to catch the ball before it fell to the ground. Correa was caught and I'm not sure what he could have done differently other than continue to run to 2B and force the Royals to choose which guy they got out. As it was, Correa hesitated and KC forced Rasmus at first and got Correa out on in a rundown between first and second. The Astros lost 3-2 last night with every run scored in the game came in the first inning. The difference in the game was Astros starter Mike Fiers mistake was worse than KC starter Kris Medlen's. In the top of the first Fiers gave up 3 straight hits to start the game, the 3rd hit being a 3-run HR by Lorenzo Cain for an early 3 zip lead. Houston came right back in the bottom of the inning when Medlen gave up singles to Altuve and Springer before he got Correa to ground into a 5-4-3 double play. Rasmus then came up and hit an RBI double to center field and Tyler White followed that with an RBI single to right that scored Rasmus. So, clutch two out RBI hits is a good thing.

It seemed like it happened more that it actually did but the TV guys noted in the 9th inning as Houston looked to be mounting a possible game winning rally that Houston had 15 wins in their final at bat in 2015 and it really looked for all the world that last was going to be the first of 2016. Sort of a payback for last year's division series loss at the hands of these same Royals but it wasn't to be as Jose Altuve and George Springer failed to drive in the tying run, much less the winning run, with two on in the 9th.

Interesting factoid: Jose Altuve has more multi-hit games (236) than he has games when he goes oh-fer (166). That is an amazing stat. Also, nobody in baseball has as many hits over the last 3 seasons as Altuve. Last night Altuve went 0-4 with a walk so that makes 167 games when Altuve doesn't record a hit. Slacker!

Last night was Evan Gattis' first game in the Astros lineup in 2016 and he has completed his rehab from sports hernia surgery back in early February. Gattis was reminded last night that the quality of pitching at the big league level is better than the pitching in AA where he did his rehab assignment. He was in the lineup in the 7 hole where he went 0-4 with 3 K's last night. Hopefully, Gattis won't begin this season like last season when he couldn't buy a hit in April. The Astros offense has been inconsistent so far this season on offense and defense. They need to clean up their act before they fall too far off the pace to come back. I know it's early but historically if Houston start out slow the odds they make the playoffs are pretty slim.

The bottom 1/3 of the Astros order has not been all that good this season with the exception of a game or two. You can't keep handcuffing your team like that and expect to win consistently. Last night the 7-8-9 hitters, 5 players all told, combined to go 0-10 with 2 walks and 3 K's. Jason Castro is hitting .100 on the season and backup catcher Erik Kratz has yet to get a hit in 2016. I still think Tyler Heineman should have been the backup catcher going into the season rather than signing a guy who really isn't worth the money you are paying him. Hopefully, the Astros will start working Gattis in at catcher as was the plan before he had his surgery and missed all of spring training.

Lance McCullers was at the Juice box on Tuesday night. Earlier in the day he threw a bullpen session at the stadium for the Astros coaches and he is scheduled to return to Corpus Christi to continue his rehab assignment. The hope is McCullers will be back in the rotation in Houston within a week or two.

To make room for Evan Gattis Houston sent Matt Duffy down to AAA Fresno. The question is who will have to go down when McCullers returns to the lineup?

[eagle eye]

The Astros lost 4-2 last night and it's the same thing yet again. No offense despite a great night by one, maybe two, guys and sub par pitching. Houston is better than this, or rather, you would think they are better than this. Unlike last season when they came out of the gate hot as south Texas grass fire Houston seems to be handing games over to their opponents. Their record now stands at 3-6, 2 games back of division leading LA and 3 games under .500. Not what anyone would have expected after last season. The goat of last night's game is reliever Ken Giles but his problem is the same as the whole pitching staff. It appears that 2 outs is the Astros kryptonite because bad things happen to then after 2 outs have been recorded. Compound that with an 0-2 or 1-2 count which is clearly in the pitcher's favor and you've got a disaster on the way. Even in spring training it seemed as though with 2 outs it was time to start worrying and last night it was more of the same. Ken Giles had retired the first two batters in the 8th inning in a 2-2 ball game when he allowed a walk to Alex Gordon after getting to a 2-2 count. Next batter up was C Salvador Perez and Giles got him in a 0-2 hole. He threw a ball hoping he would chase that left the count 1-2. The next pitch was a hanging slider that Perez blasted over the left field wall for a go ahead 2-run HR. Ballgame. For the 3rd time in the last 4 games Houston has scored but 2 runs and not coincidently they were all losses. I am not sure why the lineup is either collectively hot or collectively cold. They don't pick each other up and they don't seem to be able to hit worth a crap when the game is on the line. You cannot lose 6 times in 9 games and be happy. Despite having a good spring George Springer is struggling at the plate hitting an anemic .216 and he's striking out---a lot. It doesn't help that Colby Rasmus is coming down to earth and Tyler White is no longer hitting a ridiculous .554 like he was last week when he was named AL Player of the Week in his first week as a big league player. Jason Castro got a triple last night, his 2nd 3 bagger of the season. Unfortunately it's his 3rd hit of the season. You add in 3 walks to his hit total and you've got a guy with more strike outs than hits and walks combined 10-6. The Astros as a team had more K's (11) than hits and walks combined (10). It's frustrating watching this team constantly shoot themselves in the foot in all phases of the game. Poor pitching, poor hitting, poor fielding and poor base running. AJ Hinch needs to have a serious talk with this team about playing smart baseball because they are not playing smart at all. What's painfully clear is that this young team is learning each season is different and the magic they possessed in 2015 has become an evil voodoo doll other teams are sticking pins into on nightly basis. Damn, I was so looking forward to this season and to have it begin like this is pure agony. I guess it's not how you start that matters, it's how you finish but I wish Houston would wake the hell up from this nightmare and play some baseball.

[eagle eye]

Kryptonite. 2 outs in an inning is almost certain disaster for the Astros. It happened again last night. Doug Fister cruised along for 5 innings giving up but a single run but after a lead off single in the 6th Fister retired the next two batters. Everything is under control right? Yeah, right. Back-to-back-to-back doubles after another single changed everything. Not even a visit to the mound by pitching coach Brent Strom could stop the bleeding as Fister gave up an RBI single to the very next batter. What was a 1-0 deficit and the Astros totally in the game turned into a 6-0 hole Houston just wasn't going to climb out of. Of the nine hits Fister gave up in his 5.2 innings 6 came in that nightmarish 6th. It is totally amazing how fast things fall apart for this team. What is most depressing is Houston's offense went totally stagnant after the series opening win when they scored 8 runs. The final score of that game was 8-2 and, ironically enough, that was the theme of this series, the losing team scored 2 runs. and for the 3rd consecutive game Houston only managed 2 runs on 5 hits while KC scored 6 runs on 13 hits. I can understand good pitching can hold down an offense but these Royals aren't all Cy freaking Young. Their 5th man in the rotation Ian Kennedy made Houston look foolish last night as he went 7 innings allowing just 2 hits and 1 run, a HR by Jose Altuve in the 7th. As hot as this team was when the season began they have gone the opposite direction. The guys who started out hot have not only cooled off they have become nearly frigid. Carlos Correa was hitting everything but he's not recently. He's not the only one. Colby Rasmus cooled off considerably as has Tyler White but at least they still are getting their hits. We keep waiting for George Springer to find himself at the plate and Carlos Gomez hasn't been doing much at all. Jason Castro and Erik Kratz have been awful and Jake Marisnick still hasn't gotten a hit. Evan Gattis got his first hit of the season in a pinch hitting role for Castro last night. So we lost the series against KC last night which mean we've lost our first three series of the season. Not a great start and we are now at 3-7 on the season and dead last in the division.

We begin a home series against Detroit beginning tonight and the hope is Houston can start turning this thing around. Dallas Keuchel takes the mound while Mike Pelfrey goes for Detroit. We really need Keuchel to dominate tonight in his first home start of the season.

Today every player in the league will be wearing No. 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day around the league.

[eagle eye]

Isn't Dallas Keuchel amazing? At home he is down right astounding. Can you imagine pitching in a game and giving up just 3 runs and it's considered a sub par outing? That's exactly what happened last Sunday in the Astros series finale in Milwaukee when Houston lost the game 3-2. If you go at least 5 innings and give up 3 runs or less it's considered a quality start. Actually, Keuchel went 5-2/3 giving up 6 hits and 3 runs. Me and a host of other wrote about Keuchel's rough outing? Now, I'd have to say that Keuchel has been the most snake bit starter on the Astros staff the past 2 couple of years because he's either been betrayed by a porous bullpen or didn't get any run support. For the whole damn game last night I thought one or both of these maladies would reach up and bit Keuchel in the behind. After a Houston's offense scored one run in the top of the 1st on an RBI single by Colby Rasmus scoring George Springer to take an early lead I couldn't help feeling disaster was about to strike. Especially after Houston blew an opportunity to blow open the game in that 1st inning. After Rasmus' single the Astros had men on 1st and 2nd with one out. Tyler White walked to load the bases but the rug got yanked out of Keuchel's early run support when Evan Gattis struck out looking and Carlos Gomez grounded out to end the inning. Houston had a golden opportunity to build on their lead when the Astros began the 2nd inning with a walk, a single and another walk to load the bases with no outs. The Astros hitting choked again as Springer struck out and Carlos Correa grounded into an inning ending double play. If I'm Keuchel I'm more than a little frustrated by now. At minimum Houston should have been up 3-0 because a couple of sac flies and 2 more runs could have been added. But NOOOOOOOOOOOO.
The Astros put the first two men on in the 3rd on a Rasmus single and another White walk but again Detroit wriggled out of a jam with the help of another inning ending double play. Carlos Gomez stranded a small army of potential runs in the 1st and 3rd innings. George Springer had his share of futility with runners in scoring position in the 2nd and 4th innings. In the first 4 innings Houston had runners on 3rd and didn't score one run. By now Keuchel has to be thinking WTF, dudes! But he kept on being his usual steady self. In 2015 he went 16-0 pitching at the Juice Box but it was just so ominous after so many blown opportunities to score that the game would get out of hand at some point. All the frustration didn't seem to affect Keuchel at all as he kept chugging along. He was spotting almost all his pitches perfectly and when he missed it was out of the strike zone or off the plate. He just didn't leave anything for the Tigers to hit. Ground ball after ground ball with an occasional strike out Keuchel just kept rolling along. He was never in any serious trouble for the entirety of the 8 innings he pitched. Luke Gregerson came on in the 9th and I just knew if the game was going to be lost the stage was set for another bullpen meltdown. But, lo and behold, the meltdown never came, Gregerson retired the side in order on a ground out and 2 fly balls to center to preserve a brilliant 1-0 shutout of the ever dangerous Detroit Tigers. Dallas Keuchel's final line score was 0 runs on 5 hits, a walk and 4 K's and he lowered his ERA to 2.18. The beards were out as "Keuchel's Korner" was there to cheer their hero on and he did not disappoint running his consecutive win streak at MM Park to 17 straight.
Colby Rasmus continues to produce in the clean up spot. I don't know what epiphany he experienced this off season but I hope this the new and improved Colby who doesn't strike out much and he puts the ball in play with power. Maybe it was the contract extension the Astros gave him in the offseason. It sure makes a difference when you feel wanted and appreciated. You go Colby!
Tyler White has cooled off some as his BA is coming back down to earth but he's still hitting a very healthy .412 through the first two weeks of the season. He went 0-2 with 2 walks last night and that is what I love about what White looked to be bringing to the table from the minors. A guy who made contact and didn't strike out much. Just what this lineup doctor ordered after 4 years of leading the league in K's as a team. The Astros still have issues with strikeout thanks mostly to George Springer, Jason Castro and Carlos Gomez. Gomez is embarrassing to watch as he often swings so hard he falls down on his follow through and loses his helmet. Gomez is ridiculously out of control, looking more like a pee-wee leaguer instead of at big leaguer.

In the "what the hell" department. I don't understand why we always have players who struggle as Astros and they go on to become All Stars and Hall of Famers somewhere else. The Houston franchise is rife with this head scratching trend. Recent case in point, JD Martinez who struggled to find his ass with both hands much less hit a baseball with any consistency. He goes to Detroit and he becomes an All Star. He is currently hitting a robust .412 with 3 doubles and a HR with 5 BB's and 5 K's. He's been a different player since leaving Houston. Or how about DeLino DeShields, Jr? He's hitting .289 and he finished 7th in Rookie of the Year voting in 2015 while with the Rangers. He couldn't crack the lineup in Houston. At Texas he's hitting leadoff for the Rangers. Maybe the most annoying player is Chris Carter. In the last 3 years prior to 2016 Carter did not record a BA above the Mendoza Line. He did have a nice run for Houston in last September and the playoffs and he did have a great month of September for Houston in 2014 but basically he couldn't hit a breaking ball and set MLB records for K's in a season in 2013. Now in Milwaukee, after Houston got tired of waiting for Carter to find some modicum of consistency did not offer him a contract when he became a free agent at the end of the 2015 season, Carter is hitting .300 after the first week and half of the season. He is still striking out a lot but he's got two less than George Springer at this point. It is uncanny how this phenomenon keeps rolling on and on.

Bad news on the Lance McCullers front. He is experiencing soreness after he pitches during his rehab a AA Corpus Christi. He was supposed to pitch today but after his experienced pain in his shoulder after his last start the Astros decided he would get some extra rest. He feels fine every day including days he pitches but it's the extra pain and soreness the day after he pitches that has the Astros concerned. They have been extremely cautious with him during his rehab because they are concerned for his long term health. They don't want to do something that will shorten his career as has happened to a lot of other pitchers around the league in the past. Houston could sure use him so I'm proud of the management for being patient because Houston's F Troop, the back end of their starting rotation, Fiers, Feldman and Fister have struggled to this point for a combined record of 1-3 to date. It would be very tempting to rush McCullers back but I'm glad they aren't doing that.

Collin McHugh goes tonight for Houston as he is coming a nice rebound from his disastrous 1st start in NY against the Yankees with a nice 8-2 win over KC in the series opener this past Monday. As a matter of fact, it is the only game Houston won in that series. Tonight he takes the hill against Detroit who will send Justin Verlander out to face the Astros. This isn't going to be a case of the irresistible force against the immovable object as the Astros have been cold as ice in the run scoring department. In their last 4 games they have scored 2, 2, 2 and 1 runs and they have gone 1-3 in those games. Verlander hasn't been all that either as he's begun 2016 0-1 in two starts allowing 13 hits and 10 ERs in 10.1 innings of work. The question will be who will find themselves tonight? Will the Houston offense wake up and take advantage of a pitcher who has been struggling or will Verlander find his groove and shut down the anemic Astros bats? It should be a good, albeit frustrating, game to watch.

[eagle eye]

The recurring theme of the first 12 games in this season is Houston can't help but get in their own way. Even in their wins there have been runs left on the table but they just keep killing themselves with poor base running, poor situational hitting and just overall spotty play. Houston lost to Detroit last night by a score of 5-3 after jumping on Justin Verlander for 3 runs in the 1st inning. The problem was they didn't score another run the rest of the game. Collin McHugh was okay going 5.1 innings giving up 4 runs on 10 hits, the most damaging hit came from C Jarrod Saltalamacchia who launched a 2 run HR in the 6th inning that pretty much ended McHugh's night. The Tigers got an insurance run in the 9th off Josh Fields but it didn't matter because Houston hasn't got an ounce of clutch in them to this point. If not for two stellar performances by Dallas Keuchel Houston wouldn't have the 4 wins they have on the season. The one outing Keuchel's had in his 3 starts that would be considered average Houston lost 3-2. At their current record of 4-8 it would take a full week to just get to .500 but Houston isn't showing the spark to win like that. Last night there were 4 players in the lineup with sub .200 batting averages. Shades of 2015 only without the home run pop. Last season Houston pretty much lived and died with the home run. Last night Houston had base runners in every inning except the 2nd, 8th and 9th. By the 8th and 9th I really think Houston had thrown in the towel realizing that resistance to the inevitable Tigers win was futile. Too bad.

[eagle eye]

This could be the most important day of the year when it's looked back upon down the road. Of course I'm referring to the Astros win today over the Detroit Tigers. It is the best 5-4 win Houston has had in a while because it stems the tide of losing that the Astros have been on since Day 2 of the 2016 season. It marks their first series win this season and it's the first time you can really say the team was clutch when it had to be. The starting pitching wasn't great outside of Dallas Keuchel's effort on Friday night. It cost Collin McHugh a victory but fortunately the Astros offense scored just enough to get Mike Fiers the win today.
Fiers line score was real similar to McHugh's as he gave up 7 hits, allowed 4 runs with 5 K's and no walks. The killer for Fiers who lasted 1/3 of an inning longer than McHugh, 5-2/3, was the 3 long balls he gave up. Really it the first to Jarrod Saltamacchia in the 4th didn't mean much but add the 2 run shot in the 5th by Ian Kinsler and the solo shot in the 6th, which ended Fiers' day, made things interesting. In another ah-oh situation the Astros held up like they did on Friday night. Tony Sipp, Pat Neshak, Ken Giles and Luke Gregerson combined to shut out the Tigers for the final 3-1/3 innings. Giles is notable because he has struggled so far this season his scoreless 8th inning was more like the fireball throwing pitcher they signed this off season. Gregerson continues to be money and make AJ Hinch look like he knows what he's doing naming him to be the closer coming out of spring training.
On the Astros website yesterday they mentioned that the one bright spot in the loss to Detroit was the apparent breakout of an extended slump by George Springer who went 3-4 with a HR Saturday night. It seems like I can scratch the "apparent" part of his breakout. Today he went 2-4 with another HR today as he and Jose Altuve both homered. Altuve led the Astros with 3 RBI's today and he's back over .300 hitting since he started out the season slowly. Another guy who has been slumping at the plate in recent games is Carlos Correa and Hinch gave him the day off which will turn into 2 days off as Houston will be off tomorrow as the travel up I-45 to take on the Rangers beginning Tuesday.
The weekend ends well and despite at 3-4 record for the week it ends on high note which is a first for this young season.

[eagle eye]

Even on an off day the Astros managed to make some news. Jose Altuve was named co-Player of the Week in the AL yesterday after a huge week last week. Altuve struggled some in the first week of the season but he was his old awesome self in Week 2. It is the first time ever that Astros have been named POTW in back to back weeks to begin the season. Tyler White made his major league debut in Week 1 and had one of the most amazing first week as a big leaguer ever earning POTW honors.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/173088382/jose-altuve-named-al-co-player-of-the-week


If you look at the standings the Astros are not in terrible shape despite their slow start to the season. It's not like anyone else is tearing up the league. Houston begins a 3 game series with Texas tonight and if all goes well we could actually end up in first place with a .500 record. Sounds pretty lame right? I figured, but it is only the 3rd week of the season and there is a lot of baseball left so let's hope the past two weeks have been the exception rather than the rule.






W

L

PCT

GB



Texas (http://www.texasrangers.com/)

7

6

0.538

-



LA
Angels (http://www.angels.com/)

6

7

0.462

1



Oakland (http://www.athletics.com/)

6

7

0.462

1



Seattle (http://www.mariners.com/)

5

7

0.417

1.5



Houston (http://www.astros.com/)

5

8

0.385

2





Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the first artificial turf used in pro sports and it was right down the road in Houston at the historic Astrodome.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/172874106/artificial-turfs-50th-anniversary-in-baseball

Tonight Houston sends Scott Feldman (0-1, 3.48 ERA) to the hill in Arlington to face the Rangers. Texas counters with Derek Holland (1-0, 2.31 ERA). Game time is 7:10 PM on Root Sports for the Astros broadcast and Fox Sports Southwest for the Rangers broadcast.

[eagle eye]

The ESPN highlight will be a over-the-head-as-he's-running-toward-center-field catch by Carlos Correa in the 7th inning of the Astros-Rangers game last night but what will be missed is the routine ground ball in the first inning that Correa booted instead of recording the 2nd out of the inning that opened the flood gates for the Rangers who ended up sending 8 men to the plate in the first scoring 3 runs, only 2 earned, which included a 2 run HR by Prince Fielder with the man Correa allowed on base to begin the game. Starter Scott Feldman ended up throwing 41 pitches in the inning and he barely made it through 5 innings throwing 105 pitches. Josh Fields came on in the sixth and never retired a batter but he gave up 2 runs on 4 hits with no walks and no K's. BTW, he faced only 4 batters in the inning. To begin the inning Houston trailed Texas 4-2 but by the time the inning was over it was 6-2 and the way Houston has been going as far this season that is what is known as an insurmountable lead. Newcomer Chris Devenski came on in relief of Fields and held the Rangers to just the 2 runs Fields allowed but in the seventh after Houston closed the gap to 6-4 on back-to-back jacks by Jose Altuve and George Springer Devenski gave up an insurance run to the Rangers on a Mitch Mooreland HR with 1 out in the inning. Houston got an oh-by-the-way run in the 9th on a ground out by Altuve that scored Colby Rasmus who walked, stole 2nd base and advanced to 3rd on a fly ball to center. That was the best Houston could do. It's the same old bug-a-boo that has killed Houston since the 2nd day of the season, poor pitching from the starters and the bullpen and lack of ability to hit with runners in scoring position. Last night Houston was 2-10 with runners in scoring position. Since opening day Houston has had only 5 quality starts out of 14 games played with 2 of them recorded by Dallas Keuchel. The Astros are 27th in of all of baseball in team ERA at 4.98 they are 28th in BA with RISP at .184. It's not hard to see why Houston is 5-9 at this point. For most of 2015 the starting pitching was well above average with Keuchel and McHugh leading the staff. So far this season only Keuchel is holding his end up in the starting rotation. His 2.18 ERA paces the team but the rest of the starters stink. The other four starters in descending order of ERA's are Scott Feldman (0-2) 4.11 ERA, Collin McHugh (1-2) 6.39 ERA, Mike Fiers (1-1) 6.48 ERA and Doug Fister (1-1) 7.59 ERA. The relievers aren't much better. Trust me on this, without going through all their stats they have a collective ERA of 5.00 but it's really 3 guys who can't hold anyone. Tony Sipp (5.79 ERA), Ken Giles (7.94 ERA) and Josh Fields (11.37 ERA) are the main culprits here. Michael Feliz made four appearances but his last one was a disaster and got him sent down to AAA but his 12.46 ERA still counts against the team numbers. The Astros brought up Chris Devenski to replace Feliz and he's been quite good. The run he allowed last night is the first he's given up in 4 appearances and 8.1 innings of work. 3 of those innings came last night. It looks like Houston has another young arm for long relief in their bullpen now.

Houston sends Doug Fister to the hill tonight to face Texas' Cole Hamels (2-0, 2.95 ERA). Run support could be a little hard to come by for Houston so Fister needs to up his game for Houston to have a chance.

Last night Texas starting pitcher Derek Holland was the first lefty starting pitcher Houston has face this season. As a result Jake Marisnick got the start over Colby Rasmus and Marwin Gonzalez got the start over Luis Valbuena.

The Astros are encouraged by a bullpen session off a mound yesterday by Lance McCullers. The real test will be if he feels pain or extra soreness in his right shoulder today.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/173279354/lance-mccullers-throws-bullpen-session

AJ Hinch had a big honor bestowed upon him on Tuesday when the PAC 12 named him to the PAC 12 All Century Team. Hinch was a standout catcher from 1992 to 1996 at Stanford.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/173207768/aj-hinch-named-to-pac-12-all-century-team

It's hard to imagine but Jose Altuve may have made an adjustment to his swing that will make him even more effective at the plate. In the Astros postgame show on Root Sports after last night's loss the studio crew of Kevin Eschenfelder and Mike Stanton along with Art Howe talked about how Altuve has improved his posture at the plate and noted how he no longer lunges at pitches on the outside half of the plate. The credit his new more balanced stance and swing that allowed Altuve to hit an opposite field HR in the game earlier in the evening. Altuve won the AL batting title in 2014 and came in 2nd in the AL in batting last season. It's hard to imagine he's made adjustments that have made him a better hitter!

George Springer has definitely broken out of his early slump. Last night he went 2-5 with a HR. It's the 3rd multi-hit game in a row for Springer who broke out of his slump against Detroit last weekend.

2015 2nd pick in the MLB draft Alex Bregman was a good player coming out of LSU but nobody could have foreseen him catching on fire in AA Corpus Christi the way he has. In the link below MLB.com writer Jonathan Mayo give his top 10 minor league duos by franchise. Coming in at number 6 in a tie with a duo with the Brewers Bregman and P Francis Martes are representing for the Astros organization early in this season. Bregman looked like a lost little lamb in spring training and his sub .100 BA in Florida was truly indicative of his performance in his first big league spring training. Clearly Bregman wasn't ready for big league pitching but he's taken any frustration from big league camp out on AA pitching so far.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/173086366/jonathan-mayo-on-the-top-10-prospect-duos

[eagle eye]

I am just disgusted with the Astros right now. The team got a superior performance from starter Doug Fister and the Astros had more than an ample opportunity to get to Cole Hamels last night but absolutely stupid base running and piss poor hitting with runners in scoring position sank any chance the Astros could beat the Rangers. They have now dropped the first two games of the series which means they have lost the series when they had the chance to actually take over the division lead. Houston was 1-12 with runners in scoring position and their base running has gotten to the point of ridiculousness. The Astros had the bases loaded with nobody out in the top of the 2nd and got nothing. In fact poor base running resulted in a weird double play. With nobody out and the bases loaded Marwin Gonzalez hit a fly ball to right field but it was too shallow for Colby Rasmus to score from 3rd. He faked going down the line to draw the throw and for some reason Carlos Gomez, who was on 1st came off the base and was nearly half way to 2nd when the catcher noticed Gomez had gotten too far off the bag and he threw behind Gomez to the first baseman. That was it, Gomez was meat. He was caught in no man's land and he tried to keep the attention focused on him so Rasmus could score from 3rd. The Rangers were alert for than and Rasmus was gunned down at home on a really weird F9-2-4-2 double play that stemmed for some stupid base running by Gomez. The thing that really aggravates me about him is wouldn't own his mistake. Check out this excerpt from Astros.com -

"I looked at the mark, and I'm not even halfway," Gomez said. "I'm more toward first base. We see Colby take off, and he [stopped], and we had to stop, too. They take advantage and throw it to first and got me. They played well. It's nobody's fault."

Nobody's fault? Seriously? I have been saying for a long time I don't like Gomez and I like him even less now. Here's the whole article and it sounds like AJ Hinch is getting pissed off about the way the Astros are playing stupid baseball and have been since day one. If I'm AJ Hinch I bench Gomez. He's not hitting anyway and he doesn't give you anything in the field that Jake Marisnick can't do, maybe even better. Marisnick isn't a narcissistic putz like Gomez either. To me, the Astros team chemistry has gone south since he came to Houston last August. I'm sick of this guy.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/173582136/aggressiveness-proves-costly-for-astros

[puddin tane]

I am just disgusted with the Astros right now. The team got a superior performance from starter Doug Fister and the Astros had more than an ample opportunity to get to Cole Hamels last night but absolutely stupid base running and piss poor hitting with runners in scoring position sank any chance the Astros could beat the Rangers. They have now dropped the first two games of the series which means they have lost the series when they had the chance to actually take over the division lead. Houston was 1-12 with runners in scoring position and their base running has gotten to the point of ridiculousness. The Astros had the bases loaded with nobody out in the top of the 2nd and got nothing. In fact poor base running resulted in a weird double play. With nobody out and the bases loaded Marwin Gonzalez hit a fly ball to right field but it was too shallow for Colby Rasmus to score from 3rd. He faked going down the line to draw the throw and for some reason Carlos Gomez, who was on 1st came off the base and was nearly half way to 2nd when the catcher noticed Gomez had gotten too far off the bag and he threw behind Gomez to the first baseman. That was it, Gomez was meat. He was caught in no man's land and he tried to keep the attention focused on him so Rasmus could score from 3rd. The Rangers were alert for than and Rasmus was gunned down at home on a really weird F9-2-4-2 double play that stemmed for some stupid base running by Gomez. The thing that really aggravates me about him is wouldn't own his mistake. Check out this excerpt from Astros.com -

"I looked at the mark, and I'm not even halfway," Gomez said. "I'm more toward first base. We see Colby take off, and he [stopped], and we had to stop, too. They take advantage and throw it to first and got me. They played well. It's nobody's fault."

Nobody's fault? Seriously? I have been saying for a long time I don't like Gomez and I like him even less now. Here's the whole article and it sounds like AJ Hinch is getting pissed off about the way the Astros are playing stupid baseball and have been since day one. If I'm AJ Hinch I bench Gomez. He's not hitting anyway and he doesn't give you anything in the field that Jake Marisnick can't do, maybe even better. Marisnick isn't a narcissistic putz like Gomez either. To me, the Astros team chemistry has gone south since he came to Houston last August. I'm sick of this guy.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/173582136/aggressiveness-proves-costly-for-astros


Gomez sucks! Cut him. Tucker deserves to be playing. I like Marisnick, but he can't hit.

[eagle eye]

The Astros week from hell is finally over. The thing that I feared when Houston started the season out so slowly in that first week came true. The Astros went through a really difficult stretch of games against the Royal, Tigers, Rangers and Red Sox and it wasn't pretty. Yes, Houston did get their first series win of the season against Detroit in the weekend series a week ago but it came as small solace when Houston lost for the week overall 3-4. Then came Arlington and the stupid Rangers pulled out the brooms and swept Houston even pounding Dallas Keuchel into submission in the series finale. Next came Boston, a team that was struggling almost as much as Houston and we couldn't win but one game against them over the weekend. So we go a sad 1-5 for the week and take complete control of the cellar in the AL West now a full four games behind league leading Oakland (?) and seven games under .500. Do you realize that Houston would have to go on a seven game winning streak just to get to .500? The odds of that are slim and none considering the starting pitching has been horrible. The biggest disappointment has been Collin McHugh whose 1-3 record has been worse than it looks because he routinely puts Houston in a hole from the git-go. You can't leave out the back end of the rotation, the F Troop, of Fiers, Feldman and Fister. In order their ERA's are 5.73, 4.58 and 5.94 respectively to go along with McHugh's repulsive 7.56 ERA. It would be nice if Houston starters got some run support, hell even Keuchel would be 3-1 with just a little more run support in a loss at Milwaukee. There's nothing that could be done for Keuchel against the Rangers when he gave up about a million hits but no walks to the Rangers, he just didn't have it that night. It's inexplicable because in his previous outing Keuchel was his old self giving up 5 hits and no walks in a terrific 8 innings in a 1-0 win over Detroit. Go figure. The only bright spot has been Colby Rasmus who has been the most dangerous hitter in the Astros lineup so far. Did you know that besides hitting a very healthy .293 Rasmus' OBP is a whopping .440 because he is being selective at the plate and walking a lot more. His slugging percent is .707. Over the weekend Colby Jacks accounted for 7 runs including a clutch 2 out, 2 strike grand slam that broke the game open on Saturday afternoon on the way to a Houston 8-3 win and a 2 run homer in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game at 5 before finally losing in 12 innings 7-5.
Last night's game was a microcosm of what's been wrong with Houston so far this season. Poor starting pitching, Scott Feldman gave up 5 runs in 4.1 innings, poor fielding Carlos Correa win 2 errors and Jose Altuve with an error to go along with untimely hitting, if you don't count Rasmus ninth inning heroics. Houston was 2-13 with RISP and they stranded 12 base runners total for the game. The Astros as a team struck out 15 times, nearly 1/3 of their total of 47 ABs in the game. Sad. The last element was poor bullpen work by Ken Giles who has to be the biggest free agent bust for Jeff Luhnow since coming to Houston. Giles has been purely awful for most of the time he's been in Houston. Carlos Gomez is running a close second. For all his bluster and bravado Gomez isn't, or at least hasn't been, the All Star caliber player he was 2 years ago. He's just been a cocky, butt-head who isn't producing squat. Hopefully, Houston will start turning things around soon because they are a sad team to watch right now which is disappointing because of the high expectations we, or I, had coming into the season.

After the game last night Houston optioned Jake Marisnick to AAA and called up Michael Feliz to bolster the bullpen. Chris Devenski has been a true bright spot in the bullpen so far but after he went 3+ innings last night Houston needed another arm and Marisnick was the odd man out. It's really too bad they couldn't have sent Gomez to Fresno instead. Did I mention I really don't like Gomez?

Just some notes from the Astros clubhouse courtesy of Astros.com including an update of Lance McCullers status.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/174270262/

[eagle eye]

The Astros have done something no other MLB team has ever done since Player of the Week awards were instituted in 1974--they have won the award in the first 3 weeks of the season. Rookie Tyler White won the award to begin the season, Jose Altuve followed with a POTW award in Week 2 and now, for Week 3 Colby Rasmus has won the award. Rasmus celebrated his award by going 0-4 with 2 K's in another Astros loss in Seattle last night. Same ol' same ol' with less than stellar pitching and untimely hitting sank the Astros for the 14th time in 20 games. You see the irony here? Dead last in the AL West, 8 games under .500 with 3 consecutive POTW awards to begin the season. Don't you hear the Twilight Zone theme music playing? I do. Rasmus has been a constant so far this season and his consistency has been something that has helped keep Houston in games. He just can't seem to get any help from his teammates. Altuve has been good too the last couple of weeks and George Springer has come out of the slump he struggled with the first week and half of the season but the trouble is when one hits the others don't. They can't seem to string anything together. The Astros were 208 with RISP last night and that is a recurring theme of this season and actually dates back to the beginning of last September when Houston were playing like they are now--more bad than good. They caught a bit of fire in the playoffs but after the bullpen surrendered a 6-2 in the 8th inning against Kansas City that cost them the game and the series against the eventual World Champs. The offense is just too good to suck this bad for much longer but the question remains is how deep a hole will they dig for themselves before they start to hit. Houston has had games when the starting pitcher gives up 2 or 3 runs and when you do that you should have a reasonable expectation of winning your share of those games. So far Houston can't get it done.

This sucks but let's look for some silver linings;
> Altuve has been his usual self pounding out hits, getting the occasional HR and stealing bases. Stealing 3rd is hard as hell to do but he's done it at least 3 times this season that I can remember.
> Rasmus is 2nd in all of baseball in hitting, HR's, RBI's and, believe it or not, walks. His new approach to his hitting have him on the best streak maybe in his career.
> Evan Gattis is back and looking like his old self at last. Like last season he started off slow but unlike last year he's not waiting until May to turn things around. Last night he went 2-4 with a K. He is slated to begin working in at catcher and if he continues to hit he could replace a lame duck Jason Castro as the starter.
> Dallas Keuchel has been good from day one on a frigid day in Yankee Stadium. He was gutted out an opening day win and should have gotten a win in Milwaukee but he didn't get any run support. His third start was another game he didn't get any run support but he pitched a shutout and got the win anyway. His fourth start was just not his night as the Rangers slapped him around like a red-headed step child. He will be looking forward to redeeming himself after that nightmare in Seattle tonight. He is the club stopper. The guy the team will look at to stop the madness of this losing streak.

[eagle eye]

Around bed time I could sense a disturbance in the Force. It was so severe it made me reel for moment. I didn't know what it was until this morning when I saw that the Astros were blown up like the planet Alderaan by the Death Star. The Astros Death Star was the Seattle Mariners who beat the Astros so badly they finished the last inning with a backup catcher pitching for them. Dallas Keuchel, the staff "ace", got roughed up for the second straight outing as Seattle got to him for 5 runs on 5 hits with 2 walks and 5 K's. The killer was the 5th inning. Keuchel was cruising along allowing just one run through 4 innings. A ground ball out to start the 5th followed by a walk, a single and walk that got Keuchel into a jam. The next batter up was Norichika Aoki who grounded to 1B Tyler White who made the force play at the play to save a run and bring the Mariners to 2 outs in the inning. Keuchel could have gotten out of the inning without any damage but it was not to be. Keuchel gave up an RBI single to Ketel Martes and with the bases still loaded Robinson Cano singled to shallow left scoring the man from 3rd. The man on 2nd also came in but Rasmus throw was high and late so the 2nd run scored as the man from 1B advanced to 3rd. Then it got stupid. Jason Castro saw Cano off base and tried to make a play on him and while Houston messed around with Cano the man on 3rd scored giving the Mariners a 5 zip lead. Keuchel retired the next batter but the damage was done and on a night when a little run support would have been nice it never came. Keuchel was his own private Alamo and the offense was Sam Houston who refused to come to his aid. Now, the real life Sam Houston had good reasons why he didn't help the men at the Alamo but there were was no good reason why the Astros offense was a no-show other than they just stink right now. This season is a nightmarish deja vu to those recent 100 loss seasons when Houston didn't pitch, they didn't hit and they didn't do anything right. 2nd year manager AJ Hinch is finding out just how bad a 'sophomore slump' really is and if he can't figure out a way to turn things around he will be unemployed by the All Star break. I guess we shouldn't panic--yet. After all, the Rangers were 7-14 at the end of last April and they came back and won the division. There is still a long way to go but it's really frustrating seeing what a bunch of slugs the Astros are right now. The problem is, nobody gets more than one day off between games. There are no do-overs and there is nobody who will feel sorry for Houston and let them win. They need to right the ship right now.

[eagle eye]

Halleluja! Houston won a game! Sweet! They got out of Seattle with a win and despite Jose Altuve announcing that Houston has officially broken out of their team hitting slump I won't believe it until I see Houston start hitting the ball consistently. Last week the Astros had an 8 run outburst against the Red Sox but they fell right back into the spotty offense, no hitting with RISP mode they have been in. Unlike last Sunday when it was basically the Colby Rasmus show several players including Rasmus contributed offense to the Astros 7-4 win. Jose Altuve led the way going 3-5 with a HR and 2 doubles on the night with 3 runs scored and 2 RBI's. Carlos Correa, whose bat has been disturbingly silent lately got a hit with an RBI and run scored and he also had a walk. Rasmus got an RBI but he also was guilty of yet another bonehead base running play that got him out in a rundown between 3rd and home. Springer is really hitting more consistently lately and he continued that going 2-5 with a run and an RBI. Evan Gattis is hitting his stride and he went 1-3 with 3 RBI's. It was nice to see Houston go 5-10 with RISP for a change.

Speaking of Gattis he is not waiting until May to start hitting like he did last season when he got booed at the Juice box because he not only didn't have a hit for the first 2-1/2 weeks of the season he struck out nearly every time he was at bat. In his last 3 games he's hit .385 with 4 RBI's as he's gone 5 of 13 in that stretch. Great news if he's hitting too. All we would need next is get Tyler White back on track. He got a day off last night and the Astros are off today so a little breather should be just what the doctor ordered.

Carlos Gomez was hit in the hand in his second at bat last night and came out of the game. X-rays showed no problem so he will just miss some time to let the swelling and pain go away. Maybe this will help him by breaking his slump. It's a painful way to do it but Gomez is hitting .197 and has really stunk at the plate. The fact is nobody in the back half of the Astros lineup has done squat. Last night Gomez, then Preston Tucker, Marwin Gonzalez, Luis Valbuena and Jason Castro continued the trend of being lousy on offense. Only Castro of the four players got a hit and he's the only one to even draw a walk. It's hard to explain why Valbuena is so bad. Last year he didn't hit for great average (.224) but he hit 25 HR's and 18 doubles and drove in 58 RBI's. If he continues his current track he won't do THAT much.

I should mention that Collin McHugh got the win last night as he battled through 5 innings and 101 pitches against the Mariners. I began watching the game last night when there were 2 outs in the bottom of the first and the he was facing Robinson Cano. On the 4th pitch of the sequence on a 1-2 count McHugh made a mistake that Cano hit on a line drive to the right field seats to tie the game at 1. I admit, I said, "Here we go." in a way dripping with sarcasm and turned off the tv to go take a shower. I didn't know until this morning that Houston had actually won the game. McHugh is now 2-3, the same as Dallas Keuchel, and he looked a little more in command as he only gave up 2 runs in the 5 innings on 5 hits and a walk with 5 K's.

AJ Hinch has made a move in the starting rotation. No Lance McCullers isn't back, I wish he was (as long as he's healthy). No, Hinch let Scott Feldman know he was moving him to the bullpen for the Astros series against Oakland this weekend. Feldman is 0-2 so far in 4 starts this season but he hasn't had much run support either. You can pretty much say that for all the starters though. He will be replaced in the starting rotation by Chris Devenski who was called up after Michael Feliz got lit up for 6 runs in 4.1 innings against the Yankees in the 2nd game of the season. Since then Devenski has had 6 relief appearances going 13.2 innings and allowing just 1 run on 11 hits and 1 walk while ;also striking out 12 batters. I think this sends a message to the other starters that if they don't take care of business Hinch has no problem bringing someone up from Fresno. Feldman is taking it well saying he'll support Devo and be ready when he's called upon. Feldman broke into the bigs as a reliever so pitching out of the bullpen is old hat to him.

After throwing 45 pitches in 3 innings of work in Kissimmee Lance McCullers could be heading for Corpus or Fresno for a real live rehab assignment which would mean it won't be long until he's back with the big club. McCullers has had an issue with pain in his throwing shoulder after pitching since spring training. To their credit they have been quite patient with him allowing his to heal completely before pushing him to the next level. They thought he would be ready early in the season when they sent McCullers on a rehab assignment at Corpus but he again experienced pain so they backed off to allow the shoulder to completely heal. It all depends on how McCullers feels today after yesterday's work that will determine the Astros next move with him.

Speaking of Feliz, what happened to this guy? He gets bombed for 6 runs in long relief in NY on April and on Tuesday night he gets bombed for 4 runs in just one inning of work. Last season Feliz was brought up and started some games for Houston and he looked pretty good for the most part. In two different stints with the big club this year he's sucked, pure and simple. At AAA, in between stints with the Astros, he hasn't been much better. He started 2 games going 1-0 giving up 9 runs on 8 hits and 7 walks in 8.1 innings pitched. His 9.72 ERA in Fresno is way better than his 15.19 ERA in Houston. He wasn't sent down after his last outing on Tuesday but maybe he should where he would get more work in. It's just this scenario that makes me mad about all the pitching Houston has traded away chasing after guys who are worse than the players we had ( yeah, I mean you Carlos Gomez and Ken Giles). Buyers remorse, indeed.

[eagle eye]

The Astros get an extra day off yesterday and now they head back into action facing AL West rival Oakland over the weekend. Mike Fiers starts tonight and will face the A's #2 prospect LHP Sean Manaea in Oakland.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2016_04_29_houmlb_oakmlb_1#game=2016 _04_29_houmlb_oakmlb_1,game_state=Pregame

AJ Hinch hopes the day off helps refocus his team as it closes out the 1st month of the season in California. Here's an article from Astros.com that gets Hinch's feelings on how things have gone and how he hopes they go from now on. Mainly, he hopes the Astros need to gel as a team and play smarter baseball. Me too!

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/175118478/aj-hinch-astros-aiming-to-get-back-on-track

[eagle eye]

I'm really tired of reading about the different ways the Astros are finding to lose games. Isn't there a saying that says something about learning from your mistakes. There's another saying that says something about people who don't look at history are doomed to repeat it. The Astros seem to be baseball IQ dumb. Carlos Correa got picked off 1B and Carlos Gomez was cut down trying to stretch a double into the triple in the top of the 9th with the score tied. Did I mention that there were no outs at the time? Given the circumstances why in goodness name would you expect to be content to be in scoring position with nobody out, but no, Gomez tried to stretch it out and was cut down for his trouble. Even though Correa was picked off at first but that isn't the whole story. Correa didn't get put out, he was caught in a rundown and A's 1B Yonder Alonzo threw the ball away allowing Correa to take second. Can you imagine Correa patting himself on the back for being lucky? Then there is the bullpen. Starter Mike Fiers pitched 7 innings and allowed just 2 runs. When he left the game he had a 4-2 lead. In the 8th Ken Giles comes in an promptly blows the lead allowing 2 runs in just 1/3 of an inning. Sheesh. In the ninth Gomez runs himself and the Astros out of a scoring opportunity in the top of the inning and Tony Sipp and Pat Neshak combine to put 2 men on base with 1 out, one on an intentional walk to get to a guy named Yonder Alonzo who was hitting a dangerous .174. Ooops! Alonzo connected with a Pat Neshak sinker and drove a walkoff 3 run home run to win the game. It's enough to make a person start cussing.

Lance McCullers is going to throw another bullpen session on Monday after feeling no ill effects from his last throwing session on Tuesday. He will be slated to throw 65-70 pitches and he comes through that with no pain in his shoulder his next stop may be a rehab assignment at Corpus or Fresno.

I can't believe how stupid this team is right now. AJ Hinch really needs to nip this in the bud right now unless it's already too late. The Astros are killing themselves and they are well on their way to another 100 loss season and they are too talented for that. Houston had a real shot at winning 2 games in a row for the first time this season and they blew it. Has there been a bigger waste of money and resources than Ken Giles? Lord, save me from these fools.

[eagle eye]

What the hell are you going to do? Houston got shut out today in Oakland 2-0. Chris Devenski pitched well for his first ever start in the bigs. Certainly better than Oakland's #2 prospect Sean Manaea did on Friday night. Devenski allowed 4 runs on 4 hits, 4 walks and 3 K's in 5 innings of work throwing just 87 pitches. He left the game trailing 4-2. Devenski also went 5 innings throwing 91 pitches as he gave up just 2 runs on 5 hits, 3 walks with 4 K's. Devenski left the game trailing 2-0. If Scott Feldman had come in Friday night Houston would have won by that 4-2 score but his 3 scoreless innings of work today kept Houston in the game to the very end. The table was set for a nice comeback in the 9th as Houston loaded the bases with just one out after George Springer struck out after Jose Altuve began the 9th with a walk. Carlos Correa worked a walk after Springer struck out and Colby Rasmus hit a bloop single to left to load the bases for Evan Gattis. Instead of a game tying base hit Gattis grounded a 1-0 pitch to short for a textbook 6-4-3 double play to end the game.
Maybe it comes down to the fact that April is a month with an "R" in it. You know how baseball players can be just a tad superstitious, right? April is over now and tomorrow begins a new month. Lord, I hope to goodness May is much better than April was. The scary thing is it could be worse if Houston can't figure out how to play good ball as a team. To say I am disappointed is a complete understatement. This just flat out sucks balls. (Imagine I said that like Eric Cartman, "Kyle, this just sucks balls!) I have to keep reminding myself it's not how you start, it's how you finish but in the past when Houston begins a season like this they never, ever made the playoffs. And here I was thinking they had a shot at the World Series. I appears there is no depth my delusions can't sink to, sheesh.

[eagle eye]

The Astros said goodbye to April on Saturday with a whimper much like they played most of the month. The final totals are pretty ugly so brace yourself because the numbers are not what most of us expected prior to April 5th. Even the season itself started out with a miss because opening day was supposed to be April 4th but bad weather in the Big Apple delayed the start of the season.
The Astros ended April with a record of 7-17. That's a .292 winning percentage and it puts the Astros dead last in the AL West . They haven't won 2 games in a row as yet and they won but one series during the month beating Detroit 2 of 3. The first win on that Friday night in the Juice Box was the last time Dallas Keuchel pitched worth a darn and it was the last time he won. As for the starting pitching only Mike Fiers has a winning record (2-1). 3 of the other starter have identical 2-3 records. Scott Feldman was demoted to the bullpen this past week and Chris Devenski was promoted to the starting rotation making his first ever big league start on Saturday. He did a great job too going 5 innings allowing just two runs. Unfortunately, it was the only 2 runs of the game as Houston fell 2-0 to the A's behind the pitching of Jesse Hahn who was making his first start of 2016. Ironically, Scott Feldman came in a tossed 3 shutout innings in relief of the man who replaced him in the starting rotation. Hahn shut out the 'Stros for 6.2 innings allowing only 3 hits and 2 walks with 4 K's. Houston had no answer for Hahn at all. Actually, Houston had no answer for any of the A's pitchers this past weekend scoring a grand total of 7 runs in the 3 games. The one game Houston had some runs was the 4 runs they scored on Friday night and they took a 4-2 lead into the 8th but Ken Giles, Tony Sipp and Pat Neshak took care of that allowing 5 runs in the last two innings to turn a 4-2 win into a 7-4 loss. That is the microcosm of the month. When they hit the pitching fails, when the pitching falters they can't hit enough to offset the damage the pitchers do and when all else fails Houston is guaranteed to commit a stupid error either in the field or running the bases. The Astros have run the bases like 10 year olds this past month. It's like they don't know what to do out there. In April the Astros baseball IQ was about 63 and, just in case you didn't know it, that is bad. Carlos Gomez got hit in the hand and even though he played in the next game he has missed the rest of the weekend and he's hoping he doesn't go on the DL. Personally, I wish he would just go. Despite all the lousy play and questionable pitching Houston did do something that has never been done before, they won back-to-back-to-back Player of the Week awards. Tyler White, Jose Altuve and Colby Rasmus turned the hat trick to start the season which had never before been done since the POTH award was instituted way back in 1974. Lance McCullers spent the entire month on the DL trying to rehab a right shoulder issue and it looks like there is finally some light at the end of the tunnel as far as his rehab is going.

May began yesterday and Houston's offensive struggles continued as they could only muster 2 runs for the game. Yesterday 2 runs was enough as Doug Fister had his best outing of the season going 6.2 innings allowing just one run on 7 hits and a walk with 5 K's. Fister improved his record to 2-3 as he flashed the stuff Houston was hoping to get when they signed him to a deal this off season. Between Fister, Tony Sipp, Will Harris and Luke Gregerson the pitching did their job well. Jose Altuve hit his 4th leadoff HR to start a game this season to give Houston an early 1-0 lead. Houston upped the score to 2-0 in the third but it sure could have been much better. The Astros had the bases loaded with one out when Rasmus hit a long fly ball to right scoring Altuve from 3rd. Evan Gattis walked to re-load the bases and Tyler White hit a weak pop-up to 3B to end the inning. On the day Houston was 0-4 with RISP and they stranded 7 base runners. Fister gave up a run in the 7th that ended his day but the bullpen did their job and held the A's scoreless for the final 3-1/3 innings. Houston starts May the same way they started April, with a narrow win over a so-so opponent behind tough starting pitching and just enough hitting and a tough bullpen. The same problems exist though. The pitching has been inconsistent and the offense has been pretty much dormant and they don't play smart baseball. But, a win is a win and they are 1-0 in May with Dallas Keuchel back at the friendly confines of Minute Maid Park. Keuchel (2-3, 4.41 ERA) will be facing a guy, Jose Berrios, who is 0-1 with an 11.25 ERA in his lone start of the season. Tonight's game is the absolute best chance Houston has had to win 2 in a row this season. I always seem to go back to one of the Major League movies and this one is as apt as it gets when talking about the Astros this season. It comes from the Cleveland manager Lou Brown as he addresses he sad sack team in Major League II. Lou says, "OK, we won a game yesterday. If we win today, it's called "two in a row". And if we win again tomorrow, it's called a "winning streak"... It has happened before!" The trouble is Lou, it hasn't happened THIS season yet.

[eagle eye]

Dallas Keuchel's string of 17 straight wins at home is over after he had his 3rd start in a row in which he was far less than good. It is the 3rd time this season he's walked 5 or more batters and he gave up 7 hits in only 4.1 innings of work. He cruised along through the first 3 innings throwing shutout ball then came a disastrous 4th inning when he walked 4 batters and allowed just 2 hits in the inning. The Twins scored on a sac fly, an RBI single and Keuchel walked in a run. It was truly ugly. Keuchel came out in the 5th and gave up a single, a fly ball out, a single and two run triple. It was then that AJ Hinch had seen enough and Keuchel's night was over. Josh Fields came on and closed out the fifth inning but in the sixth he allowed a solo HR to Eduardo Nunez to give the Twins a 6-2 lead and that's how the game ended. Again the Astros offense was nowhere to be found. They managed only 5 hits in the game and two of those were solo HR's. They did manage to work 6 walks in the game but they were again anemic at the plate striking out 11 times and stranding 8 base runners. They were 0-5 with RISP. I'm already sick of this crap. I watch these games and Houston constantly lets meatball fastballs fly past them with nary a swing and they end up striking out or making an out swinging at the pitcher's pitches. What I mean by that is instead of taking a hack early in the count when the pitcher is trying to get ahead they take the pitches they should be swinging at and swinging at the junk pitchers throw with 2 strikes. The Astros lead all of MLB in K's and they are dead last in batting average with RISP at .197. The Astros are tied for 4th is most walks but it's not translating into runs. Houston is 29th in team batting average and to make matters worse their starting pitching is 26th in MLB and their relievers are 24th. I don't think there is a stat for it but Houston has got to lead the league in stupid base running. The Astros league the entire league in caught stealing but at least they are tied with Philly and Pittsburgh at the top. Houston is tied for 21st in runs scored. All that is a recipe for a bad baseball team and as much as you say Houston isn't as bad as their numbers I go back to what Bill Parcells always said, "You are what your record says you are."

[eagle eye]

Did last night's game remind you of last season? Collin McHugh was adequate allowing 4 runs in 5.2 innings but he got run support as Houston scored 6 runs, 3 in the 3rd and 3 more in the 4th. The bullpen gave Houston 3.1 innings of shutout, no-hit relief and Houston won the game 6-4 on the strength of timely hitting and 2 home runs, one be Jason Castro (really?!) and the other a 3 run shot by George Springer. The disappointing thing was the 4, 5 and 6 hitters did nothing, 0 for 12 between Rasmus, White, Tucker and Gattis (Gattis replaced Tucker in the 3rd due to a pitching change). Since opening week Tyler White has been in free fall as he has gone from a .554 BA at the end of the first week of the season to his current .224. Rasmus has been falling, not quite as hard but falling nonetheless. His .230 BA is helped some by his new found ability to work walks making his OBP a respectable .355 with his K/BB ratio at 1.44. Yeah, I know that's usually a stat for pitchers but I think it applies when you talk about the "new" patient Colby Rasmus. This team has not hit its stride offensively yet but I'm sure we are all tired of waiting for that to happen. When you have a player or two that isn't hitting then the guys around hit start pressing to make up for him or them. This team has had it's moments but they need to do it for a week or two then you will see guys relax and play some ball. The starting pitching has been better of late. Mike Fier and Doug Fister have shown improvement and even Collin McHugh is coming around. McHugh has now won 2 in a row even though his ERA is hanging around 6.50-ish. That's definitely like last year when he would be the one to allow 4 or 5 runs a game but his offense backed him up with 6-7 or 8 runs of support allowing him to get the win. McHugh is a bulldog and he never quits fighting. I would bet he doesn't win 19 games this year but he will win 12 to 14 and that's okay. His record stands right now at 3-3 and if you project that for the year he finishes 15-15. I'll take that even though he won't end up with a decision in every start like he has in his 6 starts this season.
Mike Fiers is another guy who has been pitching better of late. He goes tonight while Minnesota sends Phil Hughes (1-4, 4.45 ERA) to the mound. Fiers (2-1, 497 ERA) is the only starter with a winning record so far. He's 2-0 in his last 3 starts and should have been 3-0 in his last start against Seattle on April 29 when he tossed a 7 inning gem allowing only 2 runs. He left the game with a 4-2 lead that the bullpen blew in the 8th and 9th innings to hand the Astros a 7-4 loss instead. Fiers is a really nice 4th man in the rotation but he's had to be the number 3 guy because Lance McCullers has yet to pitch for the Astros this season because of a shoulder problem that cropped up early in spring training.
The Astros offense is showing signs of waking up with even Jason Castro and Carlos Gomez showing a little life at the plate lately. It's about damn time if you ask me. I am not saying Houston is turning this bad streak of baseball around but I am cautiously optimistic.

As for Lance McCullers, he came out of his spring training start in Kissimmee last Sunday with flying colors. He threw 62 pitches reaching 92-97 mph on his fastball. He is scheduled to throw a bullpen session today and if everything is still fine he will go to Fresno and pitch a game on Saturday. What happens next depends on how he comes out of the AAA game. He might be asked to throw another game or he could join the Astros when they go to Boston next Thursday. That light at the end of the tunnel is definitely getting brighter. Let's cross our fingers and hope there are no further setbacks for him.

When he gets back the Astros will have a tough decision. Who gets sent to the bullpen or AAA? If it's the bullpen I have no clue. If it's AAA it's likely to be rookie Chris Devenski.

Houston has another chance to win 2 games in a row today. Let's hope they finally get over that hurdle.

[eagle eye]

Danged if they didn't do it. The Astros beat the Twins in the series finale to win the series 2 games to 1 by a score of 16-4. The number 2 is significant here because this is series win #2 for Houston this year and both (2) series were in Houston. It is the first time the Astros have won 2 games in a row this season. Jason Castro hit his 2nd home run in the past 2 nights giving him 2 HR's on the season. 5 of the Astros 14 hits last night were doubles. Six Astros hitters had 2 or more RBI's and six Astros scored 2 or more runs in the game. Three Astros hit HR's last night and all 3 had 2 strikes in the count. The only bummer on a night when Houston scored the most runs in a home game at the Juice Box, 16, since scoring 18 way back in 2003 against the Dodgers was that AJ Hinch pulled the plug on Mike Fiers one out away from qualifying for the win. Fiers had given up a 3 run HR to Brian Dozier in the 3rd inning and he allowed a run in the 4th and had just retired the 2nd out of the inning when Hinch gave Fiers the hook. It could be because Fiers had already given up a HR to the next batter, Brian Dozier, and with a man on 3rd he didn't want Fiers giving up a 2 run homer even though the score was 9-4 at the time. Hinch did this a couple of times last season pulling a pitcher on the doorstep of qualifying for a win for little or no reason apparent to the fans and he did it again last night. You work your tail off trying to pitch a good game and get little run support and the first time you do get some run support the managers yanks you before you can reap the benefits of that run support. If I'm Mike Fiers I'm pissed off. If I'm Mike Fiers I go into the manager's office and close the door and ask the man, "WTF? I finally get some decent run support and you yank me one out away from getting the win?". That conversation had to take place. Of course, Hinch didn't know Houston was going to come back in the bottom or the 5th and score 5 more runs to go up 14-4 but still, AJ, why pull the man at that time? Nobody asked Hinch after the game about this probably because the Astros won in a blowout and for the 2nd night in a row the bullpen didn't give up a run or a hit in 3.1 innings of work. Maybe on Star Wars day the 4th was with the Astros, who knows but it is nice to see Houston showing signs of life.

In his first 2 outings for Houston P Michael Feliz was just awful but in his last 2 outings he was flawless. Monday night he pitched 2 scoreless, hitless innings and he did the same last night closing out the last 2 innings of the game without a run or a hit on the board. His reward for the complete turnaround of his fortunes? He was optioned to AAA Fresno after the game last night. This is the 2nd time Feliz has been sent down this season. The first time he deserved the demotion but this time, not so much. The Astros had been carrying 13 pitchers on the their roster but they decided 12 was good and they brought back Jack Marisnick. I like Marisnick but the poor fella can't hit his ass with both hands right now much less a baseball. So far Marisnick is 1-10 in 12 games with Houston prior to being sent to AAA and in Fresno he hit a buck eighty five in seven games. You hope in Jake's 2nd stint in Houston his bat wakes up from it's long winter's nap.

Yesterday was the 41st anniversary of Astros 1B Bob Watson scoring the one millionth run in MLB history. Here's an article from the New York Daily News last year on the 40th anniversary of the event. Interesting story that Watson beat Cincinnati's Dave Concepcion by a matter of seconds to be the millionth run.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/bob-watson-story-mlb-millionth-run-article-1.2209124

To say Jason Castro has broken out of his slump is a bit of an understatement. In his last nine games Castro has hit .400 (8-20) with 2 HR's, 2 DBL's, 9 BB's and an OPS of 1.386.

Carlos Correa went 3-5 last night scoring and he had 3 RBI's equaling his total RBI output in his previous 16 games. It was Correa's 1st 3 RBI game of the season.

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[eagle eye]

Houston did not go on a "Lou Brown" three game winning streak last night. They did make a guy with an ERA over 4 look like the next Cy Young award winner. The only player in the Astros lineup not impressed with Wade Miley and he proved it by going 4-4 and for the second night in a row he was a triple short of hitting for the cycle. For the second time in two nights Altuve led off the game with a HR which was made more special due to the fact Altuve went all Babe Ruth and hit the dinger at the request of a terminal cancer patient he met before the game who wanted Jose to do something special for him.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/176496360/astros-jose-altuve-homers-for-boy-with-cancer

Altuve got exactly half of the hits the Astros as team got. Miley was confounding the Astros with a really good change up but, again, his ERA is 4.74 but he has never lost to the Astros in 5 starts. It sort of is the baseball answer to "horses for courses" saying. Despite the fact that Houston struggled with Miley they were able to take a lead on him in the sixth inning when they broke a 1-1 tie with a run on an Evan Gattis RBI single plating Jose Altuve who had singled to begin the inning. P Chris Devenski making his 2nd start as a major leaguer for the 2nd time he did an excellent job holding the Mariners to a single run in his six innings of work was robbed of the win by a bullpen who couldn't do their job. The bullpen looked rather dominant for a week now but last night they crapped all in the Astros team mess kit. All they had to do was hold the Mariners for 3 innings to give their young pitcher his first big league win. Didn't happen. Ken Giles came on in the 7th and promptly walked a batter, allowed a single and got a put out on a sac bunt. AJ Hinch took him out before things really got out of hand and he brought in Tony Sipp. With men on 1st and 2nd Sipp walked the first batter loading the bases. The Mariners Seth Smith was up next and he singled scoring 2 runs which gave Seattle a 3-2 lead. Sipp did get Robinson Cano to ground into a double play but the damage had been done. Tyler White led off the 7th and with Miley out, replaced by Joel Peralta, he got his first in since April 29th with a double. Later in the inning after a Jason Castro walk Altuve crushed a ball to deep center field that landed half way up Tal's Hill. Altuve scored easily but, in another bonehead move by 3rd base coach Gary Pettis, Castro was waved home trying to score from 1st base and he was out by 3 steps. Not even close. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Gary Pettis is a lousy 3B coach. So, the game was tied at 3 after 7 innings. The fact Devenski was not on the hook for the loss was the only good you can take from this whole debacle but having given up just 3 runs in two starts with a loss and a no-decision to show for it is a debacle in itself. Will Smith came in for Houston in the 8th and he DID do his job shutting out the M's in quick order. Then Luke Gregerson came on in the 9th and for the first time this season he stunk. Gregerson loaded the bases with only out and Robinson Cano came up and doubled in all three base runners giving the M's a 6-3 lead. I was so pissed I threw my phone across the room (that is why I have a Lifeproof case for my phone). This is the worst thing ever as Houston almost looks like they are throwing games so they can lose.
No three game winning streak, no picking up a game on the 1st place Mariners they lose a game to them and Houston begins another losing streak. This is a 4 game series with the M's and if the trend continues Houston could be digging a really deep hole for themselves only a little over a month into the season. It's hard to keep saying the Astros are better than what they've shown because they haven't been. The only thing you can say for sure is the starting rotation except for Dallas Keuchel is looking a lot better. We just need a little consistency of offense and the bullpen. It's a matter of small increments that could be the difference between earning another high draft pick or righting the ship and getting back on a winning track. BTW, my phone is fine.

I would remiss if I didn't mention that last night's leadoff HR to start the game was the sixth THIS SEASON already, tying Craig Biggio had six in 2006 for the entire season! Altuve has 9 dingers so far this season. Jose has hit 9 HR's in only 29 games. Projected for a season he's on a pace to hit 50 round trippers. Phenomenal for a guy who stands only 5'5'' and weighs a 170 lbs. He had adjusted his swing to stay more balanced and he's being more selective at the plate meaning he's got better pitches to hit. After last night he's hitting .330 with an OBP of .417, a slugging % of .687 and an OPS of 1.104.

In the bottom third of the batting order for the Astros last night not a single hitter out of 5 players all of them had less than a .300 OBP. That truly is sick.

[eagle eye]

I can't complain--much--about the Astros 6-3 win last night. They hit the ball and did it with runners on base, they played really good defense for the most part and the pitching got the job done. Well, except for Pat Neshak who stunk it up. After starter Doug Fister loaded the bases with just one out Neshak came in and all I saw was trouble. Houston was ahead 5-0 at the time and the stage was set for disaster. The first batter Neshak faced Chris Iannetta smacked a line shot to the 3B side of Carlos Correa at short and it looked like Seattle was going to score at least one, if not two, runs on the play. It wasn't happening though because of a stellar diving grab of the line drive by Correa to rob Iannetta and save any runs from being scored. With two out M's SS Ketel Marte stroked a shot down the right field line that went all the way into the corner and before George Springer could get to it all three base runners scored and Marte ended up with a 3-RBI triple closing the gap to 5-3. The good thing is Houston came back in the bottom of the 7th and got an insurance run making the score 6-3. Will Harris and Luke Gregerson shut the door on the M's in the 8th and the 9th giving the Astros the win and evened the 4 game series at 1 game apiece.

I figured you'd like to see Correa's catch, it is worth a look.

http://m.mlb.com/hou/video/v664812183/seahou-correa-denies-iannetta-with-nice-grab/?tcid=mm_hou_vid&c_id=hou

Michael Feliz' yo-yo season bouncing back and forth between Fresno and Houston continues as he will get the call up from Fresno after just a few days after he was sent down. The reason he's being brought back is because Tony Sipp was granted paternity leave. That was on Thursday and Sipp is actually scheduled to be back today after his wife gave birth on Friday. Feliz may stay with the club after Sipp's return because Evan Gattis is being sent down to AA Corpus Christi so he can work as an everyday catcher. Gattis was a catcher with Atlanta prior to coming to Houston but since he's been in Houston Gattis has only been used as a DH and occasionally an outfielder. AJ Hinch said the Gattis will be in Corpus for a minimum of 10 days and he will catch every day to get him in game shape to work as backup catcher to Jason Castro as well as his usual DH duties.

[eagle eye]

The Astros suck. They simply suck. When one or two phases of the game work there is always, always one phase to sabotage the whole deal. Tonight they got good starting pitching from Dallas Keuchel who went 7 innings giving up only 2 runs. The offense stank for most of the game and I'm talking about 99% of the game. It's bad enough that the Astros hitters couldn't hit for squat and when they laid off pitches the ump called them strikes. In the 7th the Astros had men on 1st and 2nd with no outs and got nothing. In the 8th inning Carlos Correa led off the inning and he was rung up on a piss poor called strike 3 on a 3-2 count. The call incensed Correa who argued with home plate ump Ben May. AJ Hinch came out of the dugout and ate on May's tail enough that he was ejected. The scoring in the game for Seattle was all on HR's. A solo shot in the 2nd by Kyle Seager, a solo shot in the 3rd by Robinson Cano both coming off Keuchel and the killer was yet another solo shot by Cano off Tony Sipp who had pitched the 9th inning without incident but Cano led off the 10th and Sipp gave him a fastball up with a 1-2 count. There should have been no pitch up or near the strike zone against a hot hitter link Cano but Sipp made a mistake and Cano made him pay with an opposite field no-doubter. This is just the sickest team right now. Carlos Gomez got kicked out as the Astros were taking the field for the 10th inning when he got into a heated argument with the 1B ump. Gomez totally lost his cool and had to be restrained by George Springer. I wish Springer hadn't been there and Gomez hit the ump who deserved it and got cut for being a jerk. I am so sick of Carlos Gomez. Needless to say it but I will, I am pissed.

[eagle eye]

I've had a chance to sleep on it and I'm still pissed. Just another frustrating day at the ballpark and another wasted 3-1/2 hours. You see things that encourage you like Keuchel finally pitching a decent game. I know, giving up two HR's isn't great but for a guy who pitched 7 innings and only gave up 2 runs, that is a quality start in anyone's book. If you think about it, this is basically the same team that we saw last season the only difference is they aren't hitting HR's or rallying in the late innings like they did in 2015. The starting pitching has settled in and is really looking more like the staff we thought they'd be when the season began. Overall the hitting is not even close to last year though. Only Jose Altuve looks like the same guy which is to say he's awesome but generally speaking Jose isn't getting much help. The Astros are certainly not getting the HR or RBI production they got last season. Luis Valbuena led the team in HR's for a big part of the season '15 but he just got his first one of '16 last night. In 25 games and 73 AB's he finally jacked one and it was very 2015-ish as he did it in the bottom of the 9th to tie the game but the other phase of the Astros has been unbelievably inconsistent. Of course that's the bullpen. They have looked like the bullpen in the 100 loss seasons. Sometimes they get the job done and sometimes they screw the pooch big time. The bullpen was directly responsible for the losses to Seattle on Thursday and last night and more times than I can count this season. They aren't at the bottom of the heap like they were a week or so ago because of a couple of outings this past week where they were actually pretty good but ranking 23rd in all of baseball in ERA with a 4.28 isn't anything to be proud of either. Want to know who's best? It's the White Sox but Seattle is 2nd in relief pitching ERA. It's no small correlation to bullpen success and leading your division. Houston was in this boat for every month except September last year and they led the division for almost every day of the first 5 months of the season. The pitching went south and Houston lost games and it looks like Houston has begun the season right where they left off last September.

Houston plays the last game of the series with Seattle today with Collin McHugh (3-3, 6.59 ERA) going up against Seattle's Hisashi Iwakuma (1-3, 4.03 ERA) at 1 o'clock-ish at the Juice Box.

Old home week. I should have mentioned this earlier because I was taken aback when I saw this. Seattle has a new manager this season and that guy's name is Scott Servais. If you have been following the Astros for the last 20-25 years you know that Servais was the backup catcher for Houston from 1991 to 1995 when the Astros actually began their 15 year run as a top tier team in the National League. Also on the staff is former Houston ace Mike Hampton who is the bullpen coach. It doesn't stop there because there are 3 other former Astros on the M's staff. They are IF Tim Bogar (1997-2000), 2B Casey Candaele (1988-1993) and P Mel Stottlemyer (1982-1987). Stottlemyer was drafted in 1982 and pitched 5 season in their minor league system before being traded to Kansas City in 1987. Stottlemyer pitched just one season, 1990, in the bigs. Bogar is the M's bench coach, Candaele is the 1B coach and Stottlemyer is the pitching coach. In all there are 5 former Astros coaching on a 9 man staff.

[eagle eye]

Houston came back on the strength of 7 innings of good pitching by Collin McHugh, timely hitting by the offense including some unusual plays and Tony Sipp actually didn't suck as he closed the game with 2 scoreless innings. The win allowed the Astros to split the 4 game series with Seattle at 2 wins each. Splitting a 4 game series is like kissing your sister and it is pretty much a wasted 4 days leaving the Astros in the same situation as they were in before Game 1 of the series began, behind the division leading M's by 6.5 games. At least they didn't lose the series and lose even more ground so there's that. The most shocking play of the game came in the 3rd inning with men on 1st and 3rd and 2 outs. Colby Rasmus came to the plate and got down in the count 1-2 when the play of the game occurred. As usual the M's defense was shifted to the right side of the field with 1B, 2B and SS lined up between 1st and 2nd bases. The 3B was deep in the hole where SS normally plays. AJ Hinch called a dangerous play asking Rasmus to lay down a bunt up the 3B line with 2 out and with a 2 strike count. If Rasmus failed to execute the bunt it's strike 3, inning over. Rasmus got the bunt down and it stayed fair but it didn't go far up the line. Starting pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma got to the ball quickly but he didn't get a lot on the throw to first and Rasmus hustled down the line and beat the throw. Jose Altuve scored from 3rd upping the Houston lead to 2-0 at the time Now, Carlos Correa was on 2nd and Rasmus was at first still with 2 outs. Marwin Gonzalez followed with a single to center field scoring Correa and extending the Astros lead to 3-0. McHugh gave up a solo shot to Robinson Cano in the 4th as he narrowed the score to 3-1 but the Astros were having none of it on Mother's Day. They added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh giving the Astros the final margin of victory at 5-1. This was a day when the Astros stole 5 bases, 3 by Jose Altuve tying his own personal record and the Astros, who normally live by the long ball, won playing small ball using stolen bases and singles to win the game. By far the gutsiest call I've seen in a long time AJ Hinches call for the bunt by Rasmus in the 3rd was special and really risky. Asking a cleanup hitter to bunt is dangerous enough but to call it with 2 strikes takes some cojones. Got to give props to Hinch for the call.

The past week wasn't terrible if you look at the results. Houston went 4-3 for their first winning record in a week this season. They beat the Minnesota Twins 2-1 before splitting the series with Seattle. The win in the series with the Twins was the Astros first series win in 2016. The starting pitching did a really nice job this week as the 2-5 guys have seeming hit their stride. Dallas Keuchel seems to have figured out how to pitch again as he gave up just 2 runs in 7 innings of work on Saturday night. Unfortunately, the Astros failed to give him any runs support and they ultimately lost 3-2 because Tony Sipp did suck in that game. Finished the week in last place in the AL West but they didn't lose any more ground to division leading Seattle and they are showing signs that they may be coming out of their funk and playing better baseball. Right now it's small steps and the next step on the ladder is the LA Angels who are in 4th place in the division at 13-18 and a game and a half lead over the 12-20 Astros. Houston begins a series against Cleveland tonight while LA plays St Louis who are struggling through their own bad start to 2016. The Angels have lost 3 straight so I hope the Cards can keep that going beginning tomorrow night. These should be the goals this week. Win both series against Cleveland and Boston and take over 4th place in the AL West. Baby steps but it's a long season and there's time to take small steps.

[eagle eye]

The Astros have now won 2 games in a row twice after beating Seattle on Sunday and the Cleveland Indians last night. They did it against the Indians' ace Corey Kluber who has vexed the Astros in the past but he didn't last night. In the 3rd inning Houston became Kluber clubbers touching up the Indians right hander for 2 runs and six straight batters going to the plate before a single out was recorded. The Astros scored 5 runs in that 3rd inning with RBI's coming on 2-RBI doubles by Jose Altuve and Colby Rasmus and what amounted to a swinging bunt up the first base line by Marwin Gonzalez. Jose Altuve broke the scoreless tie with a 2 run double to start the 3rd after Luis Valbuena singled and Jason Castro doubled. After a walk and a single by George Springer and Carlos Correa loaded the bases Colby Rasmus singled in 2 more runs to make the score 4-0. George Springer made a beautiful head first slide at home just ahead of the throw. He slide on the inside of home plate touching the base with his left hand as he slid by easily out of reach of the catcher's attempt to tag him out. Marwin Gonzalez was the 6th Astros hitter to come to the plate and still there were no outs in the inning. Gonzalez hit a swinging bunt up the first base line which Kluber fielded and tagged Gonzalez out but it allowed Carlos Correa to score from 3rd upping the Astros lead to 5-0. Tucker did the same thing for the 2nd out of the inning but it did advance Rasmus to 3rd. Carlos Gomez walked and the Astros had batted around with Luis Valbuena, who led off the inning coming to the plate. The Indians pulled Kubler at this point and brought in Kyle Crockett who struck out Valbuena on 4 pitches. The damage had been done though and Houston never looked back as they got 7 innings of from starter Mike Fiers who allowed just one run, that coming in the sixth, on 3 hits, 2 walks with 4 K's. Ken Giles and Scott Feldman each pitched one perfect inning to close out the game. Houston got some more insurance runs, one in the sixth and one in the eighth to make the final score 7-1 but it was that 5 run outburst in the 3rd that won the game for Houston. Nice win and a second chance to win 3 games in a row for the first time this season come tonight when Chris Devenski (0-1, 1.46 ERA) will make his 3rd big league start against Cleveland's Trevor Baur (2-0, 5.14 ERA) who is also making his 3rd start of the season.

Can I talk about Scott Feldman for just a second? In 4 starts to begin the season Feldman was 0-2 with an ERA of 4.58. On April 30th AJ Hinch moved Feldman to the bullpen to give rookie Chris Devenski a shot at starting. Devenski pitched well in his first big league start going 5 innings and allowing just 2 runs. Feldman came into the game in relief of the guy who took his spot in the rotation and all he did was pitch 3 perfect innings. No runs, no hits, no walks and 3 K's. It was a shame to waste 2 good pitching performances but Houston's bats were quiet as a summer evening and the A's beat Houston 2-0. Feldman's next outing was on May 4th against Minnesota in Houston. He pitched a perfect inning on the way to a 16-4 drubbing of the Twins. Last night was his 3rd appearance out of the bullpen and again he was perfect closing the game out in the ninth to seal the Houston win. Man, I'll tell you having an effective Feldman in the bullpen has been a godsend. With Pat Neshak, Tony Sipp and Ken Giles being way less than consistent Feldman has solidified the bullpen and since he's gone the 'pen the whole staff has gotten better. Nice move AJ Hinch, both with giving Devenski his shot and putting Feldman in the bullpen.

Lance McCullers pitched a game on Saturday in AAA Fresno in his first real game action of 2016. He did a nice job tossing 5 shutout innings allowing 2 hits, 2 walks with 7 K's. He flight connection issues getting back to Houston arriving on Monday pushing his bullpen throwing session back in Houston back until today. If he isn't feeling any soreness from Saturday's work and if all goes well in his BP session today McCullers could make his first start of the season in Boston on Friday night. The only difficult thing for AJ Hinch to decide will be who is the odd man out in the Astros rotation. It won't be an easy decision either because all 3 guys on the back end of the starting rotation have been pitching really well. Mike Fiers, Chris Devenski and Doug Fister have all been pitching their collective arses off. It's a nice problem to have---to many good starters---but who is the odd man out? Or maybe Hinch will decide to go with a 6 man rotation for a while. Devenski, being the rookie of the group could be the odd man out. It's a shame because in his two starts for Houston he deserved to win both games. In the first have gave up 2 runs and lost 2-0 and in the second game he left with a 4-2 lead and the bullpen had a major melt down and Houston lost 7-4. He could be the pitcher the Astros have the most options with. I hate to say it but Devenski could end up in AAA by the weekend. If this is his last start in a while I hope he gets the win.

All of a sudden Houston is starting to be rich with catchers. Max Stassi was activated off the 15 day DL this past weekend and he was optioned to AAA Fresno and is catching every day. Stassi broke his hamate bone in his right hand in spring training that required surgery to repair. Also last weekend Evan Gattis began a minimum ten day stint in AA Corpus Christi to get into playing shape as a catcher. The plan for this spring was to give Gattis work at catcher, a position he's played in the big leagues before coming to Houston, and use him as a backup catcher and DH. Gattis has been catching every other game to this end for the Hooks. It sort of looks like job security for the current backup catcher, Erik Kratz, may be in jeopardy.

Here's the list of the Astros top 30 minor league prospects. Notice Tyler White is on the list at #13.

http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2016?list=hou

[eagle eye]

Looking on the bright side the Astros have won 2 of their last 3. Yeah, that's the ticket. Look on the bright side. It certainly sounds better than the Astros losing a game in 4 hit shutout by a pitcher with an ERA over 5. That's what happened though. Tevor Baur made Houston look pretty bad most of the night. In fact, besides the 4 hits Baur allowed he gave up 4 walks but he offset that with 9 K's. The fact is Baur only gave up 3 hits and 3 walks in 7 innings of work. Bryan Shaw pitched the 8th and gave up the fourth hit and Cody Allen pitched the 9th and he gave up the 4th walk. Baur had 7 K's while Shaw and Allen each had one. Despite only 8 base runners in the game Houston did have a chance or two but their old bug-a-boo of not hitting in the clutch jumped up and bit them again. The Astros were 04 with RISP and they stranded 6 base runners on the night. The only Astro to do well was starter Chris Devenski who put up another quality start going 6.2 innings giving up just 5 hits, 2 walks with 5 K's and allowing 2 runs. Pat Neshak came in and took care of the last out in the 7th but the wildly inconsistent Josh Fields came in an allowed 2 insurance runs to score (not that Cleveland needed them) in pitching the 8th inning. He gave up the 2 runs on 3 hits, no walks and a K. Trouble was one of the hits was a triple and another one was a double with a single sandwiched in between. It could very well have been worse if Colby Rasmus hadn't combined with Luis Valbuena and Jose Altuve to throw out Mike Napoli, who doubled home Francisco Lindor, who got caught between 2nd and 3rd thinking Rasmus throw was going to home plate. Valbuena cut the throw and had Napoli dead to rights running him back toward 2B then throwing to Altuve who completed the out. Houston did flash some leather in the game as Devenski did benefit from some really nice defensive plays behind him but it's all for naught when you can't score runs. Houston ended up losing 4-0 which brings me back to that silver lining at the beginning of this post. Houston has won 2 out of their last 3. That sounds a lot better than what actually happened last night.

There was a Lance McCullers sighting in the Astros dugout last night. He completed throwing his bullpen session earlier in the day and had no issues. The Astros will gauge how he feels today and make a decision on his return to the field. So far everything looks good for his return to the starting rotation this weekend in Boston. This is great news for him but somebody, Chris Devenski probably, will not be happy because their gig as a starting pitcher will be over for the time being. Personally I think it may be prudent to use McCullers out of the bullpen for a little while. I sure wouldn't hurt ship Josh Fields to the minors. Despite being able to throw in the mid to upper 90's Fields isn't dependable at all. Last night it didn't matter that he sucked because Houston wasn't going to come back in the game but it has mattered in the past and will matter in the future and you just can't have that in the bullpen.

Poor Chris Devenski. The guy has had 3 really good starts, the first 3 of his career in the big leagues, and has nothing but an 0-2 record despite giving up just 6 runs in 17 innings pitched. He has 15 K's in 3 starts and 27 K's in 8 appearances and an ERA of 1.72 which is more than twice as good as any other guy who has started for the Astros this season. With Lance McCullers coming back and with Devenski being the youngest of the starters he may lose his job. It's a blessing that Houston has to make this sort of choice and it's disappointing that someone is going to be left out in the cold.

Jason Castro went on paternity leave yesterday for the birth of his first child. He is allowed to miss 3 days for paternity leave so he will be back in the dugout this weekend in Boston. Max Stassi, who just did come back from being on the DL after surgery on his hand to repair a hamate bone was called up to fill Castro's spot. The question will be whether Stassi stays with the big club or is optioned back to Fresno. Erik Kratz was signed just shortly after Stassi was hurt in spring training and he's been serviceable but he's no Hank Conger (lol). Stassi was slated to be the backup catcher back in the spring but the injury changed all that. Who knows, even if Stassi sticks around what will happen to him when Evan Gattis comes back from AA Corpus Christi where he's been sent to sharpen up his catching skills? The Astros aren't likely to keep 3 catchers on the their roster so whether it's this weekend or next week Stassi will likely end up in Fresno.

[eagle eye]

Yesterday's series finale with Cleveland was one for the books. Literally. First, the Astros won their first walk off game of the season after a 16 inning marathon that took 5 hours and 9 seconds to play. The 9 seconds was the time Marwin Gonzalez line drive walk-off HR and the resulting trip around the bases took to end the game. The next thing of note was this was the 3rd longest game at the Juice Box in it's history. A total of 18 pitchers were used in the game, 10 by Cleveland and 8 by the Astros. The box score was perverted too. The Indians banged out 14 hits for the game but Houston pitching allowed but one walk in the game. That walk was allowed by Pat Neshak in the 12th inning. By contrast Houston only had 5 hits in the game but the were walked 12 times. 17 total base runners but that was countered with a whopping 18 K's. Cleveland only had 11 K's. Both bullpens did a good job and kept the other team at bay until Gonzalez' homer in the 16th. In fact Cleveland pitching tossed 8 innings, from the 8th to the 15th, of no-hit baseball. Carlos Correa broke through with the Astros first hit since the 7th inning leading off the 16th. Rasmus followed with a fly ball out to CF then Gonzalez, on the first pitch he saw, drilled the liner into the right field seats to win the game. Houston had taken a 3-2 lead on Cleveland with single runs in the 6th and 7th innings but Luke Gregerson blew the save in the 9th allowing a double to Mike Napoli and an RBI triple to Carlos Santana (Oye como va!). Carlos Correa flashed his defensive skills several times during the game saved a run when he knocked down a ground ball when the Astros defense was pulled with Santana on 3rd and got the batter out at first while still holding Santana from scoring. He also made the play for the last out of the inning sending the game into extra innings. The blown save was Grergerson's first since August 12th of last year, a total of 16 straight saves converted before yesterday.
You almost had to think Houston was going to lose the game after they stranded a small army of runners in the first 3 innings. In the 1st Altuve singled, Springer walked and Correa walked to load the bases with nobody out. What followed were 3 straight strike outs by Rasmus, Gonzalez and Valbuena. In the second the Astros loaded the bases but with two outs. For the second day in a row Altuve was walked intentionally and George Springer worked another walk but Carlos Correa grounded out to short to end the inning. In the 3rd Gonzalez doubled after Rasmus began the inning with a K. Valbuena walked to give Houston runners at 1st and 2nd but Carlos Gomez struck out and Max Stassi grounded out to short to end the inning. In all in the first three innings Houston stranded 8 base runners. Houston was oh for 8 with RISP until Correa singled in Jose Altuve in the 6th inning.
The Astros runs came on a George Springer HR in the 4th. The RBI single by Correa in the 6th, an RBI single by Preston Tucker in the 7th and Gonzalez' 2 run HR in the 16th. The Indians scored a run in the 3rd on a Jason Kipnes single, a run in the 4th on a Mike Napoli solo HR and the RBI triple by Santana in the 9th. The final score of this marathon was Houston 5 and Cleveland 3.

Gonzalez was the offensive hero of the game going 2-7 with a double, a home run, a run scored and two RBI's. Of course he had the biggest hit of the game with his walk off dinger in the 16th. Not be lost was the job done by the 8 pitchers in the game. First Doug Fister was really good going 7 innings and allowing just 2 runs. He continued the streak of quality starts by the Astros which now stands at 7. Astros starters have gone 7 innings in 5 of those 7 games. Will Harris pitched a perfect 8th and you almost have to forgive Gregerson's failure in the 9th, the odds of blowing one finally caught up with him after 16 straight saves. To his credit he had a man on 3rd in a tie game with only one out and he sucked it up after blowing the save and got the final two outs to send the game into extra innings. Scott Feldman pitched the 10th allowing 2 hits but no runs and Ken Giles and Tony Sipp followed by Pat Neshak who got the Astros through the 13th without allowing a run. Then came Michael Feliz. Feliz is on his 3rd stint in the first month and a half of the season but after he was roughed up in his first two appearances he has figured it out. Yesterday he came on in the 14th and he was dominating. He allowed no runs on one hit and no walks with 5 K's in 3 innings of work. In the process he got his first big league win. He was steadily bringing 97-98 mph fastballs on the Indians while mixing in a low to mid 80's slider. AJ Hinch had nothing but praise for Feliz after the game as well he should. When it comes time to make a roster spot for Lance McCullers my vote would be to send Josh Fields down and keep Feliz, he has certainly earned it.

Houston ends their 10 game home stand with a 6-4 record and showing signs that they are beginning to play like the Astros of 2015 at last. The offense is still struggling some but they are showing signs of waking up. They still strike out way too much but it's hard to temper being selective at the plate and still remain aggressive. Houston now goes on a seven game road trip and it's a tough one. They will be facing the Red Sox for 4 games beginning today followed by the AL best Chicago White Sox for 3. Dallas Keuchel (2-4, 4.70 ERA) will lead off the trip for the Astros as he faces David Price (4-1, 6.75 ERA) of the Red Sox. This trip will feature the return of Lance McCullers to the lineup for the first time this year. Collin McHugh and Chris Devenski finish off the trip to Boston on Saturday and Sunday. First things first though. Keuchel looked like his old self going 7 strong innings in his last start giving up just two runs. Now he needs a game where he gets some run support to help right his ship and get back on a winning track.

Yesterday's win was Houston 3rd series win of the season and they have a ways to go to get back into this division race but at least they are showing signs of life. This win yesterday may go a long way toward turning the slow start of this season around for the Astros. They aren't going to a cake walk on the road this next 7 days but they are not lambs to the slaughter either. They are certainly capable of winning their share of the games.

[puddin tane]

Yesterday's series finale with Cleveland was one for the books. Literally. First, the Astros won their first walk off game of the season after a 16 inning marathon that took 5 hours and 9 seconds to play. The 9 seconds was the time Marwin Gonzalez line drive walk-off HR and the resulting trip around the bases took to end the game. The next thing of note was this was the 3rd longest game at the Juice Box in it's history. A total of 18 pitchers were used in the game, 10 by Cleveland and 8 by the Astros. The box score was perverted too. The Indians banged out 14 hits for the game but Houston pitching allowed but one walk in the game. That walk was allowed by Pat Neshak in the 12th inning. By contrast Houston only had 5 hits in the game but the were walked 12 times. 17 total base runners but that was countered with a whopping 18 K's. Cleveland only had 11 K's. Both bullpens did a good job and kept the other team at bay until Gonzalez' homer in the 16th. In fact Cleveland pitching tossed 8 innings, from the 8th to the 15th, of no-hit baseball. Carlos Correa broke through with the Astros first hit since the 7th inning leading off the 16th. Rasmus followed with a fly ball out to CF then Gonzalez, on the first pitch he saw, drilled the liner into the right field seats to win the game. Houston had taken a 3-2 lead on Cleveland with single runs in the 6th and 7th innings but Luke Gregerson blew the save in the 9th allowing a double to Mike Napoli and an RBI triple to Carlos Santana (Oye como va!). Carlos Correa flashed his defensive skills several times during the game saved a run when he knocked down a ground ball when the Astros defense was pulled with Santana on 3rd and got the batter out at first while still holding Santana from scoring. He also made the play for the last out of the inning sending the game into extra innings. The blown save was Grergerson's first since August 12th of last year, a total of 16 straight saves converted before yesterday.
You almost had to think Houston was going to lose the game after they stranded a small army of runners in the first 3 innings. In the 1st Altuve singled, Springer walked and Correa walked to load the bases with nobody out. What followed were 3 straight strike outs by Rasmus, Gonzalez and Valbuena. In the second the Astros loaded the bases but with two outs. For the second day in a row Altuve was walked intentionally and George Springer worked another walk but Carlos Correa grounded out to short to end the inning. In the 3rd Gonzalez doubled after Rasmus began the inning with a K. Valbuena walked to give Houston runners at 1st and 2nd but Carlos Gomez struck out and Max Stassi grounded out to short to end the inning. In all in the first three innings Houston stranded 8 base runners. Houston was oh for 8 with RISP until Correa singled in Jose Altuve in the 6th inning.
The Astros runs came on a George Springer HR in the 4th. The RBI single by Correa in the 6th, an RBI single by Preston Tucker in the 7th and Gonzalez' 2 run HR in the 16th. The Indians scored a run in the 3rd on a Jason Kipnes single, a run in the 4th on a Mike Napoli solo HR and the RBI triple by Santana in the 9th. The final score of this marathon was Houston 5 and Cleveland 3.

Gonzalez was the offensive hero of the game going 2-7 with a double, a home run, a run scored and two RBI's. Of course he had the biggest hit of the game with his walk off dinger in the 16th. Not be lost was the job done by the 8 pitchers in the game. First Doug Fister was really good going 7 innings and allowing just 2 runs. He continued the streak of quality starts by the Astros which now stands at 7. Astros starters have gone 7 innings in 5 of those 7 games. Will Harris pitched a perfect 8th and you almost have to forgive Gregerson's failure in the 9th, the odds of blowing one finally caught up with him after 16 straight saves. To his credit he had a man on 3rd in a tie game with only one out and he sucked it up after blowing the save and got the final two outs to send the game into extra innings. Scott Feldman pitched the 10th allowing 2 hits but no runs and Ken Giles and Tony Sipp followed by Pat Neshak who got the Astros through the 13th without allowing a run. Then came Michael Feliz. Feliz is on his 3rd stint in the first month and a half of the season but after he was roughed up in his first two appearances he has figured it out. Yesterday he came on in the 14th and he was dominating. He allowed no runs on one hit and no walks with 5 K's in 3 innings of work. In the process he got his first big league win. He was steadily bringing 97-98 mph fastballs on the Indians while mixing in a low to mid 80's slider. AJ Hinch had nothing but praise for Feliz after the game as well he should. When it comes time to make a roster spot for Lance McCullers my vote would be to send Josh Fields down and keep Feliz, he has certainly earned it.

Houston ends their 10 game home stand with a 6-4 record and showing signs that they are beginning to play like the Astros of 2015 at last. The offense is still struggling some but they are showing signs of waking up. They still strike out way too much but it's hard to temper being selective at the plate and still remain aggressive. Houston now goes on a seven game road trip and it's a tough one. They will be facing the Red Sox for 4 games beginning today followed by the AL best Chicago White Sox for 3. Dallas Keuchel (2-4, 4.70 ERA) will lead off the trip for the Astros as he faces David Price (4-1, 6.75 ERA) of the Red Sox. This trip will feature the return of Lance McCullers to the lineup for the first time this year. Collin McHugh and Chris Devenski finish off the trip to Boston on Saturday and Sunday. First things first though. Keuchel looked like his old self going 7 strong innings in his last start giving up just two runs. Now he needs a game where he gets some run support to help right his ship and get back on a winning track.

Yesterday's win was Houston 3rd series win of the season and they have a ways to go to get back into this division race but at least they are showing signs of life. This win yesterday may go a long way toward turning the slow start of this season around for the Astros. They aren't going to a cake walk on the road this next 7 days but they are not lambs to the slaughter either. They are certainly capable of winning their share of the games.




you could could save a whole lotta typing by just saying "THESE GUYS SUCK!" and just copy and paste it a couple times a week. That's all the analysis this team needs.

[eagle eye]

#theseguyssuck - I can't understand why Dallas Keuchel is so bad right now. He looked decent in his last outing but so far this year about the best thing you can say about his is he has battled. Unfortunately he's battling himself more than he is opposing batters. He gave up 8 runs in 6 innings the bulk of which came off a 2 run HR and a 3 run dinger. The hits I don't really care about because he's given up hits but he hasn't, in the past, allowed a hit or two burn him. Keuchel is a mentally tough competitor but he's lost the ability to spot his pitches for strikes the way he's done the past two seasons. You wonder if he didn't hurt himself pitching in the cold weather on opening day in NY. An article on Astros.com talks about his lost velocity but he has seemed to regain that but he can't fool batters right now. Last year I compared Keuchel to Greg Maddux. Both guys didn't have overpowering stuff but they both outthought you and they had pinpoint control that forced hitters to swing at pitches they could do nothing with. That control is something Keuchel has lost since the season began. Last year Keuchel walked 51 batters in 232 innings pitched. So far this year he's walked 22 batters in just 50 innings. Control is lacking for sure. I don't know what happened either because he dominated in spring training. He looked like he got a bit better in the offseason but, he definitely struggled in New York where it was cold as heck and the wind was blowing like a hurricane. In Milwaukee in his 2nd start he walked 6 batters and allowed 6 hits in a loss to the Brewers. In his Game 3 he looked like his old self back at the Juice Box against the Tigers. He notched his second win of the season and you figured, okay-he's got it going now-all is well. Wrong. In four of the last 5 starts he has stunk. In his 3 starts in May he's given up a whopping 25 hits, allowed 15 runs with 9 BB's and 15 K's. That sucks and couple that with the fact Houston doesn't give him any run support and it's a recipe for disaster. In this case, since his last win against Detroit on April 15, Keuchel is 0-5 with an ERA over 7. That is a disaster.
Is this offense really that bad? Yes, yes they are. #theseguyssuck. Houston's 11-1 loss to Boston on Friday the 13th drops them to a 14-22 record but they are no longer in last place in the division. Taking 2 of 3 against Cleveland elevated them just above the Angels who have a record 13-21. Apparently the Angels starting pitching is dropping like bowling pins to injuries and the team is finding out just how cruel life can be without good pitching. The Astros get a reminder of this every 5th day when it is time for Keuchel to pitch. Maybe the hash tag should be #theseguyssuckbutnotasmuchastheAngels.

[puddin tane]

Keuchel

[eagle eye]

Nice graphic and it explains a lot of what I was talking about. Houston prevailed last night overcoming a bad 2nd inning by Lance McCullers. They hung on and Luke Gregerson got the Sox out in the 9th to get the save. Unfortunately, on his birthday no less, Gregerson blew the save today. With the Astros up 5-4 in the ninth with 2 out Gregerson, who had a man on first had an 0-1 pitch down around David Ortiz' knees that Big Poppi drove into the gap in left center scoring the tying run to send the game into extra innings. I say of course because Houston had blown several scoring chances earlier in the game ,most particularly, in the 8th when Marwin Gonzalez got to 3rd base on a double and he was moved to 3rd on a sac bunt by Luis Valbuena. Then, with Jason Castro up, there had to be a squeeze called because Gonzalez took off from 3rd. The pitch was outside to the left handed batting Castro but Castro didn't offer at the pitch and Gonzo was dead meat who was cut down in a rundown. He did manage to make the pickle last long enough so that Tyler White, who had been intentionally walked after Valuena's at bat, to get to 3rd. Castro walked bringing up Jake Marisnick, he of the .080 or so BA, struck out to end the inning and the threat. I look forward to AJ Hinch's post game presser to find out what really happened on the play. The game is in the 11th now with Castro at bat again with one out. That out, BTW, was a strike out by Carlos Gomez who continues to be only a little less useless than Jake Marisnick with a bat in his hands. Castro struck out on a 2-2 pitch that bounced at home plate. The Red Sox have Uehara on the mound and his fastball is topping out at 88 mph and Houston can't seem to hit his weak ass stuff. Marisnick is up now and with a 2-2. Holy crap! Marisnick gets a 2 out double on a bloop fly to right that fell out of Hanley Ramirez' glove. This is Jake's 3rd hit in 28 AB's on the season.
This is the 3rd time in 4 days an opposing pitcher has intentionally walked Jose Altuve who is 3-4 with 2 walks today. Springer is up. He has the biggest hit of this game when he hit a grand slam way back in the 2nd inning. He's been shut down ever since going 1-5 on the day, but it is just about time he got hold of one. Never mind, he popped out to short ending the inning. Giles pitched the 10th, I wonder if he stays in for the 11th. #theseguysstillsuck.

[eagle eye]

A while back I posted that 2 outs is kryptonite to the Astros. Michael Feliz has been amazing in his last 4 outings but he gave up a single to Xander Bogaerts and he advanced to 2nd on a wild pitch to David Ortiz that was really more about a failure by Jason Castro. Then on a 2-2 pitch Feliz left one up and Big Poppi again drove the ball to left center that scored Bogaerts from second for a walk off double to end the game in the bottom of the 11th. That's two games in 3 days Gregerson has blown. How many ways can this team blow wins? There seems to be no limit to their ineptitude. #theseguysreallyreallysuck.

BTW, why pitch to Ortiz? The guy was a single short of the cycle as he went 3-5 on the day including a walk for the day. I thought it was an unwritten rule of baseball that you don't let the other team's best player, or in this case best hitter, beat you. But that is exactly what happened with a triple in the 9th to tie the game and a double in the 11th to win the game. With a man on 2nd who cares if Ortiz gets first. Just like the Sox did in the 10th intentionally walking Altuve. In large part this is on AJ Hinch. Pitching to Ortiz in the game situations in the 9th and 11th plus calling a suicide squeeze with one out with a left handed batter at the plate is silly. I have no idea why Houston couldn't even make contact on Uehama. He is the ultimate junk pitcher with an 88 mph fastball and a 79 mph splitter but Houston batters couldn't touch him. I could forgive Gregerson for the blown save on Wednesday since Houston came back and won but now I am pissed. The scouting report on Ortiz is he likes the ball down so why did Gregerson and Feliz give him pitches down. Both pitches were right over the middle of the plate about knee high which is right in Big Poppi's wheel house. #theseguyssuckandi'mpissed.

[puddin tane]

We had 3 starters today with lower batting averages than Castro. Hell, I didn't think that was possible! Tucker, no bueno, and marisnick.....no bueno I just can't stand, he brings nothing and acts like he's all that. Tucker and Jake need to be sent down. You can't out hit Castro, you got no business in the bigs...goes for NoGo GoGo also

#theseguyssuckandshouldbeplayingcoedslowpitchsoftb all

[puddin tane]

Digging a little deeper,aside from Bregman, the 'stros don't have jack diddly squat for hitters down in the minors. All the OF suck, which is why we are stuck with gomez, tucker and marisnick. No fear tho, Gattis will be back in a lil bit to DH.....hahahaha. We are in deep dookie

[eagle eye]

First off, the Astros should have won this series against Boston. Despite the fact that the Sox have been on fire lately scoring 10 runs or more in 5 of the 7 games they played this past week and Houston should have won the series. A blown save, a misjudged fly ball, a ball lost in the sun that actually his the defender in the shoulder--just a litany of stupid crap derailed what should have been a good week. Instead of leaving Boston with a series win and a 5-3 record for the week they rumble, bumble and stumble their way to a series loss to the Bosox and a 3-5 record for the week. Houston slid back into the AL West cellar and they are now 7.5 games behind new division leader Texas who won their series against Toronto and the gang fight in the 8th inning of the game.
A side note, I have really come to hate the Rangers. I don't like their manager, he is a world class tool bag. I actually began to hate that guy after his sucker punched AJ Hinch last year during a game. The Rangers seem to get into it with pretty much everyone and I blame the manager for that. I cannot stand Rougned Odor, if there's a player I would like to see take a 98 mph fastball in his earhole it would be him. Aside from Prince Fielder, I pretty much can't stand the rest of the team as well. I will give Adrian Beltre credit for at least getting Jose Bautista out of the brawl and he did it without Bautista getting hit any more. Okay, so I'm good with Adrian Beltre.
As puddin tane alluded to the Astros don't have a lot of hitting on the horizon from the minors. Partly because the Astros have promoted their best to the bigs in the last 3 years. Correa, Springer, Tucker (P) to name 3. Tyler White started out en fuego but he has cooled off tremendously. I guess you knew it was coming but it's hard to imagine he is this bad. I said it last year and so far it bears saying again, I am not fan of Houston hitting coach Dave Hudgins. I think the last time Houston bats started coming around was under former hitting coach under Bo Porter John Mallee. Last season, Hudgins first in Houston, several Astros had career worst years and this year they are even worse. The best hitter in the system since Carlos Correa was traded away last summer for Carlos freaking Gomez and Mike Fiers. Let's look at the deal that brought Gomez to Houston. Domingo Santana is the cleanup hitter for the Brew Crew. He has missed time recently because of a shoulder problem similar to Lance McCullers. Santana was hitting .231, with a .345 OBP, .421 Slugging % and an OPS of .755. P Josh Hader was included in the deal and he's tearing up AA for the Brewers Biloxi team. So far in 2016 Hader hasn't allowed more than one earned run in any outing this season, entering Monday with a microscopic 1.04 ERA and a .198 average against in seven starts. The tall lefty -- he stands 6-foot-3 -- also has fanned 46 in 34 2/3 innings. Another player in the trade was OF prospect Brett Phillips. Before the season began he was the 9th best OF prospect in MLB. He is currently the 2nd ranked prospect for the Brewers as he continues to tear up AA pitching. Currently Phillips is hitting .258, OBP .348, Slg % .468 and a .815 OPS. What Houston got was Gomez and P Fiers. Fiers has been the better half of that deal but giving up high quality prospects like we did for what we've gotten out of the players is nothing short of highway robbery. This deal the one that sent Mark Appel to Philadelphia are two deals I think GM Jeff Luhnow blew. #I'msodepressedthattheseguyssucksobad.
Dallas Keuchel has another chance to throw batting practice to the Chicago White Sox tomorrow in that series opener in Chicago. He will face Carlos Rodon who Houston could have drafted a couple of years ago when they selected the boy who still hasn't throw a pitch at any level in the pros. Selecting Brady Aiken enabled Houston to miss out on Rodon but enabled them to select SS Alex Bregman, who is Houston's #1 prospect, who is playing for the Corpus Christi Hooks. Bregman isn't ready for the bigs yet. That was proved in spring training where he wasn't able to hit above .100 before being sent to minor league spring training.
Yesterday Valbuena had a big day going 2-5 with 5 RBI's. The painful things about that is 1) Houston lost the game and 2) the 5 RBI's yesterday matched Valbuena's RBI total in his previous 101 at-bats. Valbuena is still only hitting .208. Preston Tucker has struggled all season and AJ Hinch has seen enough. The Astros optioned Tucker to AAA Fresno after the game last night. I believe the feeling is he needs to play every day and get a lot of AB's to break him out of the funk he's in. Hinch said the corresponding move will be made prior to the series opener with the White Sox on Tuesday.
Another move being made is Evan Gattis is returning to Houston and he will join the team in Chicago. He comes back as the backup catcher/DH and to make room for him the Astros have released Erik Kratz although an official designation has not been released. I'm fine with that. Kratz was hitting (and I use the term loosely) .069. He is the only person on the Astros roster hitting worse than Jake Marisnick. Personally, I think Jake needs to hop on the mellon truck to the minors with Preston Tucker so they can regain their stroke and, more importantly, their confidence. Carlos Gomez is hitting (again, using the term loosely) a pathetic .182. I say pathetic because he was an All Star for goodness sake. Gomez also made the mental error that allowed Boston to come back in seventh inning to tie the game at 9 and eventually take a 10-9 lead which cost Houston the game. Gomez made two errors on the day. In the 2nd he lost the ball in the sun and it dropped in for a hit that the batter, Josh Rutledge, whose hustle turned it into a double. Rutledge scored in the inning as did 3 more Bosox who took a 6-3 lead after two innings. Errors by Gomez accounted for 3 runs in the game which the Astros lost 10-9. To say I'm tired of Gomez is an understatement.

[eagle eye]

We didn't have to wait long to find out who would get the call up to the bigs to replace Preston Tucker who was sent down to Fresno because he wasn't hitting the ball. The Astros brought up a guy who Jose Altuve can see eye to eye with. That would be 5'6'' Tony Kemp who has been hitting .298 for the Fresno Grizzlies in 34 games played. Kemp is evidently a popular guy around the league because even ace pitcher David Price tweeted his congratulations to Kemp who is joining the Astros in Chicago as they begin a series with the Pale Hose.

http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2016/05/16/178447512/astros-call-up-tony-kemp

We may have sold the Astros a little short yesterday saying they don't have anyone in the minors who can hit. That is not strictly true. Alex Bregman is hitting quite well, thank you, for the AA Corpus Christi Hooks. So far this season in 24 games played he has hit .330 (29 for 88) with some pop evidenced by his 8 doubles and 8 HR's. Bregman has also driven in 23 runs, he's scored 23 runs and the best thing about his stat line is he's walked 14 times with only 9 K's. That's highly unusual for anybody in the Astros organization, working more walks than he has strike outs. Yesterday was the first day he has worked at 3rd base as a pro. Bregman was drafted as a shortstop but Houston already has a pretty good one in Carlos Correa. There is a big hole at 3rd base that is currently being manned by Jose Valbuena or Marwin Gonzalez. Neither guy is really doing well at the plate and that's the key thing. Houston needs offense. Too often it's Altuve, Springer and Correa with some help by Rasmus and White then nada, zip, nothing. It's like Houston is back in the National League only instead of one pitcher batting ninth they have 3 pitchers batting 7, 8 and 9. Maybe there is some hope in minors. Bregman needs work and he probably needs to play this and next before you consider bringing him up. There is another prospect who looks like he would be a better option than what Houston has is 3B Colin Moran. Moran is now in AAA. He's hit .288 so far and he's a natural third sacker. The only thing that is disturbing is his BB/K ratio isn't good at 9/32 and his power numbers (3 HR's and 7 doubles) don't justify his propensity to strike out.

[eagle eye]

There have been some developments this morning worth noting.
1. 3B Colin Moran is being called up from AAA today. There is no word as yet as to what move the Astros will make to create room for Moran on the roster. Moran was the No 6 overall pick by the Miami Marlins in the 2013 draft. He, Jake Marisnick and Francis Martes were all part of a package deal that Houston made with Miami that sent Jarred Cosart, Austin Wates and Enrique Hernandez to Miami. In this article from Bleacher Report they don't paint a great picture of Moran which is nuts considering how high he was taken in the draft. One thing for sure, he almost can't be any worse than Luis Valbuena has been so far this season. I did say "almost".

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/05/astros-to-promote-colin-moran.html

2. GM Jeff Luhnow, again from an article on Bleacher Report, said that Carlos Gomez is very close to being benched. (Yippee!!)

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/astros-gm-says-carlos-gomez-has-to-start-hitting-to-avoid-being-benched/

I'm getting a lot of info from Bleacher Report this morning so here's some more items with an accompanying link to the articles.

Evan Gattis has joined the team in Chicago after completing his 10 day stint in Corpus Christi to refamiliarize himself with being a catcher. He was a catcher with Atlanta prior to Houston acquiring him just before the 2015 season. He did not catch at all in his first year with the Astros. Hopefully, he can add some pop to a fairly limp lineup when he returns to the lineup, likely tonight against White Sox lefty Carlos Rodon. It's being speculated that Gattis will catch on Thursday with Collin McHugh on the mound.

http://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/Astros-Evan-Gattis-ready-to-catch-again-in-majors-7503161.php

Here's another article about Carlos Gomez that includes a slide show of veteran players who have been busts after coming to Houston. This is in all of the big 3 sports.

http://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/Is-Astros-Carlos-Gomez-the-latest-veteran-to-go-7482802.php#item-38488

[eagle eye]

Everyone was bragging about Luke Gregerson getting 16 straight saves in as many opportunities dating back to August of last season but now he's blown 3 saves in the last 6 days. Gregerson is lucky Houston is 2-1 in those games. Houston won in 16 innings when he blew his first save against Cleveland on May 11. On May 14 against Boston Houston lost in 11 innings and last night the Astros won in 11. The final score of the game was 6-5 because of a 2 run tie breaking HR by Evan Gattis in the top of the inning but Tony Sipp looked like he was trying to help the White Sox come back allowing a run in the bottom of the inning. Thank goodness there was a man on when Gattis went yard or the game may still be in progress. As it is in a six game stretch Gregerson has one save and 3 blown saves. That is crazy stuff. You cannot make stuff like this up. If you wrote this in a book critics would say you are crazy writing stuff like this because the Astros finding so many ways to lose is not real, it can't happen, you obviously don't know baseball.

Tyler White finally broke out of the prolonged slump he's been in since the 3rd week of the season. Last night he went 3-4 with 2 RBI's and 2 runs scored. His hits were 2 home runs and a double. He came into the game hitting .234 and walked off the field with a .252 BA. Let's hope that this is trend rather than an anomaly.

Evan Gattis was back from his AA catching assignment and he apparently found his hitting stroke while he was there. He left for Corpus Christi hitting .203 and after the smoke cleared Gattis had gone 2-4 with two RBI's and two runs scored along with 2 BB's and no K's. One of the hits was a 2-run shot that won the game in the 11th inning and his BA is up to .221. Gattis figures to be in the lineup every day as a DH or playing catcher as he is now the Astros backup catcher.

AJ Hinch said he was gaining confidence in Ken Giles and he also said he planned to use him in increasingly stressful situations. You can't get any more stressful than bases load, one out which is the situation Houston was in with one out in the 7th. Giles came in and looked like the hard throwing reliever we thought we were getting when he was acquired from Philadelphia in the offseason. All Giles did was strike out the first two batters he faced saving the game for Houston at the time. Mixing a 98 mph fastball with an 87 mph slider he just blew the White Sox away.

Dallas Keuchel didn't get the loss last night and he didn't get the win either. What he did was go 6+ innings allowing 3 runs. He didn't allow a walk in the game until the 7th when he walked 3 batters on 12 pitches not really even coming close to the strike zone. It was a cool night in Chi-town last night and Keuchel said he got cold and lost his control. Thank goodness Ken Giles was able to stop the bleeding without allowing a run in relief of Keuchel. It wasn't a great outing by Keuchel but at least most of the way he looked like his old self. That is encouraging but we've seen that before so let's reserve judgment on whether or not he is righted his ship.

Houston is still stranding a small army of base runners. They had scoring opportunities in the 5th when they loaded the bases and in the 7th and 8th when they had men on 1st and 2nd and they didn't score diddley. They were 4-10 with RISP but they stranded 11 base runners during the game. The offense isn't the only problem because Houston has scored runs lately. In loses to Boston over the weekend they scored 6 runs and 9 runs, both were losses. Last night they had to score 6 and that was almost not enough. Why? Because the pitching has gone south. The starters and the relievers have hit a rough stretch as they can't seem to not give up runs in bunches. So far this season, the Astros have not meshed as a team with pitching and offense and in some cases their defense can't seem to get on the same page. The fact that they have actually won 16 games to date is rather amazing.

Last, the Rangers were in 1st place for like one day. After an emotional series with Toronto they head out west to play 4 with Oakland. They lost the series opener on Monday and they lost again last night. After the loss Monday night Seattle reclaimed the division lead. The M's were off on Monday after being swept by the Angels and the day off apparently helped because they beat the Orioles 10-0 last night. Houston is only 7 games back of Seattle which gives fans hope that the Astros still can come back if they can just gel as a team for a stretch of games over a couple of weeks. #theseguyssuckbutheyarenotoutofityet.

[eagle eye]

If you didn't realize it Houston has already won the series with Chicago by winning the first two games. This is the 4th 2 game winning streak of the season and it's also the 4th time they've had a chance for a 3 game win streak. Winning today won't be easy as the Astros will have to face Chris Sale, he of the 8-0 record and 1.67 ERA, but it's not an impossible task especially with the Pale Hose struggling. They are in the middle of a 4 game losing streak and it would be really nice if we could make it five. Houston sends Collin McHugh to the mound sporting a 4-3 record and a 5.58 ERA. McHugh always seems to get run support which is something that is like last season. The game tonight starts at the usual time so Houston won't get an early departure from Chicago.

Last night the two players Houston just brought up got their first big league starts last night. Colin Moran played 3B last night and he went 0-3 with a walk. Tony Kemp got the start in left field and he had a really great game. He went 2-3 with a walk and no K's plus he had an assist throwing out Adam Eaton who singled to left and he tried to stretch it into a double. It's a play that Jake Marisnick could have made and maybe even Carlos Gomez but neither of them would have gone 2-3 and added a walk. That's kind of what Tony Kemp is, a guy who hits the ball. He's not a hot dog like Gomez and he's sort of what you would have hoped Jake would be but he isn't a good hitter and that isn't going to change. Kemp is a guy looking to get a base hit first and foremost with enough pop to hit into the gaps and even get a HR or two. This is what the doctor ordered in terms of a more consistent offense and a guy who can keep a rally going. Let's see if Kemp can hit in the .290 range like he did in AAA and Houston has gotten the best of the deal if they release Gomez.

George Springer had men on first and second in the 8th inning with nobody out after Tony Kemp and Jose Altuve both worked walks to begin the frame. Springer hit a hard ground ball just inside the 3B bag. Trouble was the Sox were playing the lines and the ball went right to 3B Todd Frazier who stepped on third beginning a 5U-4-3 triple play that ended Houston's threat and their half of the inning. It is noteworthy to point out this is the White Sox second triple play of the season which is something that hasn't been done in 38 years. The last two triple plays were completed in the first two month of the season since 1978 when---wait for it---Houston did it. Both TP's were against Texas teams with the first on coming on April 22 against the Rangers. Talk about a situation dripping with irony! The line on the TP against the Rangers began with a Mitch Mooreland line drive to right field that began an F9-3-2-6-2-5 bases loaded triple play.

Doug Fister got the win going 6.1 innings allowing 3 runs on 9 hits and one walk with 5 K's. Ken Giles, Will Harris and Luke Gregerson cleaned up for the Astros tossing 2.2 innings of shutout ball. Fister ties Collin McHugh for the best record among the starters with a 4-3 record. Last night was Fister's 6th consecutive quality start and he's been the most consistent starter for the Astros. So far, I'd say Houston made a good deal when they signed him in the offseason. Gregerson had a 1-2-3 ninth for his 9th save of the season. Talk about hindquarters tightening up when he entered the game though. Your closer is supposed to inspire confidence that the game is over instead of the feeling of doom when Gregerson enters the game. Oh well.

Houston recorded 13 hits last night with every player with an at-bat in the game, except for Colin Moran, got at least one hit. That is what you'd call a relentless attack. Houston still had too many non-converted scoring opportunities going a woeful 2-13 with RISP. Besides the triple play that Springer hit into the Astros hit into two double plays, one each be Jose Altuve and Jason Castro. Speaking of Castro, I have to give him credit for hitting better lately. Last night he went 2-3 with a walk and he scored all 3 times he got on base. He and Colby Rasmus had solo home runs that were the margin of victory for the Astros.

[eagle eye]

0 for 4 in attempts at a 3 game winning streak. Most of the time I would rank on the Astros for blown opportunities or failures to do their jobs. No excuses this time however because Chicago's Chris Sale was just too good last night. Sale tossed a complete game last night allowing only one run, no walks and 9 K's. He was really good, just have to give him props. Collin McHugh wasn't bad either. He held the White Sox to 2 runs in 7 innings of work. He allowed just 5 hits and just one walk with 8 K's. He allowed a run in the second and a run in the 7th. Houston only got to Sale one time and that was a solo home run by Evan Gattis in the top of the 8th. Gattis is the only Astro to really get to Sale. Beside the home run he got another hit in the game as he went 2-3 on the night and he's the only Astro to reach base more than once. Altuve, Springer and Gattis were the only ones to get a hit off Sale. He really was that good last night. Gattis also caught his first game since 2014 last night and he did a nice job. Gattis admitted to being nervous going into the game but he said after the first pitch he settled down and had a really good game behind the plate. Houston returns to the Juice Box tonight to face their old nemesis the Texas Rangers. It will be Lance McCullers making his second start of the season going against the Rangers Colby Lewis (2-0, 3.12 ERA).

[eagle eye]

Ever get the feeling of deja vu? The overwhelming feeling that you been in a situation before. I'll bet Houston had that feeling last night. After losing in the series finale in Chicago by a score of 2-1 when the Astros were dominated by White Sox starter Chris Sale the Astros began a weekend series against cross state rival Texas. The Rangers sent Astros killer Colby Lewis to the mound. In his previous 12 starts Lewis was 9-1 with the last loss coming 6 years ago. Make that 10-1 after he dominated Houston and led the Rangers to yet another 2-1 loss. There were another similarities to last night's game as well like Lance McCullers pitching 6 innings for Houston in taking the loss. McCullers made one mistake last night and was to Prince Fielder, he of the .193 BA, who hit a gapper to left center scoring two runs, the only 2 runs Texas scored in the game. Colby Rasmus knocked in the Astros only run of the game with an RBI single that scored Jose Altuve who doubled to start the Astros half of the 9th. With Rasmus on 1st Evan Gattis came to the plate with the ability to hit a walkoff HR but after battling Rangers closer Sam Dyson for an 8 pitch at-bat it was the last pitch that did Gattis and the Astros in when he swung and missed for a game ending strike out. Instead of conjuring up the last game heroics of 2015 with a walkoff dinger Gattis just had to walk off with his Astros teammates with yet another loss. The Astros are now 17-26, 9 games under .500 and 8 games behind 1st place Seattle. #dammittheseguyssuck.

Another good thing the Astros had in common with the past two games was some really nice bullpen work for the Astros. Michael Feliz came on in the 7th inning and pitched 3 scoreless innings allowing no hits and no walks with 6 K's. Stellar job by Feliz. On Thursday Scott Feldman came in for Houston in the 8th inning and he pitched a scoreless, hitless inning for the Astros with one K. Both guys did an outstanding job but you have to give Feliz the nod as the reliever of the week for his work last night.

[eagle eye]

#WTFtheseguysbeyondsuck.

[puddin tane]

#WTFtheseguysbeyondsuck.

Ha

[eagle eye]

It's hard to say this past week sucked since the Astros split the two series they played but it's how they lost the last 4 games that makes this past week a total failure. Everything looked great after Houston beat Cleveland two games in a row to guarantee the series win. In the finale Houston ran up against White Sox ace Chris Sale who shut down their offense. They lost the game 2-1 but Sale didn't just shut down the Astros offense for one game because the home team didn't score but 4 runs in the next 3 games. I gave Sale credit for his work on Thursday but I am not being so generous to give the Ranger pitching the same credit. Houston's offense is just pathetic and they have been since the season began interrupted by intermittent games where it appears the Astros have busted out of their team wide slump only to go back to sucking again. How do explain the Astros having only one man hitting over .300 and the next highest BA is .254 by George Springer. Carlos Correa is battling a horrendous slump going a mere 1-19 in his last 19 AB's. Guys who started the season hot, Colby Rasmus and Tyler White, have gone frigid both batting .238 and .230 respectively. I still have a problem with the Astros hitting coach because this season Houston again leads the majors in K's with 445 and they lead the majors in swinging strikes with about 860. A part of that is because they are not able to even make contact. Pitchers have been making mistakes in the sweet spot of the strike zone but the Astros hardly ever make an opposing pitcher pay for a mistake. The other reason is this lineup is swinging at pitches that are out of the strike zone as soon as the ball leaves the pitcher's hand. They look like little girls at a Sunday picnic. I have been critical of Dave Hudgins since last year and I'm even more critical now. The Astros routinely take pitches they should swing at and swing at pitches they shouldn't. That's coaching. I include AJ Hinch as part of that problem because this roster struggled to score runs in spring training and with a rare exception or two have continued to struggle through the first 7 weeks of the season.
Maybe we just expected too much from George Springer and Carlos Correa. If you think about it Springer has been in the bigs for just about 2 seasons but he's only played in 225 games. He came up in June of 2014 but missed most of the season after his call up because of injury. Last season he missed 40% of the season due to a broken bone in his wrist. 225 games is roughly a season and a third. He's still a rookie and Correa has already been dubbed a Hall of Famer but he's only played 99 games in 2015 and 44 games so far this season for a total of 143 games in his CAREER. The kid is still a freaking rookie. In the past 20 AB's he's looked like a rookie. I realize there are growing pains but to rely on production of such young players is really not a recipe for success. The veterans on the roster aren't helping either. Colby Rasmus, Jason Castro and Luis Valbuena have consistently sucked. I can't help but blame AJ Hinch and Hudgins for a big part of the Astros problems. They went 2-4 this past week and they are at 17-28, 11 games under .500 which is a season low. They are also 10 games behind division leading Seattle. BTW, the Astros, after being swept by the Rangers over the weekend are 0-6 against them this season. Did I mention I now hate the Rangers? Dallas Keuchel pitched well for 5 of the 6 innings he worked but he gave up 5 runs in the one bad inning he had. At the time that put the Astros in a 5-0 hole which there was no way they were going to overcome. 2 outs is still the Astros kryptonite because of the 7 runs Keuchel allowed 5 were with 2 outs, 4 of those came in the 5 run 3rd inning. Pat Neshak also pitched an inning and when he had 2 outs he gave up a 2 run homer to Nomar Mazara who drove in Prince Fielder who doubled earlier in the inning. The count on Mazara was 2 balls and 2 strikes. Get the feeling that the Astros won't give the number 2 as their lucky number? I cannot tell you the level of disappointment I feel right now. #evenpuddintanethinkstheAstrossuck.

[eagle eye]

Lance McCullers returned to action a week and a half ago following Dallas Keuchel in the Astros rotation. Now, the pitching rotation is changed again. Doug Fister, who is really having a nice season after a bit of a rocky start will go for Houston tonight. Fister is 4-3 with a 4.22 ERA. He had been the 5th guy in the rotation but when McCullers came back Collin McHugh was pushed back to the #3 starter with Fister still at #5. Now Lance McCullers has gone to #4 in the rotation and Mike Fiers is now the 5th man in the rotation. Who knows why AJ Hinch is doing this. Maybe he's just shaking things up a little to try to get the Astros out of this horrendous funk they've been in. Maybe he wants to reward Fister for his work so far who knows. Last week after his first bad start of the season
Chris Devenski was moved back into the bullpen after he was part of a 6 man rotation the Astros employed when they went through a stretch of games where they didn't have a day off. Now last week and this week both features a Monday off so Devenski became the odd man out. He has pitched as a starter and out of the bullpen this season and he's done a really nice job. His W/L record doesn't reflect how well he's pitched but that's because Houston's offense stinks to high heaven.
Houston faces a 3 game set with AL East division leading Baltimore tonight. As I said Doug Fister takes the hill against Baltimore's Chris Tillman (6-1, 2.61 ERA). Another easy pitching matchup. Yeah, right.

[puddin tane]

Lance McCullers returned to action a week and a half ago following Dallas Keuchel in the Astros rotation. Now, the pitching rotation is changed again. Doug Fister, who is really having a nice season after a bit of a rocky start will go for Houston tonight. Fister is 4-3 with a 4.22 ERA. He had been the 5th guy in the rotation but when McCullers came back Collin McHugh was pushed back to the #3 starter with Fister still at #5. Now Lance McCullers has gone to #4 in the rotation and Mike Fiers is now the 5th man in the rotation. Who knows why AJ Hinch is doing this. Maybe he's just shaking things up a little to try to get the Astros out of this horrendous funk they've been in. Maybe he wants to reward Fister for his work so far who knows. Last week after his first bad start of the season
Chris Devenski was moved back into the bullpen after he was part of a 6 man rotation the Astros employed when they went through a stretch of games where they didn't have a day off. Now last week and this week both features a Monday off so Devenski became the odd man out. He has pitched as a starter and out of the bullpen this season and he's done a really nice job. His W/L record doesn't reflect how well he's pitched but that's because Houston's offense stinks to high heaven.
Houston faces a 3 game set with AL East division leading Baltimore tonight. As I said Doug Fister takes the hill against Baltimore's Chris Tillman (6-1, 2.61 ERA). Another easy pitching matchup. Yeah, right.

Fister has been pitching very good (by Astro standards). If Hinch starts Valnobueno again, he should be fired on the spot.

Devinski played in the field in hi school and college, stick him at 3rd or OF. can't be much worse.

Fiers bores me to death.

[eagle eye]

I hope it's noticed that I almost completely refuse to give credit to opposing pitchers because Houston's offense is so bad they have to show something before I give a pitcher credit for doing well against the Astros.

Take last night for an example. In 13 innings of work Houston the Astros were 2-10 with RISP and they left 9 men stranded on base. That ain't all pitching so I'm not giving Chris Tillman credit. It may seem unfair but I'm here to crucify the Astros not elevate the opposition. Tillman gave up 3 hits and 2 runs, both coming on a Luis Valbuena HR in the bottom of the 5 giving the Astros the lead in the game at 2-1. It's one of the VERY few times Houston has homered when there was actually a man on base. Houston has cornered the market on solo HR's. The Astros strike out like there was a sale and they stocked up for the winter on K's. This is nothing new but what is different is when they did connect they hit the ball out of the park last year and this year it is a pop fly, a foul ball caught or a K. For the game Houston got 8 hits and 5 walks. They ended up with 3 runs. Fortunately 3 was enough last night as Houston's pitching does get credit for good work. Doug Fister went 5-2/3 innings with almost the same line as Tillman, 3 hits, 2 runs and 3 walks. The difference is Tillman gave up a 2-run dinger while Fister gave up two solo HR's. The relievers, 6 in all, combined for 7-1/3 innings of shutout ball. The relievers also tied a club record for K's with 16. The only real hiccup was in the 9th when Luke Gregerson tried like heck to blow the game by loading the bases on 2 hits and a walk coming with 2 outs. Gregerson wriggled out of the inning with an inning ending strike out.

It's hard to criticize Valbuena too much since he got the 2 run dinger that put the Astros on the board. I wonder why the Astros brought up Tony Kemp and Colin Moran if they weren't going to play them every day. The way they've done Moran is a disgrace. I am assuming they brought them up to provide an offensive spark but it hard to do that when you start once a week.

Collin McHugh (4-4, 5.13 ERA) faces off against Tyler Wilson (2-2, 3.68 ERA).

[eagle eye]

For the 5th time this season Houston has a chance to win 3 games in a row. We all know they have failed to get over the hump the first 4 times and frankly it won't be a cake walk tonight. Both games have been hard fought games but for a change this season Houston has hung in there and managed to pull out a win. The won the first game 3-2 and last night the final was 4-3. For the second night in a row the bullpen combined to go 3.2 scoreless innings after starter Collin McHugh left the game to shutout and shutdown the Orioles offense. It is the second game in a row the Astros pitching recorded at least 18 K's for the game. On Tuesday the bullpen combined for a franchise tying record 16 K's in 7.1 innings of work with Doug Fister's 3 K's on the night game Houston 19 K's for the game. Last night McHugh battled and his 10 K's of Oriole hitters led the way to 18 K's for the game. Between Pat Neshak (who got the win in relief of McHugh), Ken Giles, who has turned his season around and he's been nearly unhittable for the month of May, Will Harris and Luke Gregerson weren't perfect but they did well enough to give Houston the win. Houston's offense is still very anemic but at least in the last 2 games they were less so which enabled them to score just enough to win. I'm not holding my breath in this series finale tonight. Houston has not swept and opponent or won 3 straight game this season a playing a division leader trying to do that isn't inspiring much confidence. I'll take the series win, which we have already, and go from there.

After the series with Baltimore Houston will have concluded nearly two months of the season in which they have had the 5th hardest schedule in the majors according to it's opponent's winning percent. It's true that it appears like every series this year except for the Twins they have played a team that is in 1st or 2nd place in their respective divisions. Beginning Friday Houston's schedule gets easier for a while. They will face in order LA Angels, Arizona and Oakland none of whom has won more than 21 games this season. The next nine games Houston has a chance to make up some ground they lost over the first two months of the season. It would be sweet if they go into that stretch will a series sweep of the O's but really I think that's asking too much but I'm just saying.

Maybe everybody on the Astros roster should spend 10 days in Corpus if after they return to the big club they hit as well as Evan Gattis has hit since he came back from relearning how to play catcher. Since his return to Houston Gattis has hit over .300 with 3 HR's, 4 RBI's and 4 runs scored. He's caught two games as well and did a really nice job. Collin McHugh worked him to death last night because he threw a bunch for 58 foot curve balls and Gattis kept them in front of him for the most part the entire time McHuch was on the hill. Gattis let one get away from him that allowed a run to score but that was ruled a wild pitch by McHugh, which it was BTW, he did great job on the night. It's nice to have Gattis do a good job catching. He's the best hitting backup Houston has had for a while. Win-win. Gattis dual duty as B/U catcher and DH opens up a roster spot for an extra pitcher or position player which is a win-win-win for the Astros. We'll see how my theory goes as Carlos Gomez is doing rehab work right now in Corpus and he had a huge night last night in his second rehab game going 1-4 and he also had three outfield assists including one in the 9th inning that saved the game for the Hooks. The one hit he got was a 417 foot bomb he hit in the 5th inning which turned out to be the game winner. Gomez is slated to play a few more games in Corpus as he is rehabbing from a rib injury he suffered in Boston that landed him on the 15 day DL.

[eagle eye]

Wow, they actually did it! It wasn't even a one run game even though it looked like it might be when Ken Giles struggled a bit in the ninth allowing a run to score before finally getting the final 2 outs. Houston finally won 3 games in a row and in the process swept their first 3 game series since August of last season. Coincidently, Luis Valbuena hit his 3rd home run in as many games. His 2 run dinger gave the Astros a 3-1 lead they would never relinquish on the night. Valbuena's HR came in the 2nd inning in answer to a run the O's scored in the top of the frame. Houston took the lead when George Springer led off the game with a blast into the Crawford Boxes in left field. Springer followed that up with a massive blast onto the train tracks in the 5th inning to extend the Astros lead to 4-1. Both of Springer's bombs were solo shots but it's nice to see him start hitting the ball. This turnaround for Springer began on Tuesday when Houston, coming off being swept by the Rangers, needed to shake things up. AJ Hinch decided to do the shaking at the top of the batting order. He put Springer hitting first and Jose Altuve hitting second. The move kick started Springer who has gone 6 for 12 with a string of 2's as in home runs, RBI's and runs scored. Altuve had been struggling prior to the Baltimore series and it continued two games into that series. In fact, Altuve went hitless in 4 straight games for only the second time in his career. His batting average has plummeted 37 points from .348 last week to .311 after last night's game. It would have been worse than that but Altuve finally got a hit going 1-4 on the night. Fine, Springer like hitting leadoff and maybe Altuve is breaking out of his slump. Nice.
The Astros pitching set a record during the Baltimore series. As a matter of fact it's really a pretty big deal of a record as Houston pitching set an MLB all time record for strike outs in a 3 game series logging a whopping 52 against the Orioles. They had 19 on Tuesday night, 18 on Wednesday and last night they capped off the series with another 15 K's. The Astros are the first team since 1913 to record at least 15 K's in a 3 game series. Pretty epic, huh?
This looks like last year's Astros who won a lot of games via the long ball and last night Houston scored all 4 runs with homers. Nice. Maybe thinks are finally looking up but I am not going to count on it until I actually see it happen.
Tonight the Astros begin a series with the Angels of Anaheim. Mike Fiers (3-2, 4.35 ERA) goes against Matt Shoemaker (2-5, 6.81 ERA).

Now, if we can just get the Cards to catch a little fire in the SLC tourney the planets will be properly aligned.

[eagle eye]

Houston couldn't go 4 straight wins and Mike Fiers was just awful in the 3rd inning anyway when he allowed 6 runs to the Angels. The Astros offense was awful the whole game except the 9th inning when it was too little too late. The Angels won 7-2 ending the first 3 game winning streak of the season. It confounds me how the Astros can make a half-assed pitcher look way better than he is. Last night's game featured the Angels Matt Shoemaker who came into the game with a 2-5 record and a 6.81 ERA and he went 8.1 innings allowing just seven hits and 2 runs with 11 strike outs. His line would have been better the Angels reliever Cam Bedrosian allowed 2 runners that Shoemaker put on base score.
One good thing came out of last night's game, 3B prospect Colin Moran got his first big league hit since he was called up prior to the series with Baltimore. He also got his second big league hit as he went 2-4 on the night and his second hit drove in the Astros only two runs of the game. Small victories. Colby Rasmus also had a good game for a change. He went 2-4 as well but unfortunately he couldn't get a hit with a runner on base. The Astros went back to their old habits of getting hits and walks but they couldn't get things done with base runners on. Houston went 1-4 with RISP and they stranded 6 men on the night. I wish Houston would stop making these crappy pitchers look like Cy Young. This offense hasn't gotten on track yet. It's a good thing I didn't think everything was okay when they swept the Orioles because I knew it wasn't.
The sweep of the Orioles was a good thing for Houston because it allowed them to jump ahead of Oakland and get out of the AL West cellar. If they had beaten the Angels last night they would have tied them in the win column and just been 2.5 back in the loss column. What's really discouraging is the Angels have struggled all season mainly because of their pitching. Injuries have decimated the Angels starting rotation and that's another reason the lack of offense by the Astros last night is so discouraging. #theycanthittheirasseswithbothhands

[eagle eye]

Dallas Keuchel looked for all intents and purposes like he was going to struggle again when he gave up back-to-back HR's to Mike Trout and Albert Pujols in the first inning of last night's game. The two dingers trumped the run the Astros scored to lead off the inning on an RBI groundout by Carlos Correa scoring George Springer who led off the inning with a double. Springer continues his red hot hitting streak that began when he was moved to the leadoff spot in the batting order to begin the series with Baltimore earlier this week. Springer when 3-5 last night leading the Astros attack. Jose Altuve tied the score in the 5th on a sac fly to right field that scored Jake Marisnick from 3rd base. Marisnick surprisingly enough had a nice game last night going 2-4 for his first multi-hit game of the season. The coup de gras was administered by Jason Castro in the sixth inning. After Evan Gattis was hit by a pitch putting him on first base Castro, with 2 out and a 2-2 count crushed a low fastball to straight away center field to give Houston a 4-2 lead.
As for Keuchel besides the back-to-back home runs he only gave up on other hit on the night which was a leadoff single to begin the 2nd inning to the Angels 2B Johnny Giavatella. After that Keuchel never gave up a run and he retired the next 18 batters in a row. Vintage Keuchel finally arrived for 2016. The best thing is, and what makes last night's performance truly vintage is Keuchel did not walk a batter on the night. Walks have plagued him so far this season and to see him dominate by hitting his spots and not walking anyone was great to see.
Pat Neshak and Tony Sipp combined to stifle the Angels in the 8th inning while Luke Gregerson pitched a 1-2-3 9th for his 11th save of the season. A good job by the whole team last night in evening this series with a 4-2 victory. The standings in the AL West tightened up a bit with Houston's win. Right now they stand at 21-29 while the Angels are 22-27. If Houston wins today they will be tied with LA in the win column and 1/2 game back in the loss column. The Astros are in a virtual tie for last place with Oakland who also won yesterday beating the hell out of Detroit 12-3.
Houston closes out their series this afternoon with the Angels and they begin a series on Monday with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Today Houston will send Doug Fister (4-3, 4.12 ERA) to the hill while the Angels counter with former Astro Nick Tropeano (3-2, 2.86 ERA). Tropeano was drafted by Houston in the 5th round of the 2011 draft and he was traded to the Angels in November of 2014 along with C Carlos Perez for Hank Conger who only played one season for Houston in 2015. Conger is now with Tampa Bay.

[eagle eye]

The Astros had a good week. That's an understatement. After yesterday's 13 inning ordeal that resulted in an 8-6 win in which the Astros offense tried like heck to not win the game while the relief pitchers kept them in the game. Only Ken Giles failed to do his job allowing the tying and go ahead runs giving the Angels their first lead of game since the 1st inning when Kory Calhoun hit a solo HR. Giles didn't have his best stuff but as well as he's pitched lately and the way the game flowed yesterday I guess we can give him a bit of a pass.
Doug Fister did a nice job going 6 innings allowing 3 runs but only one of them was earned. Errors by Luis Valbuena and Evan Gattis helped the Angels rally in the 5th and 6th innings to tie the score at 3. Houston took the lead in the 5th on the strength of a 2 run HR by Jake Marisnick, yes Jake hit his first round tripper of the season. The Astros got a 3rd run on a 2 out RBI single by Jose Altuve who had his best game in a while going 4-6 on the day. In the end the Astros got a jolt in the 13th when Carlos Correa, who was not in the lineup on the day, came in a jacked a 3 run HR to give the Astros an 8-5 lead. Luke Gregerson struggled a bit in the bottom of the inning allowing the Angels a run on a wild pitch of all things to tighten the score to 8-6 but it was too little to late for the Angels who lost the series to Houston 2 games to 3.

As for the week Houston went 5-1 and won both series for the first time this season. They also got their first 3 game sweep of the year when they beat Baltimore and beating the Angels 2 out of 3 went a long way toward turning their season around. All the one run games Houston had been losing started going the Astros way. Their record stands at 22-29, the same as the Oakland A's but Houston is ahead in a tie breaker meaning the A's are in the cellar. Houston is just 1/2 game in the loss column behind the Angels who are 22-28. The top of the division changed to as Seattle was swept over the weekend by Minnesota of all teams. The Rangers took over first place in the AL West but only by 1/2 game. Houston is 7.5 games back which means the good week they had enabled them to make up 2.5 games on the division. Not a bad week at all. Just ask George Springer who was moved into the leadoff spot to begin the week and he raised his batting average nearly 30 points and that despite going 1-7 in the series finale with the Angels. Dallas Keuchel also had a nice week as he shut down the Angels on Saturday on a 3 hit, no walk gem that was the first sign of the Dallas Keuchel of 2015. Now, the trick is to keep it going.

Houston begins a home and home four game series with Arizona beginning today in Phoenix. Collin McHugh (4-4, 5.13 ERA) goes against Edwin Escobar making his first start of 2016. He's made 2 appearances and he's pitched 2 innings in the bigs this season with a 4.50 ERA. This sounds like a trap game so Houston needs to take care not to let this rookie get the better of them. This is an afternoon game that starts at 3:10 PM.

Happy Memorial Day!

[eagle eye]

Memorial Day was memorable for more than one reason when you talk about the Astros. First the camo uniforms baseball players wore yesterday in honor to the men and women past and present who have served in the armed forces was pretty cool. I can really see a burst of people wearing the camo hats as much as people love their camo! Props to all the people who have served and especially those who have given their lives for the cause of freedom. Thank you all.
On a more, less somber, note there were some memorable things about the Astros 8-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. First there was Collin McHugh who threw his first career complete game going all nine innings allowing 3 runs on just 5 hits and 8 K's. The big key for McHugh was that he only walked one batter during the game. Keeping runners off base is a real key to success for a pitcher and McHugh was on top of his game yesterday. This was also the first complete game of the season for Houston and the first since Mike Fiers' no-no last August. After the 13 inning game in Los Angeles and after a lot of work overall lately the bullpen needed a rest and they got it. Nobody even warmed up yesterday. McHugh's performance brought down his ERA from over 5 to 4.82.
The Astros did what you'd expect offensively when facing a pitcher in Edwin Escobar who has a grand total of 2 innings of big league experience making his first ever big league start. They pounded out 13 hits in the game, 10 off Escobar and the Astros scored all 8 of their runs on Escobar who only lasted 3.1 innings. Houston scored 4 runs in the 2nd and 2 runs in both the 3rd and 4th innings before Arizona pulled Escobar and put in Randall Delgado to stop the bleeding. The Astros did not score a run the rest of the game after Escobar came out but it didn't matter because 8 runs was more than enough to get the job done the way Collin McHugh was pitching.
It's now been two games in a row that Houston has scored 8 runs in a game. For this team so far this season that it a big deal.
As for the division standings, nothing changed at all because both the Angels and the A's both won so Houston didn't make up any ground at all. In fact every single team in the AL West won yesterday. Sometimes you can't catch a break.
Today the Astros play the 2nd of 2 games in Arizona with the game beginning at 2:40 PM with Houston going with Lance McCullers (1-1, 4.60 ERA) while Arizona sends Patrick Corbin (2-5, 4.21 ERA). Houston also will likely have CF Carlos Gomez who completed his rehab work at Corpus Christi and will be activated for today's game. I hate to be a naysayer but I'm no fan of Gomez and with more at-bats Jake Marisnick has been hitting the ball much better since Gomez went on the DL. We'll see how this goes. Maybe Gomez will react the same way Evan Gattis did when he came back from AA. Prior to going to AA Gattis was hitting under .200 and since he's been pretty darn good. with a current BA of .243 and in his last seven games he's hitting .276. I don't know about you but I'll take that all day. Gattis has also done very well behind the plate in his two appearances as a catcher he has done very well. His last game he caught he went 13 innings in Los Angeles on Sunday and he went 2-6 at the plate with 2 runs scored. It may be a coincidence but since Gattis has become the backup catcher Jason Castro has started hitting the ball much better. Maybe he finally saw someone who could actually take his place if he didn't start hitting the ball.

[eagle eye]

To make up ground in a division doesn't mean everything is okay if you win. Now, if you win it's a good thing, obviously way better than losing but, when you are playing catchup in a division race you need the other guys to lose to make up ground. For the second day in a row every team in the AL West won. Houston finally gets on a bit of a winning streak and everyone else does too. Damn the luck.
That said, the month of May was better than April by a big margin. The Astros record in May was 17-12 which really surprised me when I counted the W's and L's. Aside from a stretch where the Red Sox and Rangers abused them they had a pretty good month. In fact, Houston is oh-fer against the confounded Rangers. Something the Astros will have a chance to rectify next week when they travel to Arlington to face the Rangers for 4 games. The starting pitching has been above average as has the bullpen with a few exceptions. The only thing that has been lacking is offense. Until the past few games Houston has been sub par eeking out a run here and run there and because of the quality pitching they were in almost every game they played. The numbers prove they won more than their fair share. There has been some movement within the division this month as the division lead has bounced back and forth between the Rangers and the Mariners and the bottom of the AL West has moved as well. The one good thing is all the winning has elevated the Astros from last place to 4th place but it is a very tenuous 4th. The Astros trail the Angels by 1/2 game and lead the A's by a tie breaker. So you see what I mean? Tenuous.
The Astros now have a good backup catcher, one that may be better than the guy starting. Slowed by an offseason injury Evan Gattis was late to start the season but after a 10 day trip to AA Corpus Christi to relearn how to catch he has come back and he's been pretty darn good behind the plate. In fact in the past week he's thrown out two base runners. He's been doing his DH duties on days he doesn't catch and he's added some punch to the offense. The biggest change has been a shake up in the batting order moving George Springer to the leadoff spot and dropping Jose Altuve into the 2 hole. Since the move last Tuesday Springer has caught fire hitting .419 with 3 HR's, 8 RBI's and he's scored 7 runs. Springer's has ignited the Astros offense and they have actually been scoring runs. If they can keep it going in June they should be on their way to making a comeback like the Rangers did last year.

June begins today with the home part of the 4 game set with Arizona. Houston swept the 2 games in Phoenix and the hope is they can do the same back in Houston. The Astros begin the month with Mike Fiers (3-3, 5.20 ERA) taking the hill against Arizona's Robbie Ray (2-4, 4.67 ERA). Things are looking up for Houston right now and hopefully they keep it going against the D-backs and A's this week before another showdown with the Rangers next week up in Arlington.

[eagle eye]

The Astros have won 5 straight now for their longest winning streak of the season. They beat Arizona in 11 innings but it really should have been a 9 inning game but for the a severely gagging Luke Gregerson. Gregerson went into the game in the 9th with a 3 run lead but 4 batters and one out later he was pulled leaving the Astros in a 4-4 tie. When the D-Backs Jake Lamb hit a 2 run HR to right-center to tie the game the camera showed Gregerson bent over at the waist as he blew his 4th game of the season. It's bad enough with a one run lead but to be unable to protect a 3 run lead is just unacceptable. He certainly owes the team a big fat apology because the Astros deserved better that they got from Gregerson. Mike Fiers went 6 innings allowing just one run and Ken Giles and Will Harris each had a scoreless inning in relief. The Astros were flashing quality leather in the field with some really nice defensive plays. IMO the best of those was a diving catch in the 3rd inning when, with runners on 1st and 3rd and one run already in, 1B Paul Goldschmidt hit a sinking liner to left field. Jake Marisnick dove at the ball catching it just before it dropped in for a hit. It was a highlight catch worth looking at. There were plays made in the field that kept the D-Backs down including a throw out from Carlos Gomez to third to cut down a runner, Gomez also robbed Michael Bourn from extra bases with a catch against the wall in center field and George Springer throwing out Ricky Weeks trying to push hit bloop hit into right field into a double. The link below includes video of all of these plays.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/181645934/astros-outfield-makes-highlight-plays-in-win

The good thing about the win was Seattle, Texas and the Angels all lost last night which means the Astros picked up a game on the leaders and they are now only 6.5 games back of 1st place and the Astros and A's, who also won last night, are tied for 3rd place with Houston above Oakland by a tie breaker. The Angels fall into last place because of their loss last night to Detroit. Another good thing is Houston has clawed it's way to within 4 games of .500 on the season. That may sound a little like 2012 when Houston lost 111 games but it's definitely showing signs that this team is developing a chemistry together and that almost all cylinders are firing.

Cross your fingers because Houston will be looking to run their win streak to 6 games in the series finale against Arizona this afternoon. Dallas Keuchel (3-6, 5.58 ERA) will try to continue the success he had in his last outing when he looked like the old Dallas in a strong 7 inning performance where he only gave up 2 runs on 3 hits with no walks and 5 K's. The fact that Keuchel is at home where he was virtually unbeatable in 2015 is another plus going for Keuchel. Arizona sends their ace Zack Greinke (6-3, 4.71 ERA) to the hill to try and stop the Astros offense. In 2 of his last 3 starts Greinke has given up 3 and 4 runs which should be enough for Houston to win if Keuchel pitches like he can as long as Gregerson isn't allowed to pitch.

[eagle eye]

Houston lost 3-0. For six innings it was a pitcher's duel between the D-Backs Zack Greinke and Houston's Dallas Keuchel. Both dominated and it was just a question of who would blink first, if at all. It was Keuchel who blinked first as he never recorded an out in the seventh. He gave up a single, a double, a hit batsman and a single when AJ Hinch had seen enough. Keuchel left the game with men on first and second and a 2-0 deficit. Pat Neshak came on and promptly gave up a run on two sac flies that got the runners to 2nd and 3rd with the first one and the second scoring the man on 3rd. When the dust cleared on the top of the 7th inning Houston trailed 3-0 and you just knew, the way Houston was flailing at the baseball on offense there was not a snowball's chance in hell Houston would come back. Greinke and the Arizona relievers had Houston swinging wild at pitches not even close to the strike zone. The whole team failed to show any plate discipline at all. The Astros only managed 5 hits and only walked -- oh yeah -- they didn't walk at all during the game. So, the winning streak ends a 5 but I'm not complaining because it's been a good run lately and maybe yesterday's game was an anomaly. You just don't run into a Zack Greinke every day. It was really bad luck for Keuchel who pitched well for six innings and in the end he only truly gave up 2 runs. I don't count the run Neshak allowed even though it was Keuchel who put the man on, it's the reliever's responsibility to stop the bleeding. I think even though the man may have been put on by the previous pitcher the reliever should get charged with the run or runs so he is statistically held accountable. This makes two starts in a row that Keuchel has pitched like he did in 2015. After all you go 6+ innings and only allow 3 runs you've done your job. It certainly isn't Keuchel's fault the offense did nothing but whiff all day.
Houston plays host to the A's tonight through the weekend. It's interesting to note that Oakland didn't play yesterday so the tie between the two team was broken in the A's favor. They are alone in 3rd place 1/2 game ahead of Houston going into tonight's game. If, and it's a big if, Houston manages to sweep or at least win the series they will be in 3rd place alone. It would be the ideal situation if they sweep because it would put them up by 2-1/2 games and they would be alone in 3rd place in the division. Of course it could go the other way but I'm not even entertaining that possibility. I'm staying positive. I think. Houston sends Doug Fister (4-3, 3.86 ERA) to the mound in tonight's opener and Oakland counters with Jesse Hahn (2-2, 4.15 ERA).

BTW - I know we, as Astros fans are a little down about yesterday's loss but consider how the folks in San Diego feel. After 5 innings against Seattle yesterday the Padres were ahead by a score of 12-2. Looked pretty good for the home team until the wheels blew completely off the car. Seattle scored 5 runs in the 6th tightening the score to 12-7. Okay, that inning hurt but they were still 5 runs up with 3 innings to play. No worries, right? The coup de gras was in the 7th inning when San Diego stood and watched the Mariners score 9 times to take a 16-12 lead in the game. Get this, after the first 5 batters in the inning the Padres still led by 5 and had two out with the bases loaded then the roof caved in. The Mariners hit seven straight singles scoring all nine runs in the inning before Robinson Cano made the last out of the inning on a ground ball to 2nd base. A total of 13 batters went to the plate for Seattle in the inning and the Padres used 3 different pitchers in the inning. The win was the largest comeback win in Mariners history and the 29 runs was the most ever scored at Petco Park in San Diego. You think Houston has its problems, how would you like to try to explain a game like that to someone? Maybe our troubles aren't that bad after all. The Padres scored an oh-by-the-way run in the bottom of the 7th but it wasn't enough as the game ended with the Mariners beating San Diego 16-13. Ouch.

[eagle eye]

Wow. Houston exploded for 7 runs in the first inning of the series opener with Oakland and they never looked back. They were substituting players by the 5th inning after they had extended their lead to 12-0. Every player who batted last night except Luis Valbuena got at least one hit. You could tell Valbuena was frustrated too because after his last couple of at-bats he threw his bat to the ground. I think it's safe to say he was embarrassed because he couldn't connect on one ball. He did contribute though working 2 walks and scoring a run. In the end Houston bombed Oakland by a final score of 12-2. Fister got the win upping his record to 5-3 and lowering his ERA to 3.51. He went 6 innings and allowed no runs on 4 hits with 2 walks and 3 K's. Evan Gattis was the star of the offensive show going 4-5 with a home run. He drove in 4 runs, scored a run and he had no walks or strike outs. It was a nice win breaking a 5 game winning streak by the A's and in the process Houston took 3rd place alone in the division. Now, while I'm happy Houston won it always worries me when they score runs like they did last night because it never seems to fail that they will get shut down today and lose in a 3 hit shutout. Oh wait, that already happened to Houston on Thursday. It will be Collin McHugh (5-4, 4.82 ERA) going against Oakland's Kendall Graveman (2-6, 5.09 ERA). The game begins at 3:10 this afternoon and the way the weather looks it might be the only thing to do this afternoon.

I went back and looked because it has occurred to me that Evan Gattis has been catching a lot lately. So Gattis has caught 5 of the last six games and Houston has gone 5-1 in those games. I'm not saying it's all been Gattis but how many backup catchers catch 5 days in a row when the starter is not injured? In his last 7 games Gattis has been hitting .267 with 2 HR's, 7 RBI's and he's scored 5 runs. Could AJ Hinch be sending a message to Jason Castro and the rest of the team that if you don't hit the ball you'll ride the pine? If he is I'm glad to see him try to light a fire under these guys and it seems to be working.

Jake Marisnick started the season out soooooo freaking bad at the plate. A couple of weeks ago his batting average bottomed out at .048 as of May 12 but in the last three weeks he's been hitting the ball much better. Much better. He has actually raised his BA to .192 which ain't great but when you consider where he was it's pretty darn good. Since May 13 when he went 1-4 getting his first home run of the season his BA have been steadily climbing. He has raised his BA up from that low of .048 to .192, that's 144 points, which isn't bad. When Carlos Gomez came off the DL on Tuesday it hasn't cost Marisnick any playing time because AJ Hinch saw Jake hitting the ball much better and deserved the playing time. Jake has always been an above average fielder with a cannon for an arm so with him on the field the defense is much better. I'm glad to see things turn around for him and I hope he keeps it going.

Tony Kemp is another guy who is a nice surprise. Since he came up in early May he's hit .226 and played some nice defense. He has been a nice asset for the Astros and he's produced despite limited playing time. By contrast Tyler White, who started the season red hot has kind of settled down to be what he is, a talented rookie. His .223 BA is indicative of a player who was pretty good in AAA finding out that life in the bigs is not as easy. I think White will be okay. He reduced his strike outs from 22 in April to 18 in May which is a good sign. White didn't strike out much in the minors because he was good at making contact putting the ball in play making the defense earn an out. I think both White and Kemp will be good players but we have to remember they are still rookies.

Another guy we need to be patient with is Carlos Correa. He still hasn't played a full year of big league baseball and the media is anointing him the next Astros Hall of Famer. Correa is still only 21 years old. He started out the season pretty well as he finished April with a .271 BA but he struggled in May as his BA fell to .239 for the month. He has done much better lately hitting .360 in his last 7 games with 8 RBI's and 4 runs scored. We have to remember how young Correa is and understand he's still just learning the big league game. He takes too many good pitches and he strikes out too much but he will get better. You just forget how young this roster is. We all need to lighten up on the expectations a little bit as we understand this team is going to get better.

Just one last thing. How good has our starting pitching been? I don't have time to look up all the numbers but it seems like Houston get one quality start after another and there are very few games where Houston isn't right there with a chance to win which they have been doing much more of lately. For the most part the bullpen has been pretty darn good too. All the gears haven't started to mess just yet but as long as you have good pitching you have a real chance of making some noise in your division and in the league.

[eagle eye]

Houston won yesterday by a score of 6-5 clinching the series win over the A's. It was the 5th time since May 11th that a game should have ended after nine innings that didn't. Luke Gregerson blew yet another save yesterday allowing a game tying home run to former Astro Jed Lowrie. To add insult to injury it was Lowrie's first homer of the season. After the game Gregerson said Collin McHugh told him that the team still has faith in him. That's kind of what team mates say when you struggle but when Lowrie's ball flew over the right field wall George Springer hung his head and leaned against the right field wall spoke volumes about the frustration over Gregerson's recent struggles.
The heroes of the game yesterday offensively were Colby Rasmus who went 2-4 for the game. His second hit, also his second double of the game, came in the bottom of the 12th setting up another hero, Carlos Correa, to get his 3rd walk off hit in his young career driving in Rasmus from 3rd to win the game. Rasmus also contributed a gem of a defensive play in the top of 12th. Jed Lowrie smacked a ball to deep left which Rasmus missed catching but he recovered so quickly he was able to grab the ball bare handed and throw out Lowrie with a perfect strike to 2B. This was the final out of the inning and you could see the frustration on Lowrie's face who just knew he had hit a double. He was truly shocked to be thrown out when he believed in his heart he had a lead pipe cinch double. It was a really nice play by Rasmus. The Astros finish up this home stand and the series with Oakland today beginning at 1 o'clock. Lance McCullers (2-1, 4.79 ERA) goes against Oakland's Sonny Gray (3-5, 6.19 ERA). Gray has been a very good pitcher for the A's until this year when he's struggled. He is being activated today off the DL. He's missed some starts because of a pulled muscle in his chest so hopefully there will be enough rust on him to allow the Astros a window to score some runs. Gray is 4-1 lifetime against the Astros. Houston needs this win today to maintain their momentum going into the series with Texas beginning tomorrow night.

Yesterday in pre-game batting practice the team had an extra target to shoot at. Somebody on the team parked Tyler White's white Range Rover at the warning track in front of Tal's Hill in center field. Carlos Gomez even knocked a ball off the roof of the vehicle.

http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2016/06/04/182106076/astros-pranked-tyler-white

During the celebration of Correa's walk off hit yesterday the pranking didn't end as this article from Astros.com shows.

http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2016/06/04/182181922/jose-altuve-steals-jake-marisnicks-hat-after-astros-win

[eagle eye]

It took only 9 innings for Houston to complete the sweep of the A's yesterday and the 5-2 win came with both the long ball, Carlos Gomez and Evan Gattis both hit solo homers to erase an early 2-0 lead in the 5th and 6th innings respectively. Houston played small ball to score 2 runs, one in the 7th and one in the 8th to take a 4-2 lead. In 8th inning Houston also got another insurance run to push the lead to that final 5-2 score. With a run in and the bases loaded with 2 outs Colby Rasmus hit a lamp duck to the left of the pitcher's mound about half way between home and mound. The A's pitcher, Marc Rzepczynski, slightly overran the ball and he reached between his legs grabbing hold of the ball. He tried to wheel around and throw out Rasmus at first but he completely lost his balance and fell to the ground without a throw. Jake Marisnick scored from 3B giving the Astros a somewhat comfortable lead. Now, comes the test. Houston travels to Arlington to face a 4 game series with the Rangers. The same Rangers who lead the division by 3 games after kicking Seattle's helpless ass over the weekend. The same Rangers that have not lost to Houston in 6 games this season. It doesn't look good which is a shame because the Astros had a pretty damn good week overall.
Houston started out in Arizona for the first half of a 4 game home and home by winning both games in Phoenix. They returned to Houston on Wednesday and took the next game against the D-Backs but they lost the finale. A 3 games to 4 series win was a good thing as Houston headed into the weekend series with Oakland. The subsequent sweep was good for so many reasons but mainly because it put some space in the division race with the A's and it also gives them some momentum as they face Texas. Houston is 8-2 in their last 10 games as are the Rangers with both teams far and away better than the other 3 teams in the division. The Astros are alone in 3rd place in the division and because of their recent hot streak they are but 2 games under .500 with a 28-30 record. Houston needs to at very least split the 4 games with Texas. It would be awesome if Houston can win 3 games. I'm not even considering a sweep of the Rangers because that just isn't going to happen. In reality, I just want the split and if they get it I'll be happy.

[puddin tane]

#kengilessucks-theastrosaretherangersbitch

[eagle eye]

#kengilessucks-theastrosaretherangersbitch

LO-freaking L! It just wasn't Ken Giles that sucked. Carlos Correa had a routine double play right in front of him until he did his best juggling act that delayed the start of what should have been an inning ending double play only managed to get the lead runner allowing Adrian Beltre to reach first base which set up Redneck OH-der (Notice I refuse to refer to Rougned Odor by his real name--notice I choose to pronounce his last name the same way you pronounce the word describing a bad smell. Such is my disdain for this guy.) Truth be told Mike Fiers continued a trend Astros starters have shown lately giving up runs in the 1st inning before rebounding and eventually winning the game. For whatever reason nobody seems to be able to explain Houston can't beat these mother effers. Fiers gave up 3 runs in the first but Jose Altuve got to Colby Lewis for a 3 run homer, his first round tripper in a while, that tied the game at 3. In the seventh Houston actually took a 5-4 lead but you just knew the Astros wouldn't be able to hold it. The lead didn't even last a half inning as the previously unhittable Michael Feliz gave up the tying run in the bottom of the 7th. It's all very frustrating and adds yet another log on the fire of my dislike of the Rangers. Below is the recap of the game from Astros.com that included video of Correa's juggling act in the 9th inning.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/182558680/astros-make-costly-mistakes-in-one-run-defeat

[eagle eye]

The Astros failed yet again to beat the confounded Rangers. The had their chances but I don't know if it's pitching (Cole Hamels was on the mound for seven innings) or just bad luck or the simple fact Texas just played better. It wasn't as though Houston didn't have their chances. They got the lead off runner on base in 6 of the 9 innings but they ended up going 3-9 with RISP and they stranded a total of 7 base runners. The 4-3 loss was a big kick in the gut for the second time in two nights. As for last night, I have to give a measure of blame to AJ Hinch. Dallas Keuchel went 7 innings and had thrown 102 pitches. It was time to get him out of the game. It was the kind of performance that was old school Keuchel. In those 7 innings he had given up just 2 runs on 7 hits, no walks and 8 K's. After retiring the first batter in the 8th Keuchel gave up a hit, a 2 run homer to Ian Desmond and another base hit and his knight was over. Instead of taking 7 innings of really good work on 102 pitches Hinch pushed Keuchel's luck and gave him the 8th to the detriment of the team. That wasn't Hinch's only mistake. I have always had a problem with Hinch's dedication to keeping the righty vs lefty-lefty vs righty dynamic and last night when right handed pitcher Sam Dyson came in it was obvious in Hinch's mind to counter with a left handed pinch hitter. The situation was Houston had come within a run of the Rangers when Colby Rasmus led off the inning with a double. After a K by Marwin Gonzalez Carlos Gomez walked and Luis Valbuena singled up the middle scoring Rasmus and Gomez, in a rare heads up moment, went from 1st to 3rd on the play. So, Houston had men on 1st and 3rd with but one out. If Tony Kemp wasn't a rookie who had been in the bigs for but a few short weeks it would have been different but he came in for Jake Marisnick with his rookie enthusiasm and his rookie impatience. Dyson had been a bit wild and the situation called for a bit of patience. Let Dyson worry about that man on 3rd and try to control his pitches, that would the thinking of a veteran player but a rookie was trying like hell to score that man from third. Dyson threw 3 pitches to Kemp none of which were strikes. All 3 pitches were outside but it didn't stop Kemp from trying to lay down a bunt and make two ill-advised swings that he stood no chance of making contact with and thus was the end of a truly horrendous at bat by a guy who, IMO, should not have been put in that situation in the first place. George Springer ended his night of frustration with a K that ended the game. Springer's at bat was frustrating because he got 2 belt high fast balls down the middle of the plate. If a Houston pitcher made two mistakes like that to hitter that hitter would have made the offending pitcher pay dearly for the mistake. Springer watched the first one fly by for strike one and swung and missed the second one for strike three. Game over and loss #2 to the Rangers was in the books.

Tonight Houston sends Doug Fister up against Yu Darvish who is making his 3rd start for Texas as he just came off the DL after missing last season and most of this season as he recovered from Tommy John surgery. His first two starts were both wins and his ERA is a healthy 3.38. Fister has been the Astros most consistent starter and he will have to be on top of his game tonight. Houston, quite frankly, blew two golden opportunities to steal two wins and the rest of the series will even more difficult now.

[puddin tane]

Not a big fan of some of Hinch's moves this year. Shoulda pulled Kuechel, but then again, who do you go to? The bullpen sucks.

neither kemp nor marisnick belong in the bigs...or gomez..or white..or valnobueno..

bat flips on warning track fly balls and singles? Bush league.

[eagle eye]

They finally did it, the Astros finally beat the stupid Rangers. The final score was 3-1 and in all honesty it should have been worse. The Astros had Jason Castro on 2B after a single and a stolen base. Jose Altuve singled up the middle but Castro got a terrible jump off 2B. 3B coach Gary Pettis sent Castro home anyway and he was thrown out by two or three steps. If you are going to send a guy the play at the plate should at least be close. It wasn't and I think Gary Pettis sucks as a 3B coach. That was in the 3rd inning. In seventh Marwin Gonzalez and George Springer singled and with men on 1st and 2nd and one out Altuve doubles down the left field line scoring both Gonzalez and Springer. I don't know if it was Pettis again or Altuve but the end result is the Rangers caught Altuve in no man's land between 2nd and 3rd and he was an easy put out. The Astros should have had a man on 2nd with one out but instead they ran themselves out of a base runner and had two outs. There were at least 3 fly balls that Ranger outfielders made really good plays to rob the Astros of extra bases. The Astros got good pitching from starter Doug Fister to closer Will Harris. The Astros sent 5 pitchers to the mound and, for the most part, they all did a good job. Michael Feliz rebounded from a shaky start on Monday night and Pat Neshak didn't suck which is a win for the Astros. Tony Sipp tried to suck but he was pulled before he could do too much damage and it was actually Neshak that pulled his butt out of the fire. Will Harris has been awesome so far this year and I'll say no more about that for fear of jinxing him.
It is very possible the Rangers got some bad news last night. In the 5th inning Yu Darvish threw a slow curve ball to George Springer for strike three but it appeared that Darvish had hurt himself. He walked Jose Altuve on 4 pitches and his fastball velocity was down nearly ten mph. After a coaching visit to the mound the wounded Darvish got Correa on a hard hit liner to deep right field for the 3rd out of the inning. That was the end of Darvish's night. 5 innings and only 76 pitches. Darvish is coming off Tommy John surgery last year and last night was only his 3rd start in the bigs since early last season. I don't like the Rangers but I hate to see a guy as talented as Darvish go down and I hope this is just a minor setback. The irony here is Darvish had been throwing his fastball in the upper nineties but he hurt himself throwing a 68 mph curve ball.
The Astros play the finale of their 4 game set this afternoon at 1. The Astros send Collin McHugh (5-4, 4.97 ERA) to the hill and his counter part is Martin Perez (4-4, 3.24 ERA). Despite the discrepancy in stats this is the best pitching matchup the Astros will have in this series. Perez is 4-0 in his last 4 starts and he is 4-2 overall against the Astros. McHugh hasn't faced the Rangers yet this season but he's one of only four Astros with at least 4 wins against them (4-0, 3.99 ERA) in his career. The bottom line is Houston has a real chance of getting out of Arlington with a split and that's all I really wanted before the series began on Monday.
Interesting factoid: Since August 14, 2014 only Jake Arrieta (35), Clayton Kershaw (32) and Zack Greinke (32) have more wins than Collin McHugh (31). Notice that's since 2014 so almost 2 years worth of starts. Pretty impressive stuff for a guy who doesn't have impressive stuff. I guess that is not true, he has impressive stuff but he's not dominating like the first 3 guys on the list.

[eagle eye]

Houston is getting out of Arlington and I'll bet they are glad to be rid of the place. After losing yesterday afternoon's frustration fest by a score of 5-3 and also losing their star shortstop to an ankle injury for an undetermined amount of time the Astros are lucky to get out of north Texas alive. They lost the game, they lost the series 3 games to 1 and they lost their shortstop. The classic lose-lose-lose situation. Collin McHugh chose a bad time to suck going just 3.2 innings allowing 7 hits and a walk with 6 K's giving up 4 runs. The offense sucked but that isn't anything new and so many other sucks against the Rangers I won't take time, or subject myself to the frustration, to list. Leaving Arlington is a pleasure I'm sure. Screw the Rangers. The one good thing to hang your hat on is the fact that losing 3 out of the last four games didn't hurt Houston in the standings in terms of their hold on 3rd place because the Angels were swept in a 4 game series with the Yankees and the A's have lost 5 in a row meaning Houston actually gained a game on both of them by virtue of their lone win against the Rangers. Small victories. But, another loss is losing another 2 games to the Rangers for the division. They came in 7 back of the Rangers and they leave 9 back. Ideally, you take things step by step so with that in mind Houston is taking aim at 2nd place in the division as they have made up 2 games on Seattle who have lost 4 of their last 10 games and hold just a 4 game lead over Houston. Watch out Seattle, we're coming for you!
The Astros move on to Tampa to take on the D-Rays for the weekend. The Rays are in last place in the AL East and it's a chance for Houston to regain some of the momentum they lost in Arlington. The Astros begin the series tonight with Lance McCullers (3-1, 4.23 ERA) and their struggling offense with face the Rays Matt Andriese (4-0, 2.52 ERA). Uh, oops. 4-0 on a last place team? As the Jetson's faithful dog Astro (see how I tied that in??!!!) used to say "Rah-Roh, Reorge!" (For those who never saw The Jetsons Astro cold talk but every word started with R - so Astro was trying to say ah-oh, George) I couldn't be more worried considering the Astros won't have one of their top 3 hitters out of the lineup. If it's me I move Altuve to 3rd in the batting order, keep Springer in the leadoff spot and use Tony Kemp as the 2 hitter. It protects Kemp enough that he stands a good chance of seeing good pitches to hit. What Houston really needs at this point is for either Evan Gattis, Colby Rasmus or Luis Valbuena to start hitting up to their potential because the middle of the Astros lineup is pretty bad. You cannot say guys who go oh-fer or 1 for 4 are getting the job done. If at least two of these guys hit .270 you really have something. It's not worth the trouble if all they do is hit .240-ish. #theastrossuckagainsttherangers

[eagle eye]

#astrosarechokingdogs

You can spread the blame for Houston's 4-3 loss to Tampa last night but the bottom line is the team choked. They had every chance to win the game and they blew it--big time. Forget that Lance McCullers sucked at the beginning of the game allowing 4 runs in the first two innings and he was a replay away from making it 7 runs as a potential 3 run bomb by Evan Longoria was just foul. Longoria ended up hitting into a double play to end the inning and end another D-Rays scoring threat. Evan Gattis came up twice with the bases loaded and 2 out and choked both times. The first time he hit a weak pop fly to center and the other, in the bottom of the ninth with the game on the line, he hit a slow roller to short that made the SS throw weakly off balance and Gattis still couldn't leg out the hit. Don't forget Colby Rasmus strike out on 3 pitches just before Gattis in the ninth. All Rasmus had to do was make contact and the tying run scores but it was not to be. Aside from the scare in the 4th McCullers pitched well except for the 1st and 2nd innings. He just has to figure out a way to not suck to start a game.
I was right about moving Jose Altuve to the 3 hole in the batting order but I was wrong about Tony Kemp taking Altuve's old spot hitting 2nd. Instead AJ Hinch went with Marwin Gonzalez and the top of the order, 1 thru 4 ,had a good night but they couldn't get a hit when it was needed to score runs. Even Rasmus who went 2-5 couldn't get a hit when it mattered in the 9th. The old bug-a-boo that kills Houston raised its ugly head yet again as Houston went 3-10 with RISP and they stranded 11 base runners on the night.
The Astros play this afternoon sending Mike Fiers (3-5, 5.00 ERA) to the mound and Tampa counters with Chris Archer (4-7, 4.73 ERA). The game starts at 3:10 this afternoon.
The one good thing is the Rangers playing in Seattle lost 7-5 to the M's. In fact, every team in the division lost yesterday except Seattle. Small victories.

[eagle eye]

The Astros won for the first time in 13 games in Tampa. For the D-Rays it was the longest such streak against any team so Houston finally got that monkey off their back. The 4-3 win was hard fought all the way but they got it done. Even with the previously unhittable Will Harris closing it was a struggle. Harris allowed his first run in like forever and would have allowed more if the Astros hadn't completed a 4-6-3 double play to end the threat and the game. The Astros are still choking dogs because they had opportunities and it's my feeling that it's easier to blame the Astros for their failures than it is to give credit to the opposing team. After all the Rays are a last place team so it must be the Astros own fault. Flawless logic IMO.
Luis Valbuena has been hitting the ball much better lately. He went 1-4 yesterday but that one was a solo HR that provided the final margin of victory so I guess you'd have to say he was clutch yesterday. The fact is over his last 7 games he's hitting .409 and his last 15 games he is hitting .294. Not bad and it seems to be over an extended time frame. From May 6 when he was hitting a season low .175 he has raised his BA to .242. It's a nice contrast to Evan Gattis and Colby Rasmus who can't seem to hit their asses with either hand much less both. Gattis is hitting a weak .220 while Rasmus is just slightly better at .222. The guy who is really struggling is Tyler White. His BA continues to plummet as he is currently hitting .213 and he doesn't seem to have much of a clue at the plate. He's also run into some bad luck. Yesterday he slapped a line drive that would have been extra bases but it went right to the first baseman for an out.
Guess who is leading the team in strike outs. Never mind, you won't get it because three players are tied for the team lead in that category. Carlos Correa, Colby Rasmus and George Springer all have 68 K's on the season. I think all the success the Astros had hitting home runs last season has tainted their swings. Correa especially but he's just celebrated his first anniversary as a big leaguer back on June 11. For all intents and purposes he is still a rookie. Same with White but it doesn't help when they continually have bad at-bats. I still don't like the Astros hitting coach.

Dallas Keuchel (3-8, 5.44 ERA) faces off against the Rays Matt Moore (2-4, 5.56 ERA) today at 12:10. Keuchel is coming off a good outing that could have been great if AJ Hinch hadn't let Keuchel pitch a very unfortunate 8th inning against the Rangers. If Keuchel exits after 7 he allows just 2 runs but instead he allows 3 more hits to his total and 2 more runs that ended up costing the Astros a win and Keuchel yet another loss. Keuchel has had 3 quality starts in a row with but one win to show for all his work. He is 1-2 in those games but if he could get some run support the story would be different. The problem is none of the Astros starters have been getting any run support lately. You wonder if that is going to change any time soon.

[eagle eye]

The fact that Dallas Keuchel and the Astros defense had a major meltdown in the 5th inning yesterday doesn't really matter even though that meltdown provided Tampa with the runs to win the game. The fact is, if everything stayed the same and Keuchel only allowed 1 run instead of 5 it wouldn't have mattered, the Astros would still have lost. Why? Because the offense was offensive yesterday. I could give the Rays Matt Moore credit for a game well pitched but eff that. I am not going to say it's all pitching when the guy pitching is 1-4 in his last 5 starts and has an ERA over 5. THAT guy isn't tossing a 2 hit, 2 walk shutout. Unless, of course, the team he's pitching to seems to need a seeing eye dog at the plate. What's even worse is both hits came from the same guy, Jose Altuve. The two walks at least were worked by two different players, Tyler White and Jason Castro but it didn't matter because the rest of the Astros lineup just plain sucked. Not just at the plate but in the field as well. Jose Altuve and Luis Valbuena both committed errors that cost the Astros in that disastrous 5th inning but there was enough boneheadedness to go around. It was just a sad way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Houston travels to St Louis to take on the Cardinals tomorrow night. Houston will be sending its newest bestest pitcher Doug Fister to the mound with his gawdy 6-3 record and his 3.34 ERA to face off against the Cardinals LHP Jaime Garcia (4-5, 3.89 ERA). Both guys have had 12 starts on the year but Fister has enjoyed a little more success. Don't be surprised if Houston isn't shut out again. Then again, they have been decent after a day off so who knows? #lordaretheseguysfrustrating

After losing the series to Tampa it just apt way for Houston to cap off a crappy week of baseball. First, they lose 3 of 4 to Texas then they lost 2 of 3 to Tampa giving them a 2-5 record for the week. This was after a couple of really good weeks when they climbed out of the cellar in the AL West to being alone in 3rd place in the division as the week began. Now, Houston is still alone in 3rd place but only because the Angels and A's suck even worse than the Astros. Last season you could count the AL West as one of the toughest divisions in baseball but this season, not so much. Houston did lose 3 games in the division race to the leading Rangers who can't seem to lose especially to division foes. The Rangers took 2 of 3 against Seattle this past weekend. The Astros are their own worst enemy. Their starters give up too many runs particularly in the 1st two innings and the bats couldn't be colder if Mr Freeze shot them with his freeze gun. On Saturday there was an article on Astros.com about how the bats were heating up after a Friday night 4-3 win. To be fair it was just acknowledging that Houston had finally scored more than 3 runs in a game against Tampa but this morning one of the articles about the game yesterday talked about how the Astros bats had cooled off. Sheesh, if I can see that irony everybody can and it's a little lame of the writers on the website to have done this. #notpayingattentiontowhatthehellisgoingon Houston is in for an interesting week as they go interleague Tuesday and Wednesday playing the Cardinals, who seem to be struggling as much as Houston, followed by a home series against the Reds. Two days off this week should benefit the Astros who have just completed a stretch of 20 games without any days off. They certainly played the Rays this weekend like a team who needed a break.

The 2016 MLB Draft is in the books and in less than 2 days of the completion of the draft Houston has agreed to terms with 6 of them. The team has not officially announced that there have been deals made. They won't do that until the players pass their physicals. It's a nice start for the Astros who, under the new signing rules in baseball need to be done by mid July rather than mid August under the old system.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/183494452/astros-agree-to-deals-with-draft-picks

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/183668498/ronnie-dawson-jake-rogers-agree-to-terms?topicid=167757330

[eagle eye]

Houston has agreed to terms with their fourth round draft pick, LHP Brett Adcock from the University of Michigan. The official announcement won't come until after Adcock passes his physical in Orlando today and if he passes that he will go to short season Class A Tri Cities for the summer. This makes the 7th of the Astros top 10 draft picks who have agreed to terms. The Astros, as do all MLB teams, have until mid July to sign their players.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/183861628/astros-brett-adcock-agree-to-contract-terms

After sitting out 3 games because of a sprained ankle Carlos Correa is slated to return to the Astros lineup in St Louis tonight.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/183609798/carlos-correa-progressing-after-ankle-sprain

The Astros have a 2012 draft pick, Brady Rogers, who is really showing something at AAA Fresno. In his last 4 starts he is 4-0 with a 1.35 ERA.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/183866362/brady-rodgers-pitching-well-at-astros-triple-a

The Oakland A's did what nobody else can seem to do in the AL West and that's beat the Rangers. In fact they opened a can of whoop ass in Oakland and beat the Rangers 14-5. The A's win coupled with an Angels loss flipped the bottom of the division standings with Oakland now in 4th place and the Angels now the cellar dwellers. The Angels lost their series opener to Minnesota 9-4 last night. Houston and Seattle were off. Everybody is in action tonight and that includes Houston who had an official off day yesterday and they also obviously took Sunday off too losing to Tampa 5-0 in a total give up game.

[eagle eye]

Houston beat a red hot St Louis Cardinals team 5-2 last night mainly because Doug Fister was just short of awesome. If he had been awesome it would have been 5-0 but who's nit-picking here? The fact is Fister pitched 7.1 innings allowing the 2 runs on 5 hits but to demonstrate how efficient he was, when AJ Hinch pulled him in the 8th he has only thrown 87 pitches. It's very possible that Fister could have gone the distance but it was also the longest outing of the season for him so that could be why Hinch pulled him when he did. Tony Sipp and Ken Giles each got an out to close the 8th and Will Harris got the save. It was clearly Fister's show however. Besides pitching a whale of a game he also laid down a beauty of a sac bunt in the 3rd to move men on 1st and 2nd up 90 feet in the 3rd inning. He laid down an equally nice bunt in the 5th but it was well played by the Cards 3B Johnny Peralta and Marwin Gonzalez, who was on 2B, could not advance. By holding Gonzo at 2nd Peralta almost lost Fister at first but he made the throw at the last minute and got him. Fister also hit a 2 run double in the 7th to pad a 3-2 lead at the time and it provided the final margin of victory for Houston. Clearly last night Doug Fister was the Astros MVP. Colby Rasmus homered to give the Astros a 2-1. In fact, Rasmus, who batted 6th last night followed by Carlos Gomez, Marwin Gonzalez and Fister accounted for every run scored and all but one of the Astros RBI's. George Springer got the other RBI on the night as the bottom of the batting carried the day, or night, for Houston.
Houston plays one more in St Louis before returning to Houston for a weekend series against Cincy. Tonight Collin McHugh (5-5, 5.22 ERA) faces off against Adam Wainwright (5-4, 5.21 ERA). The game is going to start an hour earlier tonight, at 6:15 PM. Why? I don't know.

> Fister is now 7-3 on the season and the Astros have won the last nine games he's started since May 1st.
> Prior to last night's game Houston had to make a couple of roster moves.
1. Luke Gregerson was granted leave for a family emergency. He could miss from 3 to 7 games.
2 To replace Gregerson Houston brought 3B Danny Worth up from AAA Fresno and he was in the lineup last night batting 2nd for Houston. He when 1-4 on the night with no walks and most importantly no strike outs.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/184034284/astros-callup-danny-worth-luke-gregerson-away

> Carlos Correa was back in the lineup after missing three games due a bad ankle he hurt in the final game against the Rangers last Thursday. Correa went oh-fer with 2 K's batting cleanup. It was interesting to note that Altuve remained 3rd in the batting order even with Correa's return. It almost seems that the cleanup spot in the Astros lineup is a black hole for anyone hitting in that spot. It's fried Rasmus and Evan Gattis who have each tried to man that spot in the lineup. Somebody has got to crack the code in that spot soon because you can't have a cleanup hitter who can't hit.

[eagle eye]

What the hell is going on?! Houston was supposed to get and day of rest and go into the series with Cincy recharged and ready to go. Oh yeah, I forgot, this is the Astros we're talking about. What was I thinking. First they make a guy with a nearly 6 ERA look good by banging out 8 hits but scoring only 2 runs. Pat Neshak was up to his old tricks again as he crapped all over a nice outing by Lance McCullers who went 6.2 innings and he gave up only 2 runs on 8 hits. Yet another quality start by the Astros rotation. Neshak couldn't take the late inning heat I guess because he gave up 2 runs on 2 hits in the top of the 11th and Houston responded with nada, zip, zero in the bottom of the inning to lose the series opener 4-2. Sorry Carlos Correa who hit a solo HR to lead off the 8th to tie the game and send it to extra innings. Sorry Carlos Gomez who got the other Astro RBI in 6th by singling in Marwin Gonzalez. Gomez, it must be noted, went 3-5 for the game raising his batting average to .210. It's the first time all year he's been above the Mendoza line. Colby Rasmus' BA continues to tumble as he went 0-4 on the night and Evan Gattis also went 0-4 as he is teetering on the bring of the Mr Mendoza's line at .205. Who in God's name has a DH who bats .205?
Today Houston played pitty-pat with the Reds again. This time making a kid who hadn't pitched an inning in the majors until today look like Cy freaking Young. Cody Reed went 7 allowing 4 runs on 6 hits, 3 BB's and 9 K's. Nine. Is that pathetic or what. #theseguyscan'thitshit There is a little hope I suppose. First George Springer got a walkoff base hit in the 11th to give Houston a 5-4 win. Definitely a good thing. 3B Jason Worth went 2-5 and is starting to look a little like he did when he was hitting .345 in AAA. Marwin Gonzalez is continuing to hit. I think he likes that 2 hole in the batting order. Jason Castro also got a couple of hits. Evan Gattis went 1-3 but it was a doozy as he hit a 2 run homer to give the Astros a 4-2 lead in the 7th. Never fear because Ken Giles came on in the 9th and he gave up a 2 run dinger to Cincy to tie the game and send the Astros into yet another extra inning game. Mr Giles owes Dallas Keuchel a big fat apology for taking a big dump on what should have been Keuchel's 4th win of the season. But noooooooooo. Keuchel's 5 hit, 2 run, no walks and 6 K's was just flushed down the toilet. At least Keuchel got a no decision out of it. Small victories. So Houston heads into the series finale tomorrow with Mike Fiers (4-3, 4.76 ERA) against a one armed, one legged, crosseyed monkey, oops. It's really going to be Brandon Finnegan (3-4, 3.61 ERA). Good pitcher but Houston will make him look better, of that I have no doubt.

On Friday the Astros activated P Luke Gregerson off the family leave list. To make room on the roster the Astros optioned the feel good story coming out of spring training, Tyler White, back to AAA Fresno. After starting the season being named AL Player of the Week for the first week of the season things just sort of slid downhill for him. Maybe this will send a a little wake up call to the rest of the roster that if you don't hit you will not be around long. I doubt it and maybe a trip to AAA will be just what the doctor ordered for White. More at-bats and a better chance to work on his hitting that he wasn't getting in Houston. I really can't explain Rasmus or Gattis though. Both guys have just sucked the past 3 weeks. Both choking in RBI situations not even making contact but just striking the hell out. That's another thing, Houston is leading the majors in K's, by a comfortable margin. I hate their hitting coach. This all or nothing approach this team seems to have is driving the hell crazy. Houston has 658 K's and we're not even at the half way point of the season yet. The next team is Milwaukee with 647 and the next team after that is San Diego with 623. Are you feeling me yet? Sheesh, Elmer Fudd could give these guys better advice. If I'm the coach I tell these guys to cut back on their swings and just try to make contact and use the whole field. Park your ego a home and just be happy with singles. If you get a HR great! But stop swinging from your heels and let's try to hit .275 as a team and shoot for scoring 5 or 6 runs a game. Do that with the pitching we've been getting and we'll win most of those games. What do I know? I'm just a schmuck at a keyboard.

[eagle eye]

Wow, go on a short vacation and what the heck happens? Houston sweeps division rival Los Angeles, that's what! What turned out to be a slugfest on Friday ended up with a 10-7 win for Houston that, honestly, wasn't that close. Doug Fister got his team leading 8th win and everybody in the lineup contributed hits except George Springer, who contributed in other ways for a big offensive night for the Astros. Almost as offensive was the outing for Tony Sipp who pitched just 1/3 of an inning giving up 4 runs on a grand slam by Gregorio Petit on just 3 hits. By the time Sipp entered the game in the top of 9th the game was out of reach at 10-3 and slam just made the score respectable.
Games 2 and 3 were another story. Both were 3-2 Houston wins but they were as hard fought as the scores would indicate. Late inning heroics by the offense with a walk-off 2-run hit by Carlos Correa to end Saturdays game was his 3rd game ending hit this year. Correa accounted for all 3 Houston runs as he homered earlier in the game to cut a 2-0 Angels lead down to 2-1. In Sunday's finale Houston and LA were tied at 1 run apiece when, with one out in the inning, George Springer singled followed by a triple by Marwin Gonzalez scoring Springer. Next was Altuve who was intentionally walked. Carlos Correa came up and he grounded into a fielder's choice as the Angels tried to turn two but couldn't get it done which allowed Gonzalez to score from 3rd. In the bottom of the 6th Jose Altuve homered to tie the game at 1 which probably why the Angels walked him in the 8th. The extra run proved important because Will Harris came on he got the save, his sixth since taking over the closer's role a couple of weeks ago, but it was a struggle as he gave up 3 hits in the inning and one run to tighten the score, and everyone's butt muscles, to 3-2. It could have been worse had not Colby Rasmus thrown out Yunel Escobar at 2nd base when he took too much of a turn past the base on a single by Cole Calhoun. Jose Altuve put the tag on Escobar before he could dive back to 2nd on a play that was reviewed and upheld. That was the second out of the inning and it also took a runner out of scoring position. The next batter, Mike Trout, flew out to Colby Rasmus to end the game. To show how rare it is for Will Harris to allow a run you only need to look at his .083 ERA to know it's rare for him to give up hit much less a run.

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

[Big T]

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

[eagle eye]

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

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

[eagle eye]

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

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

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

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

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

[eagle eye]

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

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

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

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

[eagle eye]

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

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

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

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

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

[eagle eye]

I turned off the tv after the Angels scored a run in the bottom of the 6th to go up 2-0 on Houston. The Angels' Matt Shoemaker was plowing through the Astros with upper 80's junk like nobody's business and I was already frustrated because the Astros blew a golden opportunity to score in the top of the 6th with Luis Valbuena in scoring position after a double to lead off the inning and nobody out. It was then Shoemaker went to work. He got Altuve to pop out to 2B, Carlos Correa was hit by a pitch putting men on 1st and 2nd, then Colby Rasmus and AJ Reed both struck out. The really disheartening thing was neither even got a piece of the baseball and they helplessly flailed away at Shoemaker's splitter. I needed to go to bed anyway and the game was over the way things were going. Oh how wrong I was. Houston rallied for 2 runs in the top of the 7th and scored two more in the top of the 9th to steal a 4-2 victory over the Angels. Houston didn't do it with a home run or three either, they played small ball scoring all four runs. In the 7th with men on 2nd and 3rd George Springer grounded out scoring the man from 3rd. Jose Altuve followed a batter later after Luis Valbuena walked Jose Altuve came through with a 2 out single to score the Astros 2nd run. In the 9th Jason Castro led off with a double followed by Springer who walked and Valbuena singled to load the bases. Altuve flew out but not deep enough to score Castro and Correa also flew out but his was deep enough to score Castro and allow Springer to advance to 3rd. Rasmus walked to reload the bases and with AJ Reed batting Angels reliever JC Ramirez threw a wild pitch allowing Springer to score the final Astros run on the night. Good thing because Reed ended up striking out to end the inning. Will Harris came on in the 9th and he struggled big time. He struck out the lead off hitter but on strike 3 he threw a wild pitch allowing the batter to get to first base. The next two hitters both singled to load the bases with nobody out. Harris didn't give up as he struck out the next batter and he got Andrelton Simmons to ground back to him. Harris got the lead runner at home and Castro threw out Simmons at 1st for a game ending double play. Sorry I missed it but I overslept this morning anyway. If I stayed up for the end of the game I would probably still be sleeping.
As for the confounded Rangers when I went to bed they were in a rain delay in New York with the Yankees leading 6-5 in the top of the 9th. It was raining like heck and I wish it would have rained long enough to call the game because when they finally did go back to out the Yankees allowed Texas 4 runs in the inning to give them a 9-6 lead and that is how the game ended. The Yankees are now on my "enemies" list. Oakland beat San Fran last night 8-3 and Seattle was off. So, instead of late inning heroics to win AND gain a game on the Yankees it became just another night at the ballpark. I am happy Houston won and the resilience they are showing is good to see but it doesn't matter unless Texas shows signs of being human. I need a good 15 game losing streak by the Rangers. That would make me happy.

[puddin tane]

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

nobueno up around .260? Whoduthunkit.

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

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

[puddin tane]

Fricking Rangers.....

[eagle eye]

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

nobueno up around .260? Whoduthunkit.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[eagle eye]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[eagle eye]

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

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

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

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

[eagle eye]

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

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

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

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

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

[eagle eye]

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

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

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

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

[eagle eye]

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

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

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

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

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

[eagle eye]

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

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

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

[eagle eye]

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

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

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3yRv5Jg5TI

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

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

[eagle eye]

The Astros pulled out the brooms last night and completed the sweep of the Seattle Mariners that gives Houston a 3 game cushion for second place in the AL West maintains their momentum heading toward the All Star break. Houston is 9-0 in their last 9 games within the division which includes home and home sweeps of the Angels and the sweep of the M's. The only team in the division the Astros have a losing record against is the Rangers. The 9-8 win last night was more of a relief than a joyful experience because the pitching staff tried like heck to hand the game over to Seattle. Mike Fiers was swimming along the first three innings enjoying a 5-0 lead the offense had staked him to when he just fell apart in the 4th. In the inning he allowed 3 home runs, two solo shots by Robinson Cano and Dae-Ho Lee and a two run shot by Kyle Seager that made the score 5-4. Fiers was done after just 3.1 innings. In the 7th Michael Feliz gave up a 3 run home run that tied the score at 7 to RF Seth Smith. Feliz finished the inning but you could tell by the way he walked off the field he was probably pissed and ashamed of himself. Houston had scored two runs in the bottom of the 6th to extend their lead to 7-4 which didn't even last a half inning. Luis Valbuena hit another towering upper deck home run to right that was even more impressive than the one he hit the night before. It was a 2 run shot that scored Jason Castro who had doubled to lead off the 8th. At that point the score was 9-7 with Houston heading into the 9th. Will Harris had been used a lot lately and wasn't available so AJ Hinch turned to his former closer Luke Gregerson and it was almost deva vu all over again as Gregerson struggled almost from the git-go. He got the leadoff man on a groundout but he started to struggle beginning with a walk to Leonys Martin and followed that with a walk to Seth Smith. Next up was Astros killer Robinson Cano who doubled to left scoring Martin from second with Smith ending up on 3rd. Gregerson was looking at men on 2nd and 3rd with one out in what was then a 9-8 game. The game had already gone 3-1/2 hours and it was going into extra innings if not Houston losing outright. Needless to say, I was pissed. Gregerson got Nelson Cruz to strike out for the 2nd out of the inning. Next up was the other Astros killer Kyle Seager. Hinch had Gregerson intentionally walk him to load the bases meaning Gregerson had to get Dae-Ho Lee out to preserve the win. Gregerson got Lee to strike out to end the game and cause every Astros player and Astros fan a huge sigh of relief.
I don't know why the Astros pitch to Cano or Seager. Both guys just wear out Astros pitching. In this series Cano went 5 for 11 with a home run, 2 RBIs and a run scored. For his career Cano has a .435 BA. Seager was also 5-11 with really an identical stat line as Cano. The smartest thing done in the 9th by Gregerson was to walk Seager. It probably saved the game.

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

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

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

[eagle eye]

I had a feeling Houston was going to lose last night and I was right. I didn't have a feeling that Oakland's Rich Hill but his 9-3 w/l record and 2.25 ERA should have been a clue. Hill went 6 innings giving up just one run, a leadoff triple by George Springer to begin the game and an RBI groundout by Marwin Gonzalez that scored Springer. Who could have foreseen Springer's hit to begin the game was going to be 1/3 of the offense the Astros would muster on the night? Who would have thought the one run scored in the 1st inning would be the only one Houston would get for the game. Luis Valbuena got a single in the 2nd and that set the stage for a couple of ironies you just have to laugh about. First, Jake Marisnick got the Astros other hit in the 5th inning. The irony here is with all the firepower in the Astros lineup including the best hitter in baseball, Jose Altuve, the second worst hitter on the roster got a hit. The second irony is AJ Hinch pinch hit for Marisnick in the 7th because Oakland had brought in a right handed pitcher after Rich Hill's night was over after the 6th inning and according to Hinch's playbook you send a left hand hitter when you have a right handed pitcher. Trouble was AJ Reed is the one Hinch brought in and he's the worst hitter on the roster. Predictably, Reed struck out to complete this mini-farce. The other negative about this move is that it took arguably the best defensive outfielder on the roster out of the game. Marwin Gonzalez moved from 1B to LF for Marisnick and Reed stayed in the game at 1st. When you lose you see all the warts and Hinch made some weird moves last night. The worst move IMO was in the 9th. Tony Sipp came in for Doug Fister who was just shy of brilliant going 8 innings allowing 2 runs on 3 hits, 2 BB's and 3 K's. The A's got all three hits he allowed in the second that resulted in both runs he allowed. Fister certainly redeemed himself after his last poor start but the offense failed to give him any support. The first hitter Sipp face reached base on a throwing error by Carlos Correa and he was rewarded for his bad luck by being yanked for Pat Neshak. To be fair, Sipp was in to face the first hitter because he was right handed. With a group of lefties coming to the plate Hinch wanted the RHP Neshak in the game. Neshak got Danny Valencia on liner to center field and Khris Davis grounded out to short to give the Astros two outs which, of course, is their kryptonite. Houston gets 2 outs on a team and bad things happen and last night was no different. First, absolutely inexplicably AJ Hinch had Neshak intentionally walk the number six hitter, Stephen Vogt. Vogt was 0-2 on the night and brought in a not-so-scary .266 BA. With 2 outs and a runner on 1st why Hinch had Neshak walk Vogt cannot be explained. For whatever reason, I am going with utter confusion on Neshak's part over the IW to Vogt, Neshak walked the next hitter to load the bases. Nothing bad ever happens in that situation, does it? Nahhh. Except the next hitter was Yonder Alonzo who got the RBI double off Fister in the 2nd inning that scored the A's first run. The left handed hitting Alonzo was face the shift by the Astros defense which had Correa playing on the 1B side of 2nd base, Altuve playing half way between 1st and 2nd in shallow right field and AJ Reed at first. On a 2-1 count Alonzo lunged at a pitch on the outside corner barely getting a piece of the ball for a doink pop up which landed in the infield grass out of reach for anyone to make a play on the fly or have time to get the out at first. Seeing eye mistake scored the run from 3rd which Sipp allowed a full ten minutes before to begin the inning. Of course Sipp got tagged with the run even though, in no way, was it his fault. Of course it was an unearned run but one insurance run in a one run game was like 5 runs otherwise on a night when Houston couldn't hit their ass with either hand much less a baseball with a bat it was a soul killing run. Final score Oakland 3 Houston 1 ended their string of 9 straight division wins. The saving grace was that Texas got bombed by Minnesota 10-1 and Seattle also lost to Kansas City 4-3 so the status quo in the division didn't change which is the only plus you can take from last night's pooch screwing by the Astros.
Game two with Oakland is tonight with Collin McHugh (5-6, 4.50 ERA) leading the Astros with the A's sending Daniel Mengden (1-4, 3.48 ERA) to the hill to face Houston's will they or won't they show up offense. Mengden is a rookie who has 5 career big league starts and he's a guy who will give up some hits and walks without the K rate very high. That's relatively speaking though because prior to last night's game Houston led the American League in strike outs with 787. They added 13 to their total last night giving them 800 K's on the season and that was good enough to vault Houston into first place in total strike outs with 800 to lead ALL of baseball. Nice. Did I ever mention I do think the Astros hitting coach is worth a crap? I'll bet I have--more than once.

[eagle eye]

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

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

[eagle eye]

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

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

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

[eagle eye]

Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins put on a show last night in the annual MLB Home Run Derby hitting a total of 61 homers to win the 2016 contest going away. He hit 20 home runs in the final against defending Home Run Derby champ Todd Frazier of the Chicago White Sox who was only able to hit 13 HR's in the final. That total could have be 2 or 3 home runs higher but there was a tall kid in left field among the throng of kid shagging balls during the derby that actually robbed Frazier of homers by jumping up and catching the balls before the could leave the field of play. Frazier actually stopped after one of the ball the kid caught and asked if the homer would be counted. The homer didn't count and Frazier, who was in need of a break or two to catch Stanton, fell 7 home runs short of tying Stanton.
It was a clinic of power hitting 20 of the 21 longest home runs in the competition the longest being 497 feet. Stanton's 61 dingers was a Home Run Derby record shattering previous record holder Bobby Abreau's 48 set in 2005. Here's a link to an ESPN.com article about probably the best power hitter in baseball right now and his runaway win last night by Jayson Stark.

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

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

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

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

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

[eagle eye]

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

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

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

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

[eagle eye]

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

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

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

[eagle eye]

Astros win 7-3.
They are season high 8 games over .500.
Fister decent-5 innings 3 earned runs earning him the win.
Springer homers to lead off the game. Gonzalez homers in the seventh to end the scoring.
Astros score 5 runs in the 5th-2 on wild pitches. Carlos Correa scored from 2nd base on the second wild pitch.
Feliz, Giles, Devenski and Gregerson each pitched a scoreless inning for Houston.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[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.

[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.

[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".)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAZU6DYwTDM


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?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLCLMEYp9s0

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.

[eagle eye]

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?

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

https://memecrunch.com/meme/8RT3H/stick-a-fork-in-em/image.png?w=500&c=1

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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?

[eagle eye]

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???????

[eagle eye]

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!

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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

[eagle eye]

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!

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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/

[eagle eye]

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?

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

The Astros lost 2 of 3 to the Chicago Cubs. What it basically came down to in this series was pitching. When Houston pitched well they won and when they didn't they lost. But wait, that's not entirely true. The Astros allowed just 2 runs in the series opener and their offense struggled. Okay, that's being kind. If we're calling spades spades the offense sucked. The base coaching sucked and even though they had base runners they promptly ran themselves out of contention trying to steal bases and being caught and trying to push a hit into something more and being caught. Last night the Astros offense didn't show up really until the 9th inning. They did score a run in the 4th and 2 more in the sixth but they blew a big opportunity in the sixth to score more but with one out and men on 1st and 3rd Evan Gattis flew out and Colby Rasmus also flew out to end the threat. The Astros did score 5 runs but after allowing 9 runs in the first 4 innings Houston never really stood a chance. Mike Fiers was supposed to pitch last night but apparently he sent his doppelganger Mike Mis-Fiers to throw batting practice to the Cubs. Thru 2.1 innings of work gave up 7 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks and no Ks. Jandel Gustav went out in relief of Mis-Fiers and gave up 2 more runs on 3 hits in 1.2 innings of relief. I'm not sure you could call what Gustav did "relief" although I'm sure Mis-Fiers was relieved to get to go sit down because I'm sure he was feeling a little abused by the Cubs hitters. The Astros ended the week going 3-4 splitting 4 games with Cleveland and losing this series to Chicago. Houston has failed miserably to take advantage of the opportunity to make a move in the Wild Card. I told you that Houston was going through a rough stretch of games beginning a week ago Friday with a road trip to face the Rangers. It was going to be a stretch that would make or break the Astros playoff chances and it appears they are going to be broken. I have no hope of Houston doing anything but continue to struggle against the Rangers over the next 3 games beginning tonight and I sincerely believe the Astros will be doing well not to be swept by the A-holes from Arlington. This is not the Astros season. Last year they looked like a team of destiny until an 8th and 9th inning meltdown by the bullpen in what would have been a series clinching win over eventual champion Kansas City derailed Cinderella and prevented her from going to the ball. This year Cinderella has looked more like an ugly step-sister showing off warts and all. It's looking like yet another September to forget for the Astros and they are ending the season only a little better than they began it in April. If I sound all gloom and doom I'm not really being anything but a realist and what my eyeballs are telling me is this team kind of stinks right now. No pitching, no timely hitting and they can't seem to find a third baseman who can keep from making throwing errors. Sports Illustrated had the Astros on the cover of their magazine saying the Astros would win the World Series in 2017 so that's where I'm hanging my new hat because the 2016 Astros took a big crap in my old one.

[eagle eye]

The Astros lost the Rangers---again. This time it took a little longer, 12 innings to be exact, but a solo HR in the top of the 12th by Redneck Oh-der was the game winner. The Astros tied the game in the bottom of the 9th on an Evan Gattis solo homer but that was the end of the Astros clutch hitting for the night. The Astros have multiple stab wounds from the fork being stuck in them but last night was the last straw. If it was up to me I would have taken the fork and gone all Freddie Krueger on them.

A month ago it looked like Jose Altuve was a shoe-in for AL MVP but he has had the most epic crash and burn since the Hindenburg. On August 20 Altuve was at his high water mark on the season in batting average at .366. This was far and away the best batting average in the majors and he looked unstoppable for his 2nd batting title in 3 years. But, since that fateful day he can't find his ass with either hand much less hit a baseball with any consistency. After going 0-5 in the Astros 12 inning loss he has officially lost 29 points on this BA. He now is hitting .337 on the season but for the month of September, 11 games in all, he's hitting a paltry .178 with an OBP of .245 and a SLG % of .267. This crash and burn comes in just 21 games since that August 20th when the skies were blue and the fall was in the air. I'm not sure if there has ever been this epic of a slump for a player this good. Altuve is still 3rd overall in BA in baseball but the Nationals Daniel Murphy (.347) and Colorado's DJ LaMehieu (.245) passed him up a little over a week ago. Altuve still has the best BA in the AL but Boston's Dustin Pedroia isn't far behind at .330. As for MVP? An MVP doesn't disappear in the most critical stretch of games of a season the way Altuve has. In the last 15 games he's hit just .180 at a time when an MVP candidate on a playoff contender needs to be leading his team instead of dragging it down. He can still rebound and save his season from a personal standpoint but right now it looks like he's fighting himself and he looks a little lost at the plate. At a time like this a good hitting coach would be able to help. A player of Altuve's caliber shouldn't be in this kind of slump for 3 freaking weeks. I think the Astros hitting coach is just collecting a paycheck because he's not making his players better hitters. Guys like Colby Rasmus, George Springer, Evan Gattis and even Carlos Correa could be doing better, I just know it. If only they had someone who knew what the hell he was doing. At the highest levels of pro sports coaching makes a difference. Think Nick Saban is just lucky? Think Mike Tomlin or Bill Belichick's teams keep winning in spite of them? Did you happen to notice that when the Astros fired Terry Collins and hired former player Larry Dierker who led the Astros into the most successful stretch of seasons in franchise history? Yes, I'm saying Larry Dierker was a good manager because his record says he was. His .533 winning percent is easily the best of any full time manager in franchise history. He was Manager of the Year in 1998 for goodness sakes. Dierker's teams had lousy luck in the playoffs, especially in 1999 when they got Randy Johnson at the trade deadline and paired him with guys like Shane Reynolds, Mike Hampton, Jose Lima and Scott Elarton for one of the strongest starting pitching rotations in club history. That team ran into the San Diego Padres in the divisional round of the playoffs to their nemesis Atlanta Braves in a best of 5 game series. Way too much information when my point was the Astros hitting coach sucks and maybe it's also due to the possible fact AJ Hinch isn't all that great either. Trouble is there isn't a Joe Torre or Jim Leyland out there to choose from. I hope Jose Altuve breaks out of his slump soon, or before the season ends anyway. It would kill me to think that anyone would believe a douche bag like Redneck Oh-der could be considered a better 2nd baseman than Altuve.

Houston signed another Cuban player to a deal yesterday. There are all kinds of implications involved with his signing, his reported $5.15MM deal the main factor. Houston had dived head first with their clothes on into the International market hitting the maximum penalty for players signed and it will handicap the Astros in the International pool for at least a couple of years. I hope the guys they signed were worth it.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/200905922/astros-agree-with-cuban-prospect-cionel-perez/

Tonight the Rangers sent AJ Griffin to the mound and Houston counters with Brad Peacock. Who do you think is favored to win tonight? The Astros haven't mailed it in or given up yet which is too their credit but the whole team might be pressing to get out of this infernal funk they are in. I can easily foresee a Rangers sweep to end this season series and wouldn't that be fitting considering the royal ass whooping the Ranger have put on Houston this season? Have I mentioned that I don't like the Rangers? I don't feel sorry for them for never winning a championship even as far back as when the were the Washington Senators. They aren't even the original Washington Senators family tree. That team relocated to Minnesota and became the Twins, named for the twin cities of Minneapolis and St Paul. There was an expansion team created in 1960 that was also named the Washington Senators who eventually relocated to Texas in 1972. The Senators/Rangers have spent most of their history as a bunch of losers who then graduated into full blown chokers when they were one strike away from winning a World Series before losing to the St Louis Cardinals in 7 games. To heck with the Rangers.

[eagle eye]

Ah, isn't it nice when you have a closer you can depend on? A guy you know is going come in a just shut down the other team in the 9th inning and go home with a win? We really haven't had that since Billy Wagner and we still don't. Ken Giles has saved 9 games in a row since becoming the Astros closer but they weren't without some drama. It always seemed like he gave up at least one run an outing but to have the world crash down around his ears because Jason Castro can't block a pitch in the dirt really sucks. Redneck Oh-der effectively struck out for the 2nd out in the 9th but the pitch was in the dirt and Jason Castro's tried to block it but I doubt if he was looking at the play because it didn't even hit his mitt. Instead it hit the knee part of his shin guard and caromed all the way by the Astros dugout allowing Oh-der to reach first base. Then, with Mitch Moreland at the plate, Oh-der stole 2nd base. Giles did strike out Moreland for the 2nd out of the inning when Elvis Andrus came up and hit a low and away pitch over Jake Marisnick's head in center field for an RBI triple that tied the game at 2. The next batter, Jurikson Profar, singled to left scoring Andrus to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead. Another wild pitch by Giles advanced Profar to 2nd with Jonathan Lucroy hitting. Lucroy hit a sharp ground ball to 3rd that Alex Bregman misplayed and it rolled just into the outfield grass. Profar tried to score on the play but Bregman threw him out at home to end the inning but the stupid Rangers had done enough to break the Astros hearts for the eighth time in 9 one run games and ran their season dominance to 16-3 in their season series. Bill Brown on the TV broadcast summed it up when he closed out the show by saying the Astros would bid the Rangers good riddance after the series finale on Wednesday. Amazingly, Brad Peacock pitched a really good game going 7 innings allowing just the one run in 7 innings of work. To bad Giles had to ruin the party with a lot of help from Castro. The offense was it's usual inept self as they, yet again, made a mediocre pitcher look like an ace. The Astros only managed 4 hits in the game and incredibly 3 of them came from Jose Altuve who went 3-4 in the game with a home run in the 4th. Altuve got a hit in the 6th, a hard shot to 3B that caromed off the third baseman's glove into shallow left field. The Rangers SS came over and picked up the ball and he noticed Altuve took a big turn around first and he went to throw over to 1st to pick him off. That is just what happened because Altuve lost his footing and rumbled and stumbled back the bag and all that rumbling and stumbling made him too late back to the bag making for an easy out. The other hit in the game for Houston was a 6th inning HR by Castro which should have been enough to win except for the failure of Ken Giles and Jason Castro. This is the 3rd closer this season for Houston with the previous two, Luke Gregerson and Will Harris, losing the job because they got around 10 saves then couldn't keep from blowing leads. The Astros are now 4.5 games back in the Wild Card with 17 games left in the season trailing 4 teams including the Seattle Mariners who have caught and passed Houston for 2nd place in the AL West for the second time this year. The Astros are done as a contender in 2016. They have one more game against the Rangers and they finish the season playing the other 3 teams in the division. The way the Astros are playing they will be lucky to finish in 3rd place. Too bad but as they say, "There's always next year."

[eagle eye]

I suppose that the Astros 8-4 victory was at least a moral win of sorts. The fact that Houston should have won the series doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things but it would have be THE moral victory the Astros could have had but when you look at the 15-4 season stomping the Rangers put on the Astros this season it has to make you sick. Texas is a better version of the Astros last year in the fact that they have had abnormal success in one run games and they have a bunch of wins because of comebacks in the 9th inning of games. We witnessed that on Tuesday night when a strikeout/wild pitch turned into the tying run in the game and hit immediately after the game tying hit resulted in a Rangers lead and the win. When it's your year, it your year and it looks like the Rangers year is 2016.
For Houston the crap just keeps getting worse. Despite breaking through and beating Texas it cost the Astros dearly. Jose Altuve left the game in 5th with a pulled oblique muscle and an inning later after his hit a double Alex Bregman left the game with a sore hamstring. It doesn't mean the two of them are done for the season but I would be more concerned with Altuve's injury because it could prevent him from getting any more ABs which would be a shame because he is just 4 hits away from his third straight 200 hit season. After going 3-4 on Tuesday night and going 1-2 in his only ABs last night it looked like he had finally broken out of a nearly month long slump. I would love to see Jose be able to come back and get to 200 and pad his AL leading batting average to win another batting title. He doesn't deserve to get right to the doorstep only to have a balky oblique slam the door in his face.
One thing is pretty good looking ahead at next year because I think it is safe to say that Houston's lineup is stronger than it's been in years. The additions of Alex Bregman and Yuli Gurriel solidify the Astros infield and significantly strengthen their batting order. Gurriel could end up playing 1st base while Bregman holds down third or they platoon at 3rd with the odd man playing the outfield or DH'ing. The Astros also look like they have found a new catcher. Evan Gattis has been a revelation as he has demonstrated a lot of ability as a defensive catcher and the last time I looked he was above .500 in gunning down base runners attempting to steal bases. He has also got some pop at the plate and his BA isn't flirting with the Mendoza Line. His current BA of .247 is pretty nice considering what we've been getting out of Jason Castro who is hitting .214 this season. Castro's career BA of .233 is skewed by the one year he did hit well, .276 in 2013. Things are looking up but Houston needs a lot of other things to be a real contender for a title but it's nice see they have some nice pieces already in place.

[eagle eye]

Okay, now I'm pissed. Why? Because last night Houston began their series against Seattle and beat them 6-0 giving Colin McHugh his 11th win of the season and they also beat the Mariner's best pitcher Felix Hernandez in the process. Not only that but every single Wild Card contender lost last night too. Houston does this, they give you hope then they yank the rug out from under you when they go back to sucking. I just wonder when they will dash our hopes yet again which will, thankfully, be the last time given there are only 15 games left in the season. Tonight's pitchers are RHP Mike Fiers for Houston and Seattle sends LHP James Paxton to the hill. The Game doesn't start until 9:10 tonight so it will be well under way as you drive home from what is hopefully a big win over SAM tonight. Will tonight be the night Houston screws the pooch for the last time? Danged if I know. I do know one thing, I haven't got my hopes up thinking Houston is going to make this big final push to steal the second Wild Card spot. I don't dare get my hopes up because those hopes have crashed and burned too many times this season. Go Cards and if you win, Houston, I won't be unhappy.

[eagle eye]

Houston won again last night by a score of 2-1. That's a good thing but I would go all crazy about how Houston is making their run. I won't happen. It's good that the Astros are at least showing signs of life. Mike Fiers joined Collin McHugh in the eleven game winner's club edging his record to 11-7. Ken Giles managed to notch his 11th save so he gets to join Club Eleven too. Yet another average pitcher confounded the Astros lineup as James Paxton and his 4-6 record and 3.98 ERA flummoxed the Astros as he scattered just 4 hits and one walk over 7 innings as well as 7 K's. In what was pretty much a fluke inning or if your the Astros, a perfect storm, in the top of the sixth Teoscar Hernandez led off the inning with a single followed by a double by Tyler White left the Astros with men on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out in a scoreless game. Jake Marisnick was next and he grounded out to 1st followed by George Springer's strike out and it looked like Houston was going to blow a golden opportunity to take the lead in the game. Houston's newest player, Yuri Gurriel, was next and he didn't disappoint as he smacked a base hit into left scoring both Hernandez and White giving Houston a 2 zip lead. Gurriel took 2nd on the throw to the plate giving Houston another man in scoring position for Jose Altuve. The Mariners weren't about to pitch to Altuve so they intentionally walked him bringing Carlos Correa to the plate. The magic was gone though and Correa flew out weakly to center field to end the inning. The 3 hits and the walk were almost all the base runners Houston managed on the night and they actually took advantage of the opportunity to score enough runs to win the game. Luke Gregerson came on in the 8th and he made things interesting by giving up a run on an RBI double by Seth Smith with one out and Astros killers Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz due up. Gregerson was able to strike out Cano and he got Cruz to pop out to Correa to end the inning. Ken Giles came on in the 9th and he had an uneventful 1-2-3 9th to end the game.
The best thing if your the Astros was the fact that with Seattle's defeat and a loss by Detroit it puts Houston in a tie with Detroit and Seattle for the spot right behind the Blue Jays and Orioles who both also lost last night. So here's the deal, Baltimore and Tonoto are tied for the top Wild Card spot with records of 81-67. Houston, Detroit and Seattle are tied for the 3rd spot with 78-70 records--3 games behind the Orioles and Blue Jays. The Yankees are one game back of HDS at 77-71 and Kansas City is 3 back of HDS with a 75-73 record. To make it more interesting every team in contention except Houston lost yesterday. Every single one except for KC that is but they are even more of a dark horse than HDS. The odds of that happening two days in a row are rare and I'm thinking the odds of it happening 3 games in a row are astronomically against that happening. It is an interesting set of circumstances though. But don't get the feeling Houston is going to come back. Remember, I told you yesterday about the Astros propensity to tease. This is just the next one.

[eagle eye]

I told you. This isn't the time of year to take 2 steps forward and one step back. Back in May winning a series 2 games to 3 was great. Do that the whole season and you are a shoe-in for the playoffs. A .667 winning percentage over the course of a whole season and you win 108 games. If can't win your division and secure home field advantage throughout the League playoffs then there's something fishy going on. But, with 13 games left in the season you can't do that when you are 3 games off the pace for the Wild Card. Doug Fister had yet another disastrous game and mainly it was a nightmarish 4th inning that blew him out of the water. In his last 5 starts 4 of them Fister blew up in the 4th. If there was a way to sit him in the 4th and bring him back out for the 5th maybe he could go deeper into a game. He had already allowed the Mariners 3 runs in the first 3 innings but the 4 he gave up in the fourth inning was just too much for Houston to overcome. Ever since the All Star break Fister has struggled and he really went downhill after taking off a few days in early August for the birth of a child. Maybe his mind is on his wife and newborn and he just doesn't have the right concentration. Who knows, but he's 0-4 in his last five outings going back to August 28 and if you go back to July 2nd he's 4-8. Fister was the staff ace for two months in May and June but since then he's been the staff albatross. Jose Altuve didn't help the club much going 0-4. I'm telling you this team might have some fight but they seem to be fairly gutless. The Astros face the Mariners one more time in a 3 game series back at the Juice box beginning next Monday. The other 10 games will be against 4th place in the AL West Oakland and last place Angels of Anaheim. Oakland, I might add, just proved that someone can beat the Rangers when they took 2 of 3 against them this past weekend. Houston can't help it, when it's not your year it is just not your year. It's hard to fathom what the hell happened both in 2015 and this year that the team just cratered in the final six weeks of the season. What's crazy is Houston could conceivably equal last year's 86 wins. All they need to do is win 8 games and they tie and 9 to eclipse last season's win total. Every year is different and now Houston gets to play out their string over the next two weeks. They begin tonight with a 3 gamer against Oakland at Oakland. I guess we need to appreciate these last two weeks because Houston has really no chance of making the post season. I hope Altuve can pull it together and win that AL batting title but I have a feeling the MVP will go to David Ortiz of Boston. I was hoping Dallas Keuchel could at least get to double digit wins for the third season in a row but apparently the shoulder inflammation that has kept him out of action for the last few weeks will sideline him the rest of the season. The Astros starting rotation took a punch in the gut when they lost Lance McCullers and they got a resounding kick to the groin when they lost Keuchel. All things considered it's amazing the Astros hung in there this long. Hopefully, we can find a way to at least finish strong before we all hang up the cleats and put away the mitts until next next February.

[eagle eye]

Houston won the opening game in their series with Oakland with a 4-2 win last night. I literally forgot Houston was playing and maybe it's better to keep forgetting until the season is over. Houston had to rally in the 8th and 9th innings with one and two runs respectively to pull out the victory but they actually did it. Seattle and Baltimore both lost last night so the Orioles are back tied with the Blue Jays for the top Wild Card spot after Toronto beat Seattle last night. So, it's just like it was prior to Sunday's games. Detroit was off last night so they are 2-1/2 games off the WC pace while Houston and Seattle are 3 back. Houston's magic number for elimination is 10.

Altuve AL Batting Title Watch: Jose went 1-4 last night keeping him at .337 for the season. The hit gave him 199 for the season so he will definitely get 200 hits for the third season in a row. It would be awesome if Jose could go on one those Jose Altuve hot streaks to end the season. I would love to see him try to break his own record of hits in a season of 225. That would be a heckuva hitting streak to get 27 hits in 13 games but it would be awesome if he could do it. As for the batting title the only player close in the AL is Boston's Dustin Pedroia but he's been in a slump of sorts and he's sitting 12 points behind Altuve at .225 for the season.

The Astros say that Lance McCullers will start throwing off a mound this week. McCullers has been sidelined since August 2nd with what's being called a mild elbow sprain. It's being reported that he has been throwing on flat ground for a couple of weeks and the team feels he's ready to try throwing off a mound as the next step in his rehab. IF, the Astros do make the postseason there is the hope McCullers will be able to pitch but it is really unlikely he will be able to go during the remainder of the regular season.

Jose Altuve is up for a very prestigious award, the Esurance MLB Award for Best Major Leaguer. Details linked in the article below.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/202253262/vote-now-for-esurance-best-major-leaguer/

[eagle eye]

Danged if Houston didn't win again last night. It wasn't easy as it took the Astros 10 innings to get it done in a 2-1 victory over the Oakland A's. That's two games in a row where Houston has come back in late innings to win. Chris Devenski got the win after he relieved Joe Musgrove who was pretty good last night taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning. Musgrove got into trouble in the 6th with one out allowing back to back hits to break up the no-no and Devenski came in and allowed one of the inherited runners to score giving the A's a 1-0 lead through 6 innings. Houston came back to tie the game in the top of 7th on a 2 out pinch hit double by Tony Kemp that scored Marwin Gonzalez who got on base with a fielder's choice and he stole 2nd with Tyler White batting and he advanced to 3rd on a White groundout. The score remained tied at 1 until the top of the 10th when Tony Kemp doubled to lead off the inning and he advanced to 2nd on a sac bunt by Jake Marisnick. George Springer singled home Kemp to give Houston a 2-1 lead. Yuri Gurriel flew out and Jose Altuve grounded Springer into a force out at 2nd to end the inning. In the bottom of the 10th Ken Giles came on and got his 13th save of the season but it wasn't easy. Giles got Ryon Healy to strike out to lead off the A's half of the 10th. He then walked Yonder Alonzo followed by a single from Brett Eibner followed by another walk, this time to Bruce Maxwell. Jake Smolinski, who broke up Musgroves no hitter in the 6th and he later scored the A's only run in the same inning, came up and popped out to Jose Altuve for the 2nd out. Joey Wendle struck out swinging on a 1-2 pitch to end the inning and game. I don't know what it is about the Astros closers. They can't just go out and lock down a game with a 1-2-3 inning. Hell no, they have to make your ass pucker first. But at least they won and the best thing about the game was Jose Altuve got his 200th hit last night as he went 1-5 in the game. Jose got his hit in the top of the 8th with one out in the inning. He was nailed at 2nd base on a strike out throw out double play that retired him and Carlos Correa to end the inning. Altuve is the first batter since Ichiro Suzuki got 10 straight 200 hit seasons from 2001-2010 and the first right handed hitter since Michael Young got 5 straight from 2003 to 2007.

So what's that mean for Houston's Wild Card chances. First it gives Houston a one game lead over Seattle their second straight to Toronto last night. Houston won their 80th game this season giving them a record of 80-71 which is 1/2 game back of Detroit (80-70) who won last night over Minnesota and they picked up a game on current 2nd Wild Card team Baltimore who lost to Boston. Baltimore is now 82-69 on the season. The top Wild Card spot belongs to Toronto who, again, beat Seattle giving them an 83-68 record.

Wild Card #1 - Toronto (83-68) --
Wild Card #2 - Baltimore (82-69) -- 1 back of Toronto
Next in Line - Detroit (80-70) -- 1.5 back of Baltimore
Next in Line - Houston (80-71) -- 2 back of Baltimore
Next in Line - Seattle (79-72) -- 3 back of Baltimore
Next in Line - NY Yankees (78-72) 3.5 back of Baltimore
Next in Line - Kansas City (77-74) 5 back of Baltimore

Don't get your hopes up. I'm warning you, you will only be disappointed. With just 11 games left it's still plenty of time for Houston to trip and fall over themselves. It's nice they are hanging in there but it's just not in the cards for them this season. Watch football, go to your deer lease, knit, play cards but don't count on Houston getting to the post season. It's just not going to happen. Want to root for something? Root for Houston to win 87 games breaking last year's mark of 86 wins. That is doable and worth rooting for. It's not impossible for Houston to finish the season 7-4 and that would be a good thing.

The Astros finish their series in Oakland this afternoon at 2:35 PM local time. Collin McHugh will trying for his 6th win in a row and Oakland counters with Daniel Mengden who is from Houston but he sports one of those Rollie Fingers waxed and cured up mustaches. Mengden is 2-7 on the season in 12 starts. He made his big league debut June 11 vs Cincinnati in which he only gave up 2 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks with 5 K's in 5.2 innings but taking a loss in the game. McHugh will be looking to tie Doug Fister for most wins with 12 today. Considering all his problems this year to back up a 19 win season in 2015 with maybe as many as 14 wins in 2016 I'd say that's pretty good but it won't happen if he doesn't win his start later today

[eagle eye]

The Astros completed the sweep of Oakland yesterday with a 6-5 win that shouldn't have been that close. Collin McHugh did what he does, pitches fine until he gets some run support and then he struggles. McHugh gave up a run in the 4th that gave the A's a 1-0 lead but Houston came right back in the top of the 5th with a run of their own to tie the game. In the 6th Houston staked McHugh to a 3 run lead largely due to a 2-run Evan Gattis HR. Houston went into the bottom of the 6th leading 4-1. Cue McHugh meltdown. Oakland's Danny Valencia led off the inning with a single and two outs later Bruce Maxwell doubled scoring Valencia from 1st to close the Astros lead to 4-2. AJ Hinch had seen enough and he brought in James Hoyt who got the final out. Houston got the run back in the top of the 7th when George Springer doubled, advanced to 3rd on wild pitch with Yuri Gurriel at the plate who then grounded out to shortstop Markus Semien. When Semien let the ball go to first Springer broke for the home and on a very close bang-bang play replay confirmed Springer just got his hand on home plate just before A's catcher Bruce Maxwell applied the tag. In the top of the 8th Evan Gattis stroked his second long ball of the game, giving him 30 dingers on the season, to extend the Astros lead to 6-4. How did the A's get to 4 runs? The Astros James Hoyt and Tony Sipp combined to put men on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out in the inning. The first run came on a ground ball out to Carlos Correa that allowed Jake Smolinski, who led off the inning with a walk, to score from 3rd. With one out in the inning Pat Neshak came on in relief of Sipp and he got Ryon Healy to ground out to Correa which scored Chad Pinder who advanced to 3rd on the previous play giving the A's two outs in the inning but also allowed Oakland to close the gap on Houston to 5-4. To me, AJ Hinch is partly to blame for at least one of the runs Oakland scored. In both cases when the A's had men on 3rd base Hinch elected not bring the infield in to prevent the runner on 3rd from scoring and thus protecting their lead. Hinch didn't do that opting instead to play his infield back playing for the out willing to give up a run for an out. The Astros had a tenuous one run lead heading to the 8th inning. Gattis extended the Astros lead to 6-4 with is 2nd home run and the A's did noting in the bottom of the 8th as Will Harris came on at got the A's out in short order with a line out and 2 K's. It all came down to getting the A's out in the bottom of the 9th for the win. Luke Gregerson came on for Harris in the 9th and of course for an Astros closer nothing comes easy. After 2 quick outs in the inning Gregerson walked Chad Pinder. Pinder advanced to 2nd on catcher's indifference with Stephen Vogt at the plate. Vogt then grounded to 2nd but Altuve made and error that not only allowed Vogt to reach 1st but with 2 outs in the inning Pinder took off at the crack of the bat and he scored from 2nd base. The A's put in Arismendy Alcantara to run for Vogt and with Ryon Healy batting with a 2-1 count Alcantara was gunned down by Jason Castro trying to steal 2nd base. Replay confirmed the out and the Astros had completed the sweep but they made it way to hard on themselves.

In the Wild Card chase Houston made up ground on the 2nd Wild Card spot with their win coupled with the Orioles loss to Boston meaning Houston is just one game off the pace. Detroit was rained out of their game against Minnesota so, weather permitting, the Tigers and Twins will play a double header today. Here's a scenario that COULD happen, I'm not saying it will but in the best case scenario today would be Detroit losing both games to Minnesota. Baltimore loses their finale with Boston and Houston, who begins a 4 game series with the LA Angels, beats LA. If this all comes to pass Detroit will fall a game behind Houston and Baltimore and Houston will be tied for the 2nd Wild Card spot. See what I mean? Houston does this crap to give you hope and if this whole scenario does come true then Houston will lose the last 3 to the Angels over the weekend to bury their chances for the playoffs. That's just what Houston does. I refuse to even hope, I won't have my hopes smashed under the wicked boot of fate one more time this season.

[eagle eye]

That gagging sound you heard last night was just the Astros choking like the weak, simpering curs they are. I knew this was going to happen, this team is not clutch, not even close. Yeah, they've won a few games in the past week but when the nut cuttin' began they have folded up their knives and gone home. Want to know what clutch is? Go to Detroit Tigers.com and see what a real playoff contender does against a bad team. Detroit started the day a game and a half behind Baltimore and they swept the double header to leap frog the O's by virtue of Baltimore being swept by Boston. You could argue Baltimore has some choke in them but they were playing a playoff caliber team in the Red Sox and Boston is just better than the Orioles. Houston is better on paper than the Angels. Even with the starting rotation issues Houston has had this year they are still better than the Angels staff. Markedly better but last night, yet again, Houston gets back in their own ball park and looks like warmed over shit facing a guy who came into the game 6-14 with a 4.78 ERA in 30 starts. That would be Ricky Nolasco. Who? That's my point. Nothing personal to Mr Nolasco but this guy is a hack and he's in the bigs only because of all the injuries to the regular starters the Angels have suffered. This doesn't mean Nolasco won't be better in the future. After all, he's in his first year in the majors, but wait---he was born in 1982 which means he's 34 years old! And this isn't his first season in the majors, it's his eleventh. Did I really talk about this guy in terms of a future when he is on the downhill side of his career? But there he was out there for 7 innings allowing the Astros just 5 hits and one walk with 5 K's and, most importantly, no freaking runs. None. Zip. Nada. In fact the Angels didn't send a pitcher to the mound last night with an ERA less than 4.50. JC Ramirez came into the game in the 8th inning with an ERA of 4.52 and despite giving up two hits in his one inning of work he allowed no runs. Result? ERA is now 4.46. In the 9th the Angels sent 32 year old Andrew Bailey who was sporting an ERA of 5.90 and after he pitched a scoreless 9th to close out the game for the Angels he left with an ERA of 5.75.
Last night Houston was 0-4 with RISP and they stranded 5 on the night. Jose Altuve cancelled himself out in one inning by getting caught trying to steal second in the bottom of the 1st inning. There were two guys who didn't choke last night. Mike Fiers pitched his ass off and the only mistake he made was to Albert Pujols who drove that mistake into the Crawford Boxes in the top of the 1st with a 2-run HR and that was the only scoring of the whole game. Houston lost to a bad team 2-0 at home after a 5-1 road trip. They lost to a team with the worst pitching staff in the American League by a shutout. There ought to be a lot of guys hanging their heads in shame this morning. The other guy who had a good game was Jose Altuve who did all he could by going 3-4 and he didn't choke with a running in scoring position because there was nobody in scoring position when he flew out to center field as the last out in the 6th inning. He did raise his batting average back to .340 if that's any consolation.
As I mentioned before Detroit swept a double header with Minnesota vaulting them into the 2nd Wild Card position ahead of Baltimore. Houston is next a game behind Baltimore and 2 back of Detroit with 9 games to play. Houston has 3 more games to look bad against the Angels and I figure if they lose 2 of the next 3 the final fork can be stuck in this team's playoff chances.

Go to Astros.com and click on the link to #Awardworthy to vote for Jose Altuve for the esurance awards. Altuve is up for Best Major Leaguer and Best Hitter Awards and we should support our guy with as many votes as you have time to submit.

Lance McCullers is progressing in his rehab efforts to get over his elbow problems on his pitching arm. Yesterday was the first time McCullers has thrown off a mound since leaving a game on August 2nd with an elbow strain. AJ Hinch said he threw a full bullpen session with intensity but despite being a very encouraging sign it still doesn't define a timeline when McCullers can return to action. He is scheduled to throw another BP session in a few days and it will help the team evaluate McCuller's progress going forward.

For long time Astros fans you have come to know the distinctive voice of TV play by play man Bill Brown. Yesterday Brown announced that he is retiring at the end of the season. His final broadcast will be Houston's final home game of the regular season next Wednesday in the series finale against the Seattle Mariners. In recent seasons Brown has basically only done home games with a smattering of road games thrown in. He's been calling about 100 of the Astros games in recent years similar to what Milo Hamilton did for a few years prior to his retirement. Like most professional broadcasters Brown had a distinctive voice that made the game more dramatic when it had to be and interesting the rest of the time. Professional broadcasters like Brown and Milo Hamilton and Vin Scully, who is also retiring at the end of the season, all have certain things in common. They all have a distinctive baritone voice and they don't get so caught up in the game they fail to communicate what is happening. In fact, by their call of the game it makes the event more dramatic and exciting. Another thing they have in common is a love of the game and an understanding of what make the game beautiful and without even knowing who is talking you instinctively know that that man loves his sport. All the great broadcaster know when to talk and when to shut up and bask in a moment. Guys like Brown are becoming dinosaurs as the media is being flooded by ex-jocks who want to continue being associated with their sport. Trouble is, many of them have poor communication skills and aren't able to put their preconceived prejudices and biases aside. They are all too prone to spewing clichés and misinformation to be considered serious journalists. Seriously, who besides me is sick and tired of a player or team playing with a chip on their shoulder? That phrase is so trite it's become like a person scratching a chalk board with their fingernails to me. Bill Brown will be missed especially since since guys like Alan Ashby and Geoff Blum, who are nice guys and very knowledgeable, but are bland as beige vocally. Brownie will be missed but I hope he has a long and happy and healthy retirement. Linked below is an article about Brown's announcement yesterday along with a video of the press conference where Brown announced his retirement.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/202763346/astros-play-by-play-man-bill-brown-to-retire/

[eagle eye]

I don't know if there is something in the water or what that makes the Astros bullpen suck fuzzy balls in September. Last night the 'pen didn't just blow a 3 run lead going into the 8th inning they blew it out of the water. Leading 6-3 as the top of the 8th began Luke Gregerson allowed the Angels to score one run in his one inning of work. Not great but not terrible I guess. Then with a 6-4 lead and three outs away from victory Ken Giles came on and he had revenge sex with the pooch last night. By the time the inning came to a merciful conclusion Houston went from a 2 run lead to a 4 run deficit. We hadn't seen a meltdown like that since what should've been a series clinching win against Kansas City in the divisional round of the playoffs last year but for the utter failure of the bullpen to hold a 5 run lead. This loss last night, by a score of 10-6, is devastating to the slim Astros playoff hopes and it is Ken Giles 2nd blown safe in his last 5 outings. How much would those two wins mean to the Astros right now? If Houston had gotten those two wins, in other words, if Ken Giles had done his friggin' job, Houston would be 83-71 and tied with Detroit and Baltimore for the 2nd Wild Card spot. Tied. If you go deeper into it Houston has had 3 different closers this season Luke Gregerson, Will Harris and now Ken Giles. The reason we are down to Giles right now comes down to two reasons. 1. Gregerson started blowing saves in May and Early June like nobody's business so he was replaced by Will Harris. Harris came on and looked almost invincible getting 10 saves in his first 10 chances but after that he started blowing save opportunities too and he was demoted to middle relief. On comes big money Ken Giles because it's the second reason he became the Astros closer, the Astros traded away a 1st pick in the draft Mark Appel and other prospects to get Giles in the offseason to prevent, ironically enough, another late season meltdown by the bullpen. Didn't work did it.
A deeper look at these guys who were the Astros closers this season and you see something quite disturbing. All totaled Gregerson, Harris and Giles have had 53 save opportunities of which they converted only 40 into wins. 40. People a 75% save conversion rate sucks. I mean it absolutely sucks when you consider Baltimore closer Zack Britton is 45 of 45 in save opportunities. The overall leader in saves in baseball is the Mets Jeurys Familia who is 49 of 54 in saves. That's 91% folks. I could live with that, how about you? If you take those 53 saves and calculate 91% you get 48 saves which is 8 more wins. What would 8 more wins mean to Houston right now? They would be 89-65 easily the #1 Wild Card team by 5 games plus they would only be two games behind the cursed Rangers for the division. Here's one more stat that will irk the crap out of you. There have been 5 other pitchers who have tried to close games and they are Chris Devenski (1-1), Scott Feldman (0-1), Michael Feliz (0-3), Tony Sipp (1-2) and James Hoyt (0-1) for a total of 2 saves in 9 opportunities. 2 of 9 is 22%. Again, these are spot closers so lets say they convert 60% of the 9 tries you get 5 saves, 3 more than they already got. So, add in these 3 saves to the number we got if the regular closers should have gotten and Houston has a total of 92 wins and 62 losses which would mean Houston would currently have the best record in the American League, they would have one game lead over Texas in the division with 8 games to play and they would have no Worse than a Wild Card spot wrapped up. Is that sickening or what? That means it doesn't matter that Houston went 4-15 against the Rangers in their season series. It doesn't matter one bit. Now if they could have even split with Texas going 9-10 on the season that yet another 5 games and Houston is sitting with almost 100 wins and the rest of the AL looking at coming to Houston throughout the playoffs. But, I'm not counting on a split with Texas because you could also argue the winning records Houston has against Oakland and Seattle could be different. But I don't think it's too much of a stretch to look at "what if" the closers had been better this season. The numbers are there and it's not unreasonable to expect a guy to go and get 3 confounded outs at the end of a game. That's why they get the big bucks. Seems to me that they owe the Astros a salary refund for their work this season. I'd say about 25% refund would be about right, how 'bout you.
As for the Wild Card race as it currently sits, Baltimore (83-71) and Detroit (83-71) are tied for the #2 Wild Card spot. Seattle (81-72) is 1.5 games back of them and Houston (81-73) is two games behind. Houston has 2 more opportunities to suck against the Angels while Seattle plays Minnesota. Detroit plays Kansas City whom they lost to last night and Baltimore continues their series with Arizona whom they beat last night.
2 games back with 8 to play, Seattle has 9 looks good and seems to be a hopeful situation but like I've been saying since Houston blew the road trip to start the month including 6 games with Texas I knew the chances of Houston making the playoffs were slim and none with the better odds on none. I'm not a big fan of AJ Hinch but the performance of his closers this year isn't his fault, it's on them. Hinch can't make the pitches for them even though I'll bet the former catcher in him would like to go out and bitch-slap every one of them. When you look at the numbers wouldn't you?

[eagle eye]

It's not even worth recounting any more. Houston lost its 3rd straight to the Angels 10-4. After Brad Peacock went 5 innings allowing but one run the bullpen collectively shit all over Peacock's good work as every reliever who entered the game allowed at least one run. It was a pitiful display all the while the Astros hitters continued to make the Angels staff look much, much better than they actually are. Houston got to 81-71 after it's series finale and sweep of the A's last Wednesday and there is just something about being 10 games over .500 that just doesn't sit well with this team. It's the 3rd time they were +10 in wins and it's the 3rd time the Astros followed that with a losing streak. Houston is 3 back with 7 to play. Even I can do the math. Even though they technically have a chance to make the post season in reality there is no chance whatsoever. Houston is stuck on 81 wins this season and I don't believe they will make 83 when the season is over. I don't remember seeing a team that was on the doorstep of the playoffs go belly up the way Houston has. It's really disappointing to see this team choke like they have. I am now ready for this long and frustrating season to be over. Who the f**k cares who makes the playoffs now. All I can do now is root against the Rangers.

[eagle eye]

Houston finally beat the Angels yesterday by a score of 4-1 salvaging a win in the 4 game series with LA. Joe Musgrove got the win to even his record at 4-4 on the season and Ken Giles got the save and he actually didn't allow a run in his one inning of work. Will Harris pitched a scoreless, hitless 8th for a nice outing coming way to late to matter for the Astros post season hopes. Houston scored in the 1st on a two out hit by Jose Altuve, his only hit of the game, and he took 2B on a wild pitch followed by an RBI single by Carlos Correa. The Astros other 3 runs came off solo HR's by Evan Gattis, Tony Kemp and Tyler White.

For those of you who are morbidly curious about where Houston stands in the Wild Card race here it is. Baltimore is the 2nd WC right now with an 85-71 record. Next is Detroit with an 83-72 record, 1.5 games back of Baltimore. Seattle is behind Detroit with an 82-73 record 2.5 games back of the Orioles. Houston is next with an 82-74 record 3 games behind Baltimore. Of these four teams Baltimore, Seattle and Houston won yesterday while Detroit fell to Kansas City. Here's the remaining schedule for these top four teams chasing the 2nd WC spot.

Baltimore has 6 games remaining. They will be off today and close out the season against the Blue Jays and Yankees. These will be hotly contested games because Toronto is the 1st WC and Baltimore could overtake them if they should sweep the series. The significance of that would be that the WC playoff game would be in Baltimore instead of Toronto. The Jays have a 1.5 game lead over Baltimore right now with Toronto in action today in a makeup of a rainout game with NY Yankees so the lead over Baltimore with either be one or two games depending on the outcome of the game with NY.

Detroit has 7 games remaining beginning with a 4 game series with Cleveland tonight. Cleveland still has a lot to play for as they are two games behind both Texas and Boston in the race for home field advantage. Detroit and Cleveland are in the same division so I'm sure both teams will want to win as a matter of principle. Detroit closes out their season with a 3 game series against the Atlanta Braves who are playing, at this point, for pride and to be spoilers. If you're an Astros fan you will also be a Braves fan if Detroit falters against Cleveland.

Seattle has 7 games left beginning with a series in Houston tonight. This series is the make or break series for both teams because the loser of the series will most surely be eliminated from WC contention. Seattle has a 1/2 game lead on Houston right now and with so few games left to play both teams will be looking to sweep the other. Seattle closes out the season with 4 games against the Oakland A's who are playing for pride and the role of spoilers. The key will be the series against Houston.

Houston has six games left. The 3 with Seattle which, from my pessimist's box seat, looks like it will be the final nail in the Astros coffin and they get a day off on Thursday before travelling to LA to finish the season with the Angels. Another team playing for pride and spoiler-ship. The Angels sure did play their spoiler's role to the hilt winning 3 of 4 against Houston this past weekend with a lot of help from the Astros bullpen. Don't worry Astros fans, the hurting will be over soon.

Vin Scully called his last home game for the Dodgers yesterday. It wasn't his last broadcast for the Dodgers though as he plans to travel to San Francisco to call the series with the Giants before hanging up he microphone for the last time. Scully has been with the Dodgers organization as a broadcaster since 1950. At the age of 25 in 1953 Scully was the play by play man for the World Series when the Dodgers faced the Yankees. Scully still hold the record for the youngest broadcaster of a World Series game, a record which still stands today. So, Scully has been a voice of the Dodgers for 66 years. Good grief, a lot of people don't even live to be 66 much less do the same job for that amount of time. Scully is one of the true icons in sports broadcasting but at 88 years old he's decided to ride off into the sunset of retirement. You might never have heard Scully, or realized you were listening to him but if saw the movie "For the Love of the Game" with Kevin Costner you got to listen to vintage Scully as he did the running commentary of the perfect game pitched by Costner's character Billy Chapel. The call of this fictitious game was pure Scully and it was a joy to listen to a true master of his craft. I've heard Scully call games and his play by play in the movie was classic Scully. I wouldn't be surprised if Scully didn't write his own part because nobody can conjure up images. In the 9th inning of the game in the movie Scully had the line, "Today, here in the cathedral that is Yankee Stadium it belongs to a Chapel." still gives me chills to think of it. This week Scully and Houston's Bill Brown, who will end his 30 year broadcast career with the Astros with his call of the Mariner's series, will see to men leave baseball and baseball will be the worse for their leaving because baseball was so blessed by their presence. Baseball is the most sentimental of sports. If you listen to James Earl Jones talk about what baseball means in the movie "Field of Dreams" you get an idea of the history the sport is so completely immersed in. Jones has one of those commanding voices that just evokes emotion and the passage from FoD is another lesson is baseball lore. Simple yet poignant. A warmth in your belly that baseball is more than a sport, it's an institution. Even when your bullpen sucks to high heaven. It will be sad when the season ends. In terms of popularity and money football is the national sport but baseball will always be the National Pastime. I got so sentimental I have linked the end of "For the Love of the Game" with Vin Scully and the soliloquy by James Earl Jones from "Field of Dreams".

Okay, I couldn't find a video of the FTLOTG so I got the 9th inning of Game 1 of the 1988 World Series between the Dodgers and the Oakland A's when Kirk Gibson hit a two run walk off home run to beat the A's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCkYon5qjWI

Here's James Earl Jones in Field of Dreams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SB16il97yw

[eagle eye]

Danged if the Astros didn't get shafted by their bullpen again. After Colin McHugh went 7 good innings allowing only 2 runs in the process and after the Astros were able to erase a 3-1 deficit in the bottom of the ninth the pitchers couldn't hold the Mariners. The game should never have gone into extra innings. In the top of the ninth with one out and a man on first the Mariners Ben Gamel laid down a bunt straight back to the pitcher's mound. Reliever James Hoyt casually picked up the ball and threw into foul territory down the first base line. The wild throw allowed the runner from first to score extending the M's 2-1 lead to 3-1. As luck would have it Houston managed to score 2 runs in the bottom of the inning to tie the game. A Carlos Correa single scored Altuve from 2nd base to tie the game and an Evan Gattis single moved Correa to 3rd with just one out in the inning. This where I take issue with AJ Hinch. With Tyler White coming up who was 0-3 with 2 K's in the game he let White swing away. During White's entire AB I was saying out loud that White should bunt up the first base line with Correa going on contact. With Correa's speed he had a better than average chance to make it home with the winning run. But that's not how it happened. White had a horrendous AB striking out on 3 pitches never making a tic of contact. Tony Kemp came up next and I still thought the left handed batting Kemp should try a bunt for a hit. He didn't and he popped out to the first baseman in foul territory to end the inning. If Hoyt could've just thrown better the game would be over. If AJ Hinch thought a little out of the box the game could be over. If Gary Pettis hadn't gotten Marwin Gonzalez thrown out at home on a single from Jose Altuve Houston would have had a man on third with Carlos Correa, who went 3-4 on the night, coming up next. Gary Pettis is a shitty 3rd base coach and I wouldn't mind seeing him and the Astros hitting coach find a new job this offseason. Houston lasted until the top of the tenth with Luke Gregerson on the mound. With 2 outs and a 1-2 count Gregerson grooved a fastball to Robinson Cano who jacked it out of the park to give the Mariners a one run lead. It was a dumbass mistake by Gregerson to a guy in Cano who has just killed Astros pitching at home. With two strikes there shouldn't have been a ball even close to the strike zone. It wouldn't matter if you walked Cano you don't let the other team's best hitter beat you. Houston tried to come back in the bottom of the eleventh with one out singles by Altuve and Correa but Evan Gattis, facing Nick Vincent whose top end fastball was 89 mph, struck out on 3 pitches never even making contact with any of them. Yuli Gurriel pinch hit for Tyler White and he only managed a weak fly ball to left field to end the game.

The Astros lack of clutch in their offense and bullpen is just sad and it's two seasons in a row they have failed miserably in September. Just 5 games left thank God. Discussion about the Wild Card is stupid at this point as Houston is now 4 games back with those 5 games to play. Choking dogs deserve to die in peace.

[eagle eye]

I had to laugh last night when Bill Brown on the Root Sports TV broadcast recapped the game saying that Astros starter gave the Astros 5 strong innings. Maybe Brownie was just trying to be positive, after all, he was calling his second to last Astros broadcast ever last night. Whatever the reason I don't classify 5 innings of work "strong" when you give up 8 hits and 4 earned runs on 90 total pitches. Fiers didn't allow a walk which was a good thing and he had 5 K's as well. Fiers gave up all 4 of the runs he allowed in the first 3 innings but after that he retired 7 Mariners in a row starting with the last out in the 3rd. Maybe you could call his outing semi-strong. AJ Hinch used a different cast for characters out of the bullpen than the usual suspects that really been bad lately. Kevin Chapman, Jandel Gustav, Chris Devenski and Pat Neshak took care of the final four innings by shutting out the Mariners. The only shaky outing was by Chapman who last but 1/3 of an inning allowing 2 hits before Hinch yanked him for Gustav. The Astros looked like this was going to be another offensive dud as they only managed 2 runs through 5 innings and both of those came in the 1st inning. Then the 6th inning came around and Houston's offense woke up. The Astros sent 10 men to the plate in the inning and they scored 6 runs chasing Mariner's ace Felix Hernandez after just 2/3 of the sixth was complete. Hernandez is the unquestioned ace of the Mariners staff but the Juice Box is his own personal death valley. As dominant as he is otherwise Hernandez gets worn out by the Astros and there's just explaining why. But, who's complaining? The top four in the Houston lineup again carried the team as Springer, Gonzalez, Altuve and Correa went a combined 8 for 15 with 6 RBI's and 4 runs scored between them. Evan Gattis went 2-4 in the game but the rest of the lineup got bupkis except for a surprise appearance by Alex Bregman, who has been out for a couple of weeks with an injury, when he came in a pinch hit for Jason Castro in that big 6th inning. Bregman got a hit and drove in a run as a part of that rally. That was it, that was all the scoring in the game but Houston got the 8-4 victory and they pulled within a half game of Seattle and incredibly enough they are just two back of 2nd WC Baltimore who lost to Toronto last night. Detroit is just a game back of Baltimore after they beat the crap out of Cleveland 12-0 last night. Houston finishes the series with Seattle this afternoon and they will get the day off on Thursday while the rest of the contenders catch up in total games played. By the time the final series of the season begins for all of baseball on Friday everyone will have played the same about of games so all this 1/2 game crap will be finished. Teams will all know how they stand as they look to play the final regular season series. It's rather amazing how many teams still have a shot at the 2nd WC and mathematically speaking Houston even has a shot, albeit a slim one, to make the post season. It's nice to see Bregman back and I'm sure the Astros hope his is good to go to actually be in the lineup today. Even if it's as DH they sure could use his bat.

It's been a big week for Bregman so far. On Monday he was named the Astros Minor League Player of the Year and last night he kept a rally going by driving in the game tying run as part of a 6 run rally in the 6th inning. Bregman has been out for the last two weeks with a pulled hamstring and after he got his hit backup catcher Max Stassi was brought in to pinch run for him. Bregman could DH but he's have to run the bases if he did and there may be some question over whether he is ready to do that. Maybe the Astros will say, "What the hell." and play him knowing he's got the whole offseason to recover if he reinjures the hammy. Whatever slim playoff hopes Houston has depends on them scoring runs and an extra quality batter in the lineup would go a long way toward any last minute push the Astros may make.

Today long time Astros TV play by play man Bill Brown will be hanging it up today after his final broadcast in Houston's final home game of the 2016 regular season this afternoon. It's likely to be quite a sentimental day for everyone and to add to the festivities today is also fan appreciation day. I hope you got your DVR set to record this game for all these reasons plus Houston is still fighting for a Wild Card spot in the playoffs so there ought to be a huge buzz in the stadium today. In the final home game of the season Houston will send Doug Fister (12-12) to the mound as the Mariners counter with James Paxton (5-7). After a rough two months of mostly forgettable outings Fister pitched 5 really good innings in his last start. AJ Hinch didn't want to tempt fate of mess with whatever confidence Fister developed after his 5 innings so Hinch pulled him after throwing just 75 pitches. That was last Friday against the Angels. Unfortunately, Hinch pulled Fister prior to a big 5 run rally in the bottom of the 6th inning so it robbed Fister of a win opportunity. As it turned out Ken Giles had the meltdown of all meltdowns in the 9th inning allowing the Angels to score 6 runs in the frame allowing the Angels a big comeback win over Houston so the whole pulling Fister too early debate became a moot point. Don't mistake a bit of optimism about Fister pitching today with any semblance of hope over Houston's playoff chances. I told you, those feelings are dead and buried. At any rate the game begins at 1:10 CDT this afternoon. Just in case you want to go or tune in. Because I know you don't care ----- or hope Houston could still make the playoffs -------- or want see Houston finish the season on a high note --------- or whatever crazy, foolish, silly reason you can think of to want to see this game.

[eagle eye]

Crazy, foolish, silly. That's the emotions that can be the only explanation for holding out hope that this team would step up and actually be clutch. The Astros were doomed less than 10 minutes into the game last night when Doug Fister did his best impression of a no talent hack giving up a 3 run home run to Robinson Cano. It was bad enough Fister allowed the first two batters on base but the most lethal Astros killer since Albert Pujols should never see a strike, he should not be allowed to hit, period. They ought to treat Cano like Barry Bonds and just walk him. I know that Nelson Cruz is a good hitter but Houston actually can get that guy out once in a while. The game sort of went downhill after Cano's homer. Fister managed to get one out in the 2nd inning before allowing 2 more runs to score giving the Mariners a 6-0 in the 2nd inning. Fister got the hook after 1.1 innings giving up 5 runs on 5 hits, a walk and 2 K's. Kevin Chapman came in a sucked, just not as much as Fister, lasting just 1.2 innings allowing 4 hits and 2 more runs making the score 7-0 after only 3 innings. Amazingly, Tony Sipp pitched well coming into the game in the 4th inning. He lasted 2 full innings, didn't allow a hit and gave up just one walk and, most importantly, he didn't allow a run to score. James Hoyt followed Sipp and the runs started coming again as he allowed a run in 1.1 innings. Next up was Will Harris who kept the batting practice going for Seattle as he lasted just 2/3 of an inning allowing yet another run. Houston had allowed 9 runs in seven innings but they managed to score a little bit too. The Astros got a run in the run in the 3rd on a George Springer HR and two more in the 5th and their last run of the night came on a solo HR by Evan Gattis that made the score 7-4 at the time. The stage was set for a miraculous comeback by Houston but it wasn't to be. The bullpen just would not allow the team such heroics. Pat Neshak came on in the 8th and by the time he walked off the mound at the end of the M's half of the inning the score had ballooned to 12-4 as Neshak allowed 3 hits, including a 3 run homer to Kyle Seager, 2 BB's and a 2 K's. The Astros were a beaten team by then and offered little resistance in the 8th and 9th innings. The final score was Seattle 12 and Houston 4 in one of the most gutless and futile homestands in Astros history. What's even more galling is Houston is still mathematically alive for the 2nd Wild Card, barely. The only chance Houston has is if Baltimore, Detroit and Seattle all lose every game they have left and Houston wins out in Los Angeles against the Angels. Pfffft, yeah right, THAT'S going to happen and pigs are going to fly out of my butt. The Astros went 2-5 in the most critical home stand of the season and they never stepped up and took the bull by the horns and did their job. The lion's share of the blame falls right on the Astros pitching, mainly the relievers who gave up leads and wins like nobody's business. It was like deja vu watching the bullpen melt down just like they did in September of 2015 when they lost a big division lead and had to fight tooth and nail just to get a Wild Card spot in the playoffs. Houston had some decent offense then but the hitters are a big part of the problem too but it's still on the bullpen and the starting pitching which was, at best, shaky the past month. And goodness knows what the hell is the deal with Doug Fister. At one point he was the ace of the starting rotation, and that was before Dallas Keuchel was lost for the rest of the season with left shoulder inflammation, but since the All Star break he has been a momentum killer dragging the team down with poor start after poor start. It's hard to imagine how a guy can be so good for half the season and then turn it around and be so gawd awful that you dread his next start. Thank goodness the Astros close out the series on the road in Los Angeles because Houston shouldn't be subjected to shit like we saw over the last 7 games. Get this, if Houston goes 5-2 instead of 2-5 the extra 3 games would have Houston right on the doorstep of the playoffs. Think about it for a moment, if Houston wins 3 more games their record would be 86-73 just one half game behind Baltimore in the Wild Card race. They would have leapfrogged both the Tigers and the Mariners and they would be tied for the 2nd WC if Baltimore where to lose to Toronto tonight. You see what big of a bunch of chokers the Astros are? Earlier this week I wrote about how big a difference having a reliable closer would have meant to Houston and today I show you what your eyes told you, the bullpen as a whole sucked in the past week. I think AJ Hinch was so fed up with the regular bullpen cast of clowns he sent in a guy I have never heard of to pitch the 9th inning. You know what? The kid, Brady Rodgers who had only had 3 previous appearances and sporting a 24.55 ERA going into the inning, got the Mariners out facing just four batters. He even got Robinson Cano out to end the inning. Go figure.

The real kicker of the night was that it was fan appreciation night at Minute Maid Park and it was the last game called by TV play by play man Bill Brown. Nice was to show your appreciation guys. Vic Scully's last home broadcast was this past Sunday and the Dodgers were losing 3-2 to the San Diego Padres in the bottom of the 9th when Corey Seager came to the plate and knocked a home run into the right field seats, not far from where Kirk Gibson hit a walk off HR in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, to tie the game. This came with 2 outs in the inning. In the bottom of the 10th Charlie Culbertson came to the plate and I'll let Mr Scully take it from here, “0 and 1 to Charlie. Swung on, a high flyball to deep left field. The Dodgers’ bench empties. Would you believe a home run? And the Dodgers have clinched the division and will celebrate on schedule. What a moment to have, and would you believe, his first . . . home . . . run . . . of . . . the . . . year.” Of course in the shadow of Hollywood you know Scully would end his 67 years as a Dodgers broadcaster in storybook fashion in his last home broadcast in his life. What made it even more cool was, in tribute to Scully, the grounds crew had his first name chalked along both baselines and after the game winning hit the players who gathered on the field to greet Culbertson as he crossed home plate to celebrate that division clinching win the players all turned and doffed their caps to Scully in the TV booth. Frigging perfect. The Astros had no such drama and no storybook end to Bill Brown's career. Nothing, nada, bupkis. It was cool that during the game they played a recorded message from Vin Scully congratulating Brownie on his career and his retirement. It could have been storybook. The stage was set. In contention for a Wild Card spot, at home against one of their rivals for that WC spot. Visits by Craig Biggio in the booth and a ton of Astros memories all called by Brown during his 30 years as the Astros play by play man. Even the howdy from Vin Scully. The stage was certainly set and the Astros went out and shat all over the whole occasion. Brownie deserved much better for his farewell game.

[eagle eye]

The mystery and the misery is over folks. Baltimore snuffed out Houston's chance of making the playoffs last night with a win over the Toronto Blue Jays. Houston is officially mathematically eliminated by virtue of being 4 games behind Baltimore with 3 games to play. There is nothing short of alien abduction of 3 of the 4 teams currently ahead of Houston in the standings that will get them into the post season. Houston was off last night as they prepare to play their final series of the season in LA against the Angels beginning tonight. Here's the current breakdown of the Wild Card race as it stands with everyone but Detroit having 3 games left. Detroit still has four games because the series finale against Cleveland was rained out last night.

WC 1 / WC 2 - There is a tie between Toronto and Baltimore for the Wild Cards. Both are 87-72 on the season. Baltimore completes their 3 games of the regular season against the Yankees in New York while Toronto finishes up with Boston in Boston.

Next in line - Detroit with a record of 85-73 - 1.5 games back of Baltimore and Toronto. Detroit finishes up with Atlanta and depending on how the weekend goes they might have to make up the game with Cleveland.
Next in line - Seattle with a record of 85-74 - 2 games back. Seattle finishes the season with 3 more games against Oakland at home in Seattle. Seattle won the first of 4 against the A's last night by a score of 3-2.

So, mathematically, the Tigers and Mariners still have a shot. If Baltimore and/or Toronto should stumble this weekend it could open the door for the Tigers and Mariners to waltz right in and take their place. It looks like this AL Wild Card race is going down to the wire, it's a shame Houston played themselves out of contention or they'd be in the mix too.

If anyone cares Houston was next in succession after the Mariners with an 83-76 record. They are tied with the Yankees but they won't have the same opportunity the Bronx Bombers have to play the role of spoiler as they finish the season with Baltimore and they could just ruin the Orioles playoff chances and I'm sure they will be trying to do just that. With Houston playing the Angels all they could spoil is the Angels final 3 games with a win but of course the Angels will be trying to do the same to Houston. As a matter of fact the Angels already played the role of spoilers when they destroyed Houston in 3 of 4 games last weekend in Houston. It doesn't matter though because Houston didn't deserve to be in the playoffs. They played like losers over the last month in general and the last two weeks in particular and even though they remained in contention they, and everyone else, knew they didn't deserve a seat at the big boy table.

What this all means for Houston is the pressure is completely off so they might play like they haven't a care in the world which usually means a team will play well when any and all pressure is off their backs. I wouldn't be surprised if Houston doesn't take a 'what the f**k' attitude to California and sweep the series against the Angels. That's how this stuff usually works. Or, it could go the other way as they take that same attitude and play like crap and get swept themselves. At this point it doesn't really matter except...........

Jose Altuve probably has a lock on his second AL Batting Title in 3 years. He is currently hitting .337 with his closest contenders, both from Boston, Joey Votto at .320 and Dustin Pedroia at .319. I can't imagine a 17 or 18 point swing in just 3 games but this has been an improbable year so I'm not counting Altuve chickens just yet.

WTF happened with Colby Rasmus? The guy has fallen off the face of the baseball earth. A couple of weeks ago he returned to action after being off for about 3 weeks after having a cyst removed from his inner ear. He homered in his first AB coming off the DL and then didn't do squat after that. In a series in Oakland that ended on September 21st Rasmus said he was ''taking a little breather'' because he "....just wasn't feeling like myself in the field.'' It could be Colby saw the handwriting on the wall as his one year deal worth $15.8MM is coming to a close and because he played like crap this season he knows he won't be coming back to the Astros in 2017. It's too bad, I like Rasmus. In 2015 he was a much better hitter and he has always played good defense. I don't know what the vibe was in the clubhouse this season but it wasn't like last year. The team seemed less tight and together this season. Every year is different and this year certainly was. As it stands, Rasmus has not even traveled to LA with the team for the final series. I think it is safe to say we will not see him in an Astros uniform again.

Brad Peacock gets the start tonight in LA. Peacock is 0-0 with 2.67 ERA in limited action since being called up back in early August. I have to say that what I knew of Peacock in past seasons was not what he was in 2016. He has lost a lot of weight and he is pitching much better meaning he's consistent with his stuff now. He made 5 relief appearances in August with varying degrees of success but no team ever got more than one run against him. In 7 innings pitched he had an ERA of 3.86 but by and large he did his job. In September the Astros started using him as a starter beginning on the 6th when he went 3.2 innings against Cleveland. He had thrown about 50 pitches and he was pulled because AJ Hinch knew Peacock hadn't been a starter and wasn't used to throwing multiple innings. Houston won the game 4-3. His next start was the 13th at home against Texas. Peacock went 6 innings allowing just one run. Ken Giles gave up two runs in the top of the ninth to blow a 2-1 lead which ended up a 3-2 heartbreaking loss. On September 19 Peacock faced the A's in Oakland and he went 5.2 innings allowing two runs on 3 hits with 2 BBs and 2 Ks. Houston won 4-2 but Peacock did not factor in the decision. His last start was last Saturday against the Angels. In 5 innings of work he gave up one run on 1 hit with 2 BBs and 7 Ks. Again, he got a no-decision because the bullpen had a total and complete meltdown and blew a 4-3 lead and ending up losing 10-4. In 4 starts in September he pitched 20 innings allowing just 5 runs with a 2.24 ERA. He should have had 3 wins but because the bullpen had done its September crash and burn routine he got 4 no-decisions instead. Except for Collin McHugh Peacock was the best pitcher the Astros used as a starter in September. It's a real kick in the pants for me because I've been mad at Houston and Brad Peacock ever since the Astros traded away P Jarred Cosart to Miami and kept Peacock. That trade was made worse since Peacock has done nothing for Houston since until this September. To be fair, Peacock has had to deal with some arm issues including some surgeries and also Cosart hasn't been what he looked like he was going to be when he was with the Astros. Peacock has been in the Astros organization since 2012 so it's about time the Astros got some benefit out of him. Hopefully, he will continue his good pitching and get a long overdue win tonight in his second start against the Angels.

[eagle eye]

The Astros appeared to have given up last night beginning with P Brad Peacock. He had pitched well but, because I made the mistake of praising him, he was just terrible last night against the Angels. Peacock struggled through the 1st inning but he managed to escape without allowing a run but it was a different story in the 2nd. In the top of the inning Houston managed a run to take a 1-0 lead but in the bottom of the inning the Angels scored 4 runs to pretty much bury the Astros. They looked lackluster, they played lackluster and they ended up on the wrong end of a lackluster score. You just knew things were about to go bad with the Angels lead off man in the inning, Andrelton Simmons a right handed batter hit a ball to right that substitute OF Teoscar Hernandez misplayed for a two base error giving the Angels a man on second base with nobody out. Peacock ended up giving up all 7 Angels runs in 4.2 innings of work. The Astros offense was a limp noodle, embarrassing really.

So, here is the latest standings for the Wild Card spots. BTW the Rangers won last night and they clinched home field advantage through the AL playoffs. Whoop-dee-do. I'm so happy for the stupid Rangers.

Baltimore took the lead for the #1 WC with a win last night and a Toronto loss. But, the Orioles lost this afternoon to the Yankees so the have a 1/2 game lead on Toronto for the top WC spot
with an 88-73 record.
Toronto lost to Boston last night but they play Game 2 of their series with the Bosox tonight. They are 1/2 game back of Baltimore but they could be tied with them if they win. The Blue Jays record is now. 87-73.

The next in line chasing the O's and Jays is 86-73 with a game against Atlanta tonight. They beat the Braves last night to keep the pressure on the top two teams. They are 1/2 game back of Toronto prior to tonight's games.

Seattle is the last team who is chasing a WC spot. They are 85-74 and 2 games back of Toronto. They are kept pace with the leaders by virtue of a win last night over the A's. The M's are hanging by a thread and a win by Toronto and a loss by Seattle and their playoff hopes are over.

A loss by Toronto and a win by Detroit will make things very interesting. Earlier in the week Detroit had a rainout in their series finale against Cleveland and if it comes down to a tie with either Toronto or Baltimore Detroit will need to make up that game.

[eagle eye]

The Astros beat the Angels on Saturday just to show they could and they pretty much went through the motions of the game yesterday. So did the Angels but their motions were better than Houston's as the Astros fell in the season finale 8-1. I am recapping September which includes the two games in October since it's only two games and, well, the season is over. Houston went 13-16 in the final month which just speaks to just how frustrating this team was during the year. Jose Altuve tumbled from a season high .366 BA early in the month to what he ended up with at .338. Altuve did win his second AL batting title and he also logged the most hits in the AL with 216 for the year. It's sort of weird but Miguel Cabrera won the AL batting title in 2015 with a .338 BA. Losing 28 points on his average in September likely cost Altuve serious consideration for MVP. It would be hard to vote against Boston's Big Poppi David Ortiz because if he really does retire he had one of the best seasons ever. Congrats to Altuve and I hope this means he wins the Sliver Slugger Award even though Seattle's Robinson Cano and Texas' Redneck Oh-der had a lot of homers and overall good seasons. I'm okay if Cano beats out Altuve for the SS Award but it will literally puke if Oh-der wins. For the second season in a row September swoon is the exact way to describe what happened to Houston the last seasons. I cannot explain it and they would be hard pressed to explain what the heck happened to this team. After a really awful April Houston came storming back and they scratched and clawed their way out of being 10 games under .500 to get right back into contention for the AL West lead. Houston actually got to 10 games over .500 3 separate times over the summer and every single time they went into a debilitating slump. The last time they were +10 was early this month and they fell off the face of the earth losing all but 4 series in the month and one of the 4 was a split of a four game series. The Texas Rangers owned the Astros and it seemed every time Houston got close they had a series with Texas that they lost. As a matter of fact they lost every series they played with the Rangers owning a 15-4 record against Houston for the season. It didn't help matters at all that Houston lost arguably their best two starters, Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers in August. Keuchel went out with shoulder inflammation in late August and he was never able to come back. The Astros may have been holding out hope Keuchel could come back during the season but with the season over if he needs surgery they should just get it over with as soon as possible. Surgery is what I'm scared of for Lance McCullers. McCullers left the game on August 5th with elbow pain and Houston has spent the past two months trying to rehab the deal. He was at a point where, if Houston had made the playoffs, he could have been available. We all know a pitcher with elbow pain the next step more often than not is Tommy John surgery. That's may fear for McCullers right now because it takes a full year to rehab after that surgery. If McCullers needs to be cut on it's a lead pipe cinch he will miss the 2017 season.

As for the Wild Card, the Blue Jays beat Boston yesterday and Detroit lost to Atlanta so Toronto and Baltimore are the Wild Cards and they play their one game playoff will be in Toronto tomorrow. Both Baltimore and Toronto won yesterday and they finished the season with identical 89-73 records. The Blue Jays hold the tie breaker over Baltimore so they will host the one game WC playoff.

The Wild Cards for the NL are the New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants. Ironically enough the NL Wild Cards ended up tied for the season like their AL counterparts. The Mets and Giants ended up with a final tally of 87-75 for the season but the Mets own the tie breaker and will host that game on Wednesday assuming Hurricane Matthew doesn't throw a monkey in that wrench.

I will profile the team over the next few days and I will keep up with the playoffs but honestly my interest in baseball going forward is pretty low. I know that the Astros and their fans are all disappointed in the outcome of this season. There should be brighter days ahead but you hope that they can turn their September fortunes around going forward. Look 84-78 isn't bad. It's just two games less than last season and early season speculation was it would take more than 86 games to make the playoffs this season. The speculation was right 86 games wasn't enough, 89 was.

[eagle eye]

The first place you go to is the front office of a franchise. It all starts with them, the GM in particular because he sets the standard and develops the plan to stock the team with the right coaches and players so the franchise has success.
On the one hand you have to applaud for the myriad number of moves that restocked and rebuild the talent quality of the team from the lowest level of the minor leagues to the big league club. Jeff Luhnow did such a good job rebuilding a team that torn to shreds by Tim Purpura after he took over for the highly successful Gerry Hunsicker after Hunsicker was fired over differences with owner Drayton McClain. Purpura traded away the Astros future by signing big name players who were basically over the hill in an effort to win a World Series. That plan worked as Houston made their first WS in 2005, Purpura's first season as GM, but it was at the expense of the franchise's future and Houston suffered it's first 100 loss season in franchise history in 2011. As a result when Drayton McClain sold the Astros to new owner Jim Crane who fired Purpura and hired Luhnow as the new GM. Houston had to endure 2 more consecutive 100 loss seasons in 2012 and 2013 before the rewards of Luhnow's rebuilding plan started to pay dividends. In 2014 the Astros had their first non 100 loss season going 70-92 which was a 19 game improvement over 2013. Houston continued their climb back to respectability in 2015 by having the #1 minor league system in baseball and improving by 16 games over 2014 and winning the AL 2nd Wild Card spot and actually beating the Yankees in the WC playoff game in New York. 2015 ended with a blown opportunity to close the Division series against eventual World Series champions the Kansas City Royals. Houston had a 4 run lead with 2 innings left to play. The Royals only needed the 8th inning to erase the lead and they ended up beating Houston 9-6 and evening the series at 2 games apiece. The bullpen meltdown in that game carried over into the 2016 season as Houston had a dismal April after winning the opening game of the season against the Yankees and eventually falling 10 games under .500. In 2015 Houston led the majors in home runs for most of the season and they also were among the top teams with the most strike outs. Luhnow is responsible for attaining Carlos Correa, George Springer, Lance McCullers, Dallas Keuchel and many other players who have meant so much to Houston's climb back to respectability. But, he has made some boner moves as well with the most egregious moves coming this summer at the trade deadline. First, Luhnow traded P Scott Feldman to the Rangers, the Astros most bitter rivals, which had many heads scratched as they wondered why the Astros GM would make a deal that made a division rival better. The other move that made no sense was the fact that he made no deals at all to acquire players to help improve the club for a playoff run. No moves at all. None. Nada. Zero. In a recent article on Astros.com Luhnow admitted that he could have done more at the trade deadline. Yeah, ya think so, genius? He's also made some deals that were confusing. Back in December of 2015 he traded 2014 #1 pick in the draft P Mark Appel and 2 other top pitching prospects and an infielder to Philadelphia for Ken Giles and another infielder. Appel has done nothing for Philly as he landed on IR this season with shoulder and elbow issues but Giles has not been a big help to Houston either as he's taken a propensity to allow runs when he pitched and turned them into 5 blown saves in 20 opportunities not to mention a 2-5 record as a reliever on the season. Every move Luhnow has made isn't golden. Like last summer at the trade deadline Luhnow traded his best hitting prospect Brett Phillips along with 3 other prospects to Milwaukee for Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers. If Mike Fiers hadn't worked out the whole deal would have been a bust. I never liked Gomez as a player and he under performed to the extent that Houston released him this past summer because he just sucked. As luck would have it the stupid Rangers signed him and they got some production out of him. I was always told that one 'ah shit' cancels out a whole bunch of 'attaboys' and this is sort of the case. Luhnow has whiffed on in the past year on pretty much all of his deals and he needs to get back on a roll. It looked for a long time that Luhnow was in the same conversation as former Boston and current Chicago Cubs President Theo Epstein who turned around the Bosox and led them to their first World Series wins in 86 years prior to 2004 breaking the infamous Curse of the Bambino that started in 1918 when Babe Ruth was traded by Boston to New York. Epstein left Boston in 2011 for Chicago and he has built that franchise in the best in the National League and a favorite to win the 2016 World Series. Luhnow was there last year when Houston was touted as the 2017 World Series champions based on the rich and deep farm system Luhnow had built and the fact they even made the playoffs last year. Since the 2015 offseason his moves have been questionable at best and there are areas of weakness that need to be filled if Houston is to overcome the Rangers and return to the playoffs in 2017. It was announced on Monday that the Astros will be returning the entire current coaching staff next season which is something I have a big, big problem with. But, that is for another day. As for Luhnow?

2016 Grade - D

[eagle eye]

Houston has talent. Some of that talent is raw to be sure but there is some good clay to work with. Troulble is, I don't have a lot of confidence in the current coaching staff to mold the team into winners.
AJ Hinch - decent job of managing and it's not his fault the players didn't get it done this past season. I think Hinch depends way too much on baseball cliches like lefty v righty, righty vs lefty pitching matchups ignoring the hot hand. It's just some little things that annoy me that make me distrustful of his managing style. 2016 Grade -- C
Brent Strom - Strom has been around the MLB block a time or two. He had a five year big league career as a pitcher from 1972 to 1977. Strom wasn't a very good player but he has spent the last 38 years as a baseball coach in the minors and the major league level. You would have thought he could've done a better job with the staff the last couple of years Dallas Keuchel not withstanding.
2016 Grade -- C
Dave Hudgens - you all know how I feel about this guy, I think he stinks. Since he became hitting coach when A J Hinch became the Astros manager prior to last season the Astros team batting average hasn't improved much and overall the hitters in the lineup have hit well below their career average. I think the guy sucks at his job and I'm sorry he's still employed by the Astros.
2016 Grade - F
Gary Pettit - maybe the worst 3rd base coach ever. He takes aggressive base running to new levels of stupid. He is constantly getting runners thrown out at home because he just can't seem to coalesce arm strength vs foot speed.
2016 Grade - D-

Overall grade of the Astros coaching staff in 2016. -- D

The Blue Jays beat Baltimore on Tuesday night to advance to the AL Divisional series against the Rangers tonight. I hate to have to say this but, "Go Jays!"

Last night the Giants and Mets played 8 innings of shutout ball. If you like pitchers duels last night was your night. Madison Baumgarner went up against the Mets fireballer Noah Syndergaard and they took turns mowing down each other's batters for seven innings. The Mets brought in Addison Reed in the 8th and he and Baumgarner kept the game scoreless so it all came down to the ninth inning. The Mets brought in Jeurys Familia and he could not carry on the Mets side of the shutout. After a lead off double, a K and a walk the fatal blow of the game came off the bat of the Giants 8th hole hitter, Conor Gillaspie who jacked a 3 run homer to break the tie to give the Giants a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the 9th. It also meant the Mets were going to face Baumgarner one last time. Baumgarner finished off the Mets with a 1-2-3 ninth to earn a complete game shutout for the Giants. When Baumgarner gets to the playoffs he nothing but money and his post season stats are just sick. In four different post season campaigns he is 8-3 in 15 appearances with a 1.94 ERA and opposing hitters are hitting just .194 against him. He has helped the Giants win 3 World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014. He was named 2014 WS MVP after going 2-0 with 1 save with a 0.43 ERA. He pitched 5 scoreless innings in a relief role in Game 7 just 2 days after pitching a complete game 4 hit shutout victory in Game 5. With the Giants WS wins in even years (2010, 12, 14) they are dark horse favorites to win it all again this year. The Giants wil face the NL best Chicago Cubs on Friday.

The Rangers host Toronto tonight in Game 1 of their series and Boston plays Cleveland in tonight's second ALDS game.

The NLDS doesn't begin until Saturday when the Nationals host the Dodgers in the first game and the Giants and Cubs go in the nightcap. Friday will be a very busy day in baseball as both ALDS Game 2's will also be played Friday.

[eagle eye]

Cleveland beat Boston in Game 1 of their ALDS series by a score of 5-4. Good game with the home team getting the win.
The other ALDS game took place in Arlington with the Rangers going through the game half asleep especially Rangers ace Cole Hamels who never made it past the 4th inning. To be exact he went 3.1 innings giving up 7 runs on 6 hits with 3 BB's and just one K. The first two innings were fine as the Rays entered the top of the 5th in a scoreless tie. By the time their half of the inning was over it was 5 zip and the game was, for all intents and purposes, over.
Game 2 of both ALDS series will be today as is both Game 1's of the NLDS series will also be played.

Astros News: The Baseball Writers Association of America Houston Chapter voted 2B Jose Altuve the Astros MVP. It is the 3rd time in 4 years for Altuve to win this award. P Chris Devenski was awarded both Pitcher of the Year and Rookie of the Year for his stellar work out of the bullpen. P Clinton McHugh was awarded the Darrell Kile Award for being the most affable to teammates, fans and the media. Basically he is the Astros "Miss Congeniality".

Tomorrow I'll begin looking at the Astros roster starting with the pitchers.

[eagle eye]

The baseball playoffs are under way so here's a recap of what's taken place so far.

ALDS
Toronto vs Texas - Toronto up 2-0 after sweeping both games in Arlington. This put Texas in a deep hole with Toronto needing a win in one of the next 3 games in the best of 5 series. The series resumes with Game 3 in Toronto tomorrow night.

Boston vs Cleveland - This series has been one sided too but it was the home team Indians that has done the dominating winning Games 1 and 2 easily. Game 2 was a 6-0 shutout with Cleveland's Cory Kluber besting Boston's David Price. Game 3 is in Boston, weather permitting, tomorrow afternoon.

NLDS
Giants vs Cubs - The series began last night with a really awesome game, assuming you like pitcher's duels, with a 1-0 win by the Cubs who took a 1 game to none lead on LA. Johnny Cueto went 7 shutout innings before allowing a single run in the 8th. The Cubs Jon Lester also went 8 innings and he didn't allow a run in his time on the mound. Aroldis Chapman came in a got the save for Cubs. A really hard luck loss for the Giants. Game 2 is tonight with the Giants sending Jeff Samardzija to the hill while the Cubs counter with Kyle Hendricks.

Dodgers vs Nationals - The series began last night with a 4-3 Dodgers win with the Dodgers Clayton Kershaw and the bullpen proved just a skosh better than Max Scherzer and the Nats bullpen allowing the Dodgers to take a 1-0 series lead on the road. Game 2 has been postponed due to Hurricane Matthew. Ol' Matt has had a big effect on the games taking place on the east coast today including the postponement of the LSU-Florida game.
.
11 people have died as a result of this storm with around a million and a half people without electricity. We should all keep all those people in our thoughts and prayers as the storm is not nearly done wreaking havoc along the eastern seaboard of our country. With Hurricanes Rita and Ike still fresh in our memories we understand what these folks are going through.

I have decided not to worry about evaluating the Astros lineup. You saw what I saw and you know what Houston needs to get better. It may be helpful to see who likely won't be back next year as Houston continues to integrate their home grown players into the roster and say goodbye to some vets who likely won't be resigned going into the 2017 season.

Luis Valbuena - we all bashed this guy when he was on the field playing but how many of you were wishing we had him back after he was out for the season with the mother of all hamstring injuries. Houston missed his 20+ home runs and 60 or so RBI's. The success of Alex Bregman and the signing of Yuli Gurriel has made Valbuena expendable. He could come back as a 1st baseman because of failures of 2016 call ups Tyler White and AJ Reed.

Jason Castro - Castro was the Astros first round pick, 10th overall, in the 2008 draft. He spent the first few years of his career sidelined by injuries but he came back and had he best season as a pro in 2013 when he made the All Star game and he hit .276 on the season. He hit .257 in 2012 but otherwise he hasn't hit more than .222 in any other season. Last season he hit .210 with 11 HR's and 32 RBI's. He did have 45 walks but countering that he had 123 K's. During the season Evan Gattis showed he was as good as, if not better, as a defensive catcher and he hit 40 points higher than Castro. Evan Castro knows he's done in Houston as he's talked about how he enjoyed his time with the Astros in a late season interview. Houston can go younger and cheaper with a prospect or a free agent.

Colby Rasmus - Colby is a fan favorite but the heroics he showed in 2015 never materialized in 2016. In fact after the All Star break he fell completely off the map missing 3 weeks of time after having a cyst removed from his inner ear. That was after he went 1-62 in July at the plate. After he came back from his surgery hit a home run in his first AB and it gave you hope that he was truly back but he flat stunk at the plate and it's not really clear if he benched himself or was benched by AJ Hinch but when a series against Oakland came up with a lot of right hand pitchers Rasmus was not in any of the games at all. The Astros final road trip to close out the season Rasmus didn't make the trip. You might think there was a serious rift between Rasmus and Hinch. We may never know but I'll bet the farm Rasmus is not with the Astros next year.

Doug Fister - Fister was the ace of the Astros staff in the first 2-1/2 months of 2016 then he just fell off the table. Since the 1st of July he went 4-9 and he was without a win in September going 0-4. It wasn't all his fault because the bullpen had something to do with that. He went 12-13 on the season after starting out 8-3. With the projected return of Dallas Keuchel, Lance McCullers and the emergence of Joe Musgrove there just may be no room at the inn for Fister next season. Especially if he's going to suck.

[eagle eye]

The playoffs were rained out yesterday in Boston, Chicago and Washington and I'll bet the Rangers wish the Toronto Blue Jays didn't have a domed stadium because, even though it took Toronto 10 innings to get it done, the Rangers season came to an end for the 2nd year in a row in Toronto as the Jays pulled out the brooms and swept the Rangers in 3 straight. The final score of 7-6 came on a fielder's choice with one out in the bottom of the 10th and men on 1st and 2nd. Russell Martin of the Jays came up and had a really good at-bat before grounding to the hole to the right of Rangers SS Elvis Andrus who began a potentially inning ending double play but Redneck Oh-der failed to turn the twin killing. In fact Oh-der's throw was to the right of Rangers 1B Mitch Moreland. Moreland managed to knock the throw down but it bounced far enough away that Josh Donaldson, who was on 2nd after a leadoff double to start the inning, broke for home and made it just ahead of the throw for a walkoff fielder's choice/error on Oh-der. I'm glad the Rangers are done and I'm glad it was a major ass hat like Oh-der who made the error that allowed the game winning run to score. Life is good, it would be great if only the Texans could figure out how to play better on the road.

Game 3 of the other series will be played today weather permitting. The Redsox are down 2-0 and face elimination while the NLDS games all have a ways to go. I can relax and watch the playoffs and just enjoy the baseball. The only thing is I sort of wish either the Cubs or Indians win the whole thing but not at the expense of the other. Chicago has waited the longest so maybe this really is their year.

[eagle eye]

Did I mention I was happy? You know, about the Rangers getting bounced from the playoffs? I'm sure I did.
The rest of the playoffs resumed yesterday with the Dodgers-Nationals and Cubs-Giants in both NLDS games as well as what turned out to be the final game of the Boston-Cleveland ALDS series with Cleveland pulling out the broom on Boston with a 4-3 win. Both ALDS series were won in sweeps so Cleveland will be facing Toronto in the ALCS final beginning Friday.
The NLDS tilt between the Nationals and Dodgers was a fairly one sided affair with the Nats winning 8-3 in the first game played yesterday. The Nationals lead the series now 2 games to 1 with the next game scheduled for tonight.
The other NLDS game between the Giants and Cubs was the final game of the day yesterday and the outcome was still in question when I went to bed as the game didn't begin until 8:30. It also featured probably the most celebrated pitching match up in any series so far, even better than the Kershaw-Scherzer Game 1 in the Dodgers-Nationals series. Unlike that pitcher's duel last night's game that featured the Giants Madison Baumgarner and the Cubs Jake Arieta was not the same. Neither pitcher figured in the outcome of the game which turned out to be a series saving win for the Giants who beat the Cubs to stave off elimination with a 6-5 win in the first game played in San Francisco. That doesn't mean the game wasn't an exciting one as it took 13 innings and two blown saves, one by each team before the final outcome was reached. In the bottom of the 13th the Giants ended things abruptly with back to back doubles to lead off the inning the second 2 bagger by Joe Panik (great name and totally ironic to the situation) off Cubs reliever Mike Montgomery, was the game winner. The series continues in San Fran tonight with the Cubs sending Jon Lackey to the mound facing off against the Giants Matt Moore.

[eagle eye]

I feel like this thread should have come to an end about a week ago. So I am making my final post in this thread. This season has had its moments but by and large it was basically 6 months of frustration with no payoff in the end. Basically, Astros fans are the Amy Farrah Fowler of the sports world. Farewell 2016 regular season and don't come back.