Houston Astros 2018 Season

[eagle eye]

I was shocked, almost dumbfounded when I saw opening day for our Astros was last Thursday. I was in the Haufbrauhaus restaurant with friends from work in Pittsburgh PA waiting on a table and on the TV was ESPN's coverage of opening day and the Astros were beating the Texas Rangers 4-0 in the 8th inning! The game must have started around 3 because it was about 6 PM when we were at the restaurant. The Astros closed out their opening day win led by Justin Verlander's 6 shutout innings and George Springer's home run to lead off the game. I should say Springer's historic lead off homer because it was the first time ever in MLB history that a player led off opening day with a HR in back to back seasons. The blemish on the day was Ken Giles allowing a run in the bottom of the 9th to ruin the shutout. With 2 out and a man on third Giles uncorked a 46 foot oops that got away from C Brian McCann allowing the Rangers to score their only run of the game.
Game 2 was Friday and Dallas Keuchel did okay but he is typically tough on left handed hitters but on last Friday he couldn't work his magic allowing 3 runs on 7 hits and a walk in 6 innings of work. Joe Smith came on in the 7th and he struggled as well allowing 2 runs on 2 hits in his Astros debut. Houston also had chances to help Keuchel out but they were 1-9 with runners in scoring position and they stranded 8 as they helped the Rangers defense by hitting into 3 double plays on the way to a 5-1 loss.
Game 3 was Saturday evening and Lance McCullers got the ball. All he did was strike out 10 men while allowing 2 runs on 4 hits with 1 walk on the way to his first win of the season as he pitched 5.1 innings leading Houston to a comfortable 9-3 win. It was comfortable because Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa both had 4-hit games as the Houston offense cruised through the Rangers pitching. Jake Marisnick is a new weapon in the house as he got a solo home run on opening day and he hit another HR in Game 3, a 2-run shot that gave Houston an early 3-0 lead. That would be all McCullers would need.
Game 4 was the piece de resistance as Houston closed out the Rangers to win the opening series of the season with an 8-2 victory behind stellar pitching from their newest starter, Gerrit Cole. Cole struck out 11 in 7 innings of work. He did allow 1 run on 2 hits and 3 walks but it was all good as the Rangers never really had a chance on Easter Sunday to get anything going. Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve went to work again combining for 5 hits, 2 RBI's and 4 runs scored to lead the Astros offense. They were joined by Evan Gattis who went 3-4 with a walk, 3 RBI's and 2 runs scored.
A great way to begin the season and today will be the Astros home opening series against the Baltimore Orioles. The first two games are dedicated to honoring the team for their first World Series title last fall and my son and I will be there this evening for all the festivities! Charlie Morton, the Game 7 World Series hero, gets his first start of the season as Baltimore will send Chris Tillman to the hill. First pitch is 6:10 PM so be there or be square. I do not intend to be square!!!

[eagle eye]

So far the 2018 season is going according to plan. They are the best team record-wise in the American league sporting a 7-2 record second only to Boston (7-1) in all of the MLB.

The starting pitching has been really good with Dallas Keuchel being victimized by a total lack of run support in his 2 starts leaving him with a 0-1 record with a 3.27 ERA. The only disappointments so far would be from the bullpen. Joe Smith, acquired this offseason and a quality reliever over his career has given up 2 runs in 2 innings of work so far and he's dragging a 9.0 ERA around. It's just a small sample size and it's pretty easy for a reliever to turn stats around. It also seems that Ken Giles is having trouble shaking his bad 2017 postseason. He's made 4 appearances giving up 6 hits and 2 ER in just 3.2 innings of work. AJ Hinch pulled him in favor of Chris Devenski in yesterday's 10 inning win vs San Diego after just 2/3 of an inning in the 9th. Devo came in and pitched the final 1.1 innings getting the win after Alex Bregman knocked in the winning run in the bottom of the 10th on pop-up. That's right folks, a pop-up! It was a play straight out of pee-wee league as Brian McCann led off the inning with a single to right field he was replaced by Derek Fisher who pinch ran for him. With Jake Marisnick batting, Fisher stole 2nd base on a play that had to be reviewed by replay. The Padres got Marisnick and George Springer out with Fisher still on 2B. Alex Bregman was next up and he battled Padres reliever Phil Maton who came in to face Bregman. After battling to a full count in a 7 pitch contest Bregman chased a high pitch and popped it straight up no more than 20 feet from home plate in fair territory. Padres 1B Eric Hosmer coming on hard hoping from some help in locating the fly ball overran the play as the ball fell helplessly behind Hosmer and in from of Maton. Padres C AJ Ellis never made a move to come out from behind home plate. With 2 outs in the inning Derek Fisher was running on contact and he hauled ass! Fisher crossed home plate just about the time the pop-up fell to the ground for a walkoff win for Houston.

So far Houston is 2-0 in series and they are 1-1 in their 3-game series with San Diego. For some reason the bats have been noticeably silent in this series which is odd since San Diego is 2-7 on the season and that's about how good they truly are. Charlie Morton (1-0, 0.00 ERA) goes for Houston today in a little less than hour.

Has there been a better pick-up in free agency or trade than new Astros starter Gerrit Cole? So far in 2018, Cole is 1-0 with a 0.064 ERA. Not only that, he recorded 11 K's in his first two starts of the season which is a franchise record. He also has gone 7 innings in each of his first two starts giving up just one run in his first start last Sunday in Arlington vs the Rangers and 7 shutout innings yesterday vs the Padres. Of the 5 starters in the current rotation Cole has been the most dominant and most consistent pitcher in the rotation. Only Charlie Morton's 0.0 ERA is better than Cole's but Morton has one less start.

Go 'Stros!!!

[eagle eye]

So, who is this Charlie Morton guy other than Jimmy Fallon’s doppelgänger? This time last year he was where Gerrit Cole is now - the new kid on the block but he had his struggles. For the first half of the season he had trouble getting past the 4th or 5th inning. But, you knew he had good stuff. His 95-plus fastball and a nice array of pitches was there but there was something missing. He could go 3 scoreless but it seemed to all fall apart in either the 4th or 5th inning. By May 28 Morton had a 5-3 record with a 4.06 ERA in ten starts. Not terrible, I know, but the Astros offense and some good relief pitching made the problems look less concerning. Then, on May 28 Morton went on the 10-day DL with a right lat strain. It was a rough stretch for Astros starters as Dallas Keuchel, Collin McHugh, Lance McCullers and Morton all hit the DL about the same time. If not for Brad Peacock and Mike Fiers the Astros season may have derailed before the All Star break. After coming off the DL Morton had found himself. He finished the regular season 9-4 and his record for 2017 ended up 14-7 with a 3.62 ERA in 25 starts. Where Morton shone was in the postseason. In the ALCS Game 7 against the Yankees he started and went 5 innings of shutout ball allowing just 2 hits and a walk on the way to helping the Astros to their 2nd ever spot in the World Series. On October 28 Morton came into Game 4 going 6.1 innings leaving with a 1-0 lead only to see it blown by Will Harris who allowed a run in the 7th to tie the game at one. The Astros eventually lost to the Dodgers 6-2 behind poor pitching by Ken Giles and Joe Musgrove who gave up a total of 5 runs in the final two innings as the WS went to 2-2. Nobody could deny Morton threw a gem of a game though. Just 4 days later on November 1st in the deciding Game 7 Morton came into the game in the 6th inning and he led the Astros to the win in their first ever World Series title. Four innings of work, 52 pitches, allowing just one run on 2 hits, a walk and 4 K’s.
Astros pitching guru, Brent Strom, said during the season last year that Morton had “…electric stuff but he’s also got a pessimistic outlook.” Strom went to work on Morton’s mind in spring training all the while helping him increase his velocity on his fastball by about 5 mph. Like Gerrit Cole Morton came from Pittsburgh where the hopes for Game 7 success was on the table as Morton came in with that “electric stuff” but the Pirates didn’t have a Brent Strom to help him with his mindset. In 2016 Morton was traded to Philadelphia and on April 23rd while trying leg out a bunt in the 2nd inning of the game vs Milwaukee Morton tore his hamstring and was done for the season. Morton had his injury troubles during his career and you can see why he had a pessimistic attitude coming to Houston. It seemed as though Morton's real name was Charlie Brown because of the misfortune he had dealt with during his career. It took a stint on the DL in 2017 for Strom’s message to finally hit home but it did. Things weren’t all sunshine and rainbows however. Like the rest of the Astros in August Morton struggled. He had a 1-2 record for the month in his 5 starts as the Astros had their only losing month of the season. Dog days of summer indeed.
Coming into the 2018 season Morton had to be riding high after his heroics in the postseason. Strom has worked his magic yet again as Morton’s mind seems as strong as his fastball. In his first start he had to escape a bases loaded situation in the second inning last Monday in the Astros home opener against Baltimore and he had men on first and second in the 3rd before settling down and mowing through the Orioles lineup. He went 6 innings allowing no runs on 3 hits, 2 BB’s and 6 K’s getting the win in a 6-1 victory. Yesterday, in the series finale against San Diego Morton again went 6 innings allowing 4 hits, 3 BB’s and notching 7 K’s. The key stat is he didn’t allow a run in those 6 innings. Strom seems to have helped Morton become mentally tougher as he struggled a bit during his second start and he still kept the scoreboard clean. Right now, statistically, Morton is the ace of a strong Astros starting rotation. He is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 12 innings of work and 192 pitches total. If Charlie Morton can stay healthy he could actually be a 20-game winner especially pitching in the 5th spot in the rotation where night in and night out he will be better than anyone he will be facing in terms of opposing pitchers.
As for Strom? Well, he has taken the other former Pirate the Astros acquired and he’s gone to work on his mechanics and mindset too. So far, it’s been a successful pairing as Gerrit Cole set an Astros franchise record of recording back-to-back 11 K outings in his first two starts of the season. Cole is 1-0 with an ERA of .064 as Strom is helping a pitcher, who much was expected when he was drafted #1 overall in the 2011 draft, begin to realize his full potential. If all goes according to plan, Cole may be the next World Series hero for the Astros. I know Jose Altuve is the league and team MVP but if I had a vote I might be tempted to cast my vote for Brent Strom as the most unsung hero on the team. I’ll bet there is a big group of pitchers in the Astros position room who would agree.

[eagle eye]

The Twins had to be having a Twilight Zone moment yesterday as Houston clawed and scratched their way back from an 8-1 deficit to tie the game after 8-1/2 innings. It had to be reminiscent of the Astros comeback last season down 11-1 before Houston won the game 14-11. Alex Bregman had his first career 4-hit game but he really needed a 5 hit game as he made the final out in the top of the 9th with two men on base. Still it was 8-8 with two out in the 9th when Brad Peacock gave up a walkoff home run to the Twins’ Max Kepler on a 3-2 slider that didn’t slide. The loss means Houston has lost its first series of the season and their season record falls to 9-4. It also means that Houston is now in 2nd place in the AL West one game behind the red hot LA Angels who are 8-2 in their last 10 games and they are on a 4 game winning streak. Houston as lost two games in a row for the first time this season.
The Astros are back home to face the Rangers with Cole Hamels pitching for Texas and Gerrit Cole is on the bump for Houston.

[eagle eye]

The Astros just had a lousy week. They lost the two series they played this week and it's particularly irksome to see them lose to the piece of crap Rangers. They blew a 5-0 lead Saturday night and lost 6-5 and tonight on a nationally televised game the Astros lineup made 41 year old Bartolo Colon look like Cy bloody Young. Colon actually had a perfect game going through 7 innings as the Astros chase pitches off the plate and look at pitches over the plate. They fell behind Texas in the 3rd when Justin Verlander hung a curve ball to Robinson Chirinos which he managed to sneak over the wall in right field for a 1-0 lead. It was the only mistake Verlander made in his 8 innings of work. He gave up the hit and allowed a walk otherwise he mowed down the Rangers with great dispatch including 11 K's. Saturday night Charlie Morton pitched 6 innings with 12 K's and left the game with a 5-2 lead but Brad Peacock blew the lead and Will Harris gave up the winning run in the 10th inning. Last night it was Hector Rondon's turn to be the goat as he gave up 2 runs on a double by Chirinos in the top of the ninth which led to a 3-1 loss which also meant the Astros lost their second series of the week. The Twins took 2 of 3 after Houston took the opener 2-0 giving Justin Verlander the win. Houston's offense has been crapping on some good pitching. Only Lance McCullers did not look like an ace as the Twins beat the young righty around like a drum. It's a week where Houston went 2-4 and lost their lead in the AL West to the LA Angels who are hotter than a cheap pistol. After Houston's loss last night and yet another Angels win the Astros trail by 3 games. The Angels are 9-1 and have won 7 straight. The Astros will play the Mariners beginning tomorrow night in Seattle for 4 days followed by three next weekend against the White Sox. That will set up the first meeting with the Angels in Houston in eight days. Houston has got to stop wasting these great pitching performances but I know the team is trying not to suck they just maybe getting in their own way a little bit. Maybe they are pressing because they have been struggling for over a week. Who knows. It's still April and there is a long, long way to go.

[eagle eye]

Week 4 Recap: The week began the same way last week ended - with a loss that heavily involved no offense to speak of. I honestly thought that Dallas Keuchel should sue the Astros offense for non-support. After all after Monday's 2-1 loss it made the 4th straight start the offense failed to score more than 1 earned run in his first 3 starts. Now, in his second start Keuchel went 5 innings giving up 2 runs but only one earned and the Astros came back in the 7th to beat Baltimore. That was just pitiful output during his starts. That all changed on Friday night when Houston exploded for 10 runs all coming in the first 4 innings. After 4 weeks Keuchel finally got his first win of the season. Lance McCullers struggled in a game in week 3 where he gave up 8 runs in just 3.2 innings of work but he righted the ship in his next start this past Tuesday. He went 7 innings and notched 7 K's and he was the beneficiary of some more run support on Sunday afternoon. It took a while though as McCullers was in a pitcher's duel with Chicago White Sox through 6 innings and he left after six in a 1-1 tie. Houston came out in the 7th and put up 5 qualifying McCullers with the win. Will Harris, Ken Giles and Chris Devenski combined for 3 shutout innings to give the Astros the series sweep this afternoon. This culminated a week in which Houston went 6-1 for the week and, combined with the LA Angels losing 4 of 5, enabling Houston to reclaim the AL West by 1.5 games. Boston has the best record in baseball with a 17-4 record but Houston is the second best team in MLB with a 16-7 record. Life is good and the planets are back in alignment.
That could all change as Houston hosts the Angel in a 3 game series beginning tomorrow night. The Angels have cooled off a lot from their hot start but the Astros rotation is set up just right from a matchup standpoint as Houston will send, in order, Gerrit Cole (2-1, 0.96 ERA), Charlie Morton (3-0, 0.72 ERA) and Justin Verlander (3-0, 1.10 ERA) to the bump against the Angels.
Josh Reddick broke out of his slump against the Mariners this week but something that wasn't slumping was Reddick's defense. He already has 3 assists and he added another one today throwing out a runner at the plate preserving the 1-0 deficit the Astros had at the time. Lance McCullers struggled some giving up 8 hits and a walk but he was backed up by Reddick and the rest of the Astros D.

[eagle eye]

Week 5 Recap - Record 3-3, Lost series with Angels 2-1 to begin the Week; won series with A's 2-1 to end the week. The Astros had their 3 best pitchers record-wise going on the beginning of the homestand. On paper the advantage was Houston's but that isn't how it turned out.

Monday vs LA Angels - P Gerrit Cole took a rough 2-0 loss in a game where Houston's offense was a total no-show that resulted in their first shutout loss of the season. When you go 7 innings and allow just 2 runs you kind of expect to win but the Astros looked like they were swatting at flies instead of swinging a bat.

Tuesday vs Angels - Tuesday was Charlie Morton's worst outing of the season. He managed to go just 4 innings and the 4 runs he allowed were the most he gave up so far in 2018. Morton allowed 5 hits and 5 walks as he struggled with the Angels lineup. The Angels ace from Japan, the offseason's highest profile signing, Shohei Ohtani, struggled too. He also gave up 4 runs in 5.1 innings of work allowing 6 hits and 5 walks. Sloppily pitched game for the most part. Morton did not take the loss that honor went to reliever Joe Smith. Talk about a guy who is struggling, Smith, who came to Houston from Cleveland this past offseason, has not found a groove at all as an Astro. He came into the game in the 7th inning with a 5-4 lead and he proceeded to give up 4 runs on 3 hits including a 3-run dinger to Andrelton Simmons that gave the Halos an 8-5 lead. Houston came back in the bottom of the inning scoring two runs and they had the bases loaded with just one out. Derek Fisher, who had 2 hits in the game already, struck out swinging and George Springer grounded out weakly to end the Astros threat. They never threatened again as LA held on to win 8-7. The win also gave the Angels a 1/2 game lead in the AL West.

Wednesday vs Angels - P Justin Verlander mowed the Angels down as Houston ended up salvaging a win in the series. Verlander went 7 innings allowing just 2 runs on 4 hits and no walks with 9 K's. A typical dominant performance by Verlander who upped his season record to 4-0 on the season. He was in a bit of a pitcher's duel with former Astros prospect Nick Tropeano who went toe to toe with Verlander for 3 innings. In the fourth Tropeano loaded the bases and with 2 outs in the inning Alex Bregman hit a 3-run double to break the game open. Jose Altuve hit his first HR of the season in the 4th giving Houston and Verlander a 4-0 lead. The Angels came back on Verlander in the 7th scoring 2 runs but that was it. Jake Marisnick homered in the bottom the 7th to extend Houston's lead to 5-2 and that is how the game ended. Ken Giles got the save with no drama to close out the 9th. Houston also retook the AL West lead with the win leading LA by 1/2 game.

Friday vs the Oakland A's - Dallas Keuchel was trying to build on a 10-1 win in his last start but the Astros offense let him down again. If I told you Keuchel would pitch 7 complete innings with zero walks you might assume Keuchel got the win. Besides the offense taking the night off Keuchel gave up 3 home runs resulting in 6 total runs for the A's. Joe Smith came on in the 8th and stunk it up again allowing 2 insurance runs on 3 hits in his inning of work. Just a crap night in H-town, a night where the only fireworks came after the game was over during the Friday night fireworks show. Keuchel's record falls to 1-4, a very un-Keuchel-like result. In the past he has started fast and stumbled. Maybe this year he will struggle early and finish strong.

Saturday vs the A's - Lance McCullers put on a show on Saturday evening. He had a perfect game going through six innings but in the 7th he allowed 2 hits break up the perfect game and the no-no but it didn't matter because the Astros pitcher was having none of the Angels offense. He had his curve working and a newly refined changeup that had the Angels wondering how in the world they could get a hit off him. Hector Rondon and Tony Sipp combined for two scoreless innings to close out the game and no, that wasn't a typo, Sipp actually did a good job. The whole scene was rendered benign by the Astros offense that scored 3 runs in the 1st and they scored at least one run in every inning except the 5th as they cruised to a 11-0 shutout of the A's

Sunday vs the A's - Gerrit Cole ended the week like he started it. Pitching his ass off and having nothing to show for it. Cole pitched 6.2 innings and he left the game with two outs and a man on second base and one run lead. He got an easy come-backer from Matt Chapman for out number one. Cole gave up a double to Stephen Piscotti but he got his 12th K of the game when he struck out Chad Pinder. This was a situation I have against AJ Hinch who I think pull pitchers too soon a lot. Cole had a 100 pitches but he was warm and he looked strong but Hinch opted to pull Cole in favor of Will Harris who promptly gave up an RBI single to Jonathan Lucroy that tied the game and gave Cole a no-decision for all his work. The Astros came back in the bottom of the seventh scoring 3 runs to take a 6-3 lead and the offense scored 2 more in the 8th to give Houston an 8-3 lead. Joe Smith came on in the 9th and he gave up a home run to Chad Pinder to tighten the score to 8-4. Smith managed to close out the game without any more damage and Houston took the game and the series with their 8-4 win.

Houston ends the week with a series win and a 2-1/2 game lead over the Angels who have now lost 3 straight after falling to Houston on Wednesday and losing the first two games of their current series with the Yankees. Speaking of the Yankees, the Bronx Bombers come into the Minute Maid tomorrow for a 4-game series with the Astros and this will be a very interesting series as Houston will begin Month 2 of the season facing the team they beat in the ALCS on their way to the World Series win last October. Good times continue for the Astros.

[eagle eye]

The Astros closed out the first month of the season including the tail end of March with a win over the Yankees featuring a masterful performance by Charlie Morton who no-hit the Bombers for 5.1 innings and eventually going 7.2 innings after giving up a two out double to Gleyber Torres. Brad Peacock came in a walked the only batter he faced and the Astros went to sleep on the walk as Torres stole 3rd. Chris Devenski came in and promptly gave up an RBI single to Bret Gardner to tighten the Astros lead to 2-1. Devenski settled down and struck out Didi Gregorius on 3 pitches. The run was charged to Charlie Morton and, in cases like this when the pitcher of record has nothing to do with the subsequent mistakes that led to a run, I think it’s so unfair to tag Morton with the run when Peacock, the defense and Devenski combined to allow the run but that’s baseball. Ken Giles came in to close out the 9th and he was awesome. He struck out Giancarlo Stanton on three pitches, he got Gary Sanchez on a 3-2 100 mph fastball on the outside corner at the knees and he retired the side on a 3-pitch K of Aaron Hicks. Giles always makes me nervous but on the Astros broadcast last night they said Giles has now gone, in his last seven appearances, without allowing a walk or a run which is what you expect from your closer. The intensity of the game last night was almost playoff-like with the fans in the seats as well as the players showing a lot of emotion during the game. This series is a rematch of the ALCS last October and it could very well be a preview of this fall’s playoffs. Three more games in this series and if they are all as good as last night it should be a fun week!
So, April is in the books. The Astros 20-10 record for the month ties last April for most wins to begin a season in Astros history. The Astros have the 3rd best record in MLB however as they trail Boston (21-7) and Arizona (20-8). They do own the AL West lead by 2-1/2 games over Seattle and 3 games over the Angels. The Angels were swept by the Yankees over the weekend and they are in the midst of a 4-game losing streak. Albert Pujols is still chasing 3,000 hits and he is standing at 2,996 hits, just 4 shy entering the coveted 3,000 hit club.
The Yankees have the 3rd best record in the AL at 18-10. Houston ended their 9 game winning streak last night with their 2-1 victory.
Gerrit Cole set a franchise record for K’s in the month of April with 61 punchouts. In 6 starts he went 2-1 with a 1.73 ERA. He also only allowed 8 walks in his 41 innings of work with just 25 hits. Cole’s 12 K’s on Sunday gave the Astros 7 games of 11 or more K’s in 29 games which is a Major League record. Cole has 4 of those games. The only pitcher who is more hard luck than Cole is Dallas Keuchel. Neither pitcher can seem to get any run support when they pitch. The difference between the two is Cole has been so much better than Keuchel so far this season. Cole is the fourth pitcher with 60 or more K’s in a month joining JR Richard who did it twice (62 in 62 in August of 1979 and 69 in September of 1979), Mike Scott (64 in May of 1986) and Randy Johnson (61 in August of 1998).
Jose Altuve ended the month of April with his 1291st hit in his career which ties him for 8th in the all-time hit list in Astros history with Astros great Jimmy Wynn. Astros HOF’ers Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell top the list with 3,060 hits (Biggio) and 2,314 (Bagwell). If on his current pace Altuve should surpass Bagwell’s total and, barring injury, he could challenge the 3,000 hit mark in his career. It’s way too early in his career to start making such predictions. Altuve made his MLB debut in July of 2011 so he is approaching 7 years in the bigs. At 27 years of age Altuve has a lot of baseball left and it will be exciting to watch his career unfold.

[eagle eye]

The Astros are not the same as last year. It stands to reason, in the months that followed their World Series win they got to enjoy the afterglow of that championship and even though the team said and did all the right things you wonder if this team is really hungry. Nah, I don’t buy that, this team is young enough that I don’t believe they have been, or are, resting on their laurels.
Is the pressure of the high expectations weighing on the team? Certainly not the starting pitchers, those guys have been lights out and their individual won/lost records should be even better if Houston’s offense wasn’t as stale as week-old bread. Dallas Keuchel is 1-5 but it’s not all his fault. In his outing Wednesday he goes 7 innings allowing just 3 runs. Quality start by definition but, yet again, he got zilch for run support. With just average run support Keuchel should be 4-2 on the season. Justin Verlander was magnificent on Tuesday going 8 full innings not allowing a single run while logging 14 K’s. During that whole time Houston didn’t score diddley and Verlander left the game in a 0-0 tie. That is until Ken Giles comes in the night after I brag on the dude allowing 4 hits, two singles, a double and a 3-run homer to the five batters he faced. I’ll give him credit though, he did a credible Liar Liar Jim Carrey imitation as he kicked his own ass as he walked off the field. AJ Hinch said yesterday he would hope Giles would be able to control his emotions a little better than that. Ya think?
Who knows why the offense is so bad now. Altuve is hitting .341 and Correa is batting .309 but nobody else on the team is better than .260 and nobody, and I mean nobody, is getting the clutch hit when they need it. It may be something that is getting in all their heads because after a whole month of so-so performances they don’t seem to be getting better. The Yankees pitchers seem to be an underrated bunch. I’m sure the Astros hitters sound like Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as he kept asking over and over, “Who are those guys?” referring to the relentless posse that chased them all over creation. The Yankees swept the Angels last weekend and, except for 2 runs Charlie Morton got on Monday night during his great 7.2 shutout innings, the Bronx Bombers could be well on their way to a sweep of the Astros as well. The Astros have faced 3 contenders thus far and they lost all of them. The Twins, the Angels and now the Yankees are taking the Astros to school. I know it’s only May and there is a long way to go but this is what happens when you get spoiled. Last year Houston got down 11-0 to the Twins but they came back and won 14-11 scoring all 14 runs in the last 3 innings. This year the Astros got down 8-0 against the Twins before getting within one run at 8-7 but that’s as far as they got. It’s hard for homers like me but this is not the 2017 Astros. The starting pitching is much better but everything else is worse this season so far. That said, despite their shortcomings Houston is still 20-12 and they are still on top of the AL West. Everything looks like the Astros are this huge dumpster fire and it’s all because we are spoiled. Spoiled rotten. Did you realize the 20-10 record Houston had in April was the exact same record they had last year? It just doesn’t seem like when Houston’s offense is so doggone frustrating.
Now, let’s talk about the new Star Wars movie, shouldn’t the producers, who decided to produce a movie featuring one of the most iconic characters in the Star Wars universe, have hired an actor who at least resembles Harrison Ford? Sheesh.

[puddin tane]

The Astros are not the same as last year. It stands to reason, in the months that followed their World Series win they got to enjoy the afterglow of that championship and even though the team said and did all the right things you wonder if this team is really hungry. Nah, I don’t buy that, this team is young enough that I don’t believe they have been, or are, resting on their laurels.
Is the pressure of the high expectations weighing on the team? Certainly not the starting pitchers, those guys have been lights out and their individual won/lost records should be even better if Houston’s offense wasn’t as stale as week-old bread. Dallas Keuchel is 1-5 but it’s not all his fault. In his outing Wednesday he goes 7 innings allowing just 3 runs. Quality start by definition but, yet again, he got zilch for run support. With just average run support Keuchel should be 4-2 on the season. Justin Verlander was magnificent on Tuesday going 8 full innings not allowing a single run while logging 14 K’s. During that whole time Houston didn’t score diddley and Verlander left the game in a 0-0 tie. That is until Ken Giles comes in the night after I brag on the dude allowing 4 hits, two singles, a double and a 3-run homer to the five batters he faced. I’ll give him credit though, he did a credible Liar Liar Jim Carrey imitation as he kicked his own ass as he walked off the field. AJ Hinch said yesterday he would hope Giles would be able to control his emotions a little better than that. Ya think?
Who knows why the offense is so bad now. Altuve is hitting .341 and Correa is batting .309 but nobody else on the team is better than .260 and nobody, and I mean nobody, is getting the clutch hit when they need it. It may be something that is getting in all their heads because after a whole month of so-so performances they don’t seem to be getting better. The Yankees pitchers seem to be an underrated bunch. I’m sure the Astros hitters sound like Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as he kept asking over and over, “Who are those guys?” referring to the relentless posse that chased them all over creation. The Yankees swept the Angels last weekend and, except for 2 runs Charlie Morton got on Monday night during his great 7.2 shutout innings, the Bronx Bombers could be well on their way to a sweep of the Astros as well. The Astros have faced 3 contenders thus far and they lost all of them. The Twins, the Angels and now the Yankees are taking the Astros to school. I know it’s only May and there is a long way to go but this is what happens when you get spoiled. Last year Houston got down 11-0 to the Twins but they came back and won 14-11 scoring all 14 runs in the last 3 innings. This year the Astros got down 8-0 against the Twins before getting within one run at 8-7 but that’s as far as they got. It’s hard for homers like me but this is not the 2017 Astros. The starting pitching is much better but everything else is worse this season so far. That said, despite their shortcomings Houston is still 20-12 and they are still on top of the AL West. Everything looks like the Astros are this huge dumpster fire and it’s all because we are spoiled. Spoiled rotten. Did you realize the 20-10 record Houston had in April was the exact same record they had last year? It just doesn’t seem like when Houston’s offense is so doggone frustrating.
Now, let’s talk about the new Star Wars movie, shouldn’t the producers, who decided to produce a movie featuring one of the most iconic characters in the Star Wars universe, have hired an actor who at least resembles Harrison Ford? Sheesh.


Astros need to put down the press clippings and stop reading about how good they are.

marisnick, fischer, gattis? Somebody gotz to go. Never thought marisnick was ready for the show, dont think he ever will be. Not sure he could hit now with a tennis raquet. Fish? Dont know. Gattis, no excuse for a dh hitting .190

[eagle eye]

The Astros bullpen is pissing me off. None of those guys is trustworthy. In last night's frustrating loss to the D-Backs Chris Devenski loaded the bases on a bunt single and 2 walks and Brad Peacock came in and allowed a first pitch, broken bat single for a 4-3 walk off win for Arizona. The offense has their place in this too. They continue to fail to get the clutch hit when they need it. Take the top of the 8th, bases loaded and 2 runs in already in the inning and the least reliable hitter in the lineup, Derek Fisher, just got on base to get George Springer to the plate. All Springer did was strike the hell out and end the inning. Tell me this, would you rather Springer hit the solo home run he hit in the top of the 5th or a grand slam in the 8th to give the Astros a 6-3 lead (assuming nothing else changed in the game). Waiter, I'll have the grand slam please with nothing on the side and a glass of ice water with lemon. Thanks. I'll give you Zack Greinke was pitching but if the Astros offense is all that great it shouldn't matter, right? Freaking A right!!! Maybe Puddin is right, the Astros have bought into all the hype and they think they can cruise along on their past success. As 2 of the last 3 weeks has shown the rest of MLB don't give a rat's ass for what happened in 2017. It's still early in the season but this so-called high powered offense only seems to find 4th gear once a week - if that. Charlie Morton struggled and only lasted 5 innings last night but he only gave up 3 runs. When most pitchers struggle they give up twice that. This offense has got to stop wasting these great outings by their starters and the bullpen needs to pull their collective heads out of their collective asses. This kind of crap is reminiscent of those 100 loss seasons that were not so very long ago. A big chunk of the lineup hitting below the Mendoza Line and a bullpen that is porous as a sieve. All we need is a starting rotation that can't last 5 innings an outing and we are back living in the Twilight Zone.
WAKE UP HOUSTON!!!!!

[eagle eye]

Week 6 Recap - In short, this past week sucked the big one. The Astros record this week was 2-5 as they lost to AL East 2nd place New York Yankees 1-4. This weekend they lost 1-2 to the Arizona Diamondbacks the NL West division leader. I still have to keep reminding myself that it's still early. We're not even half way through may and it's such a long way to the end of September. Let's try to find some sort of silver lining to hang out hats on.
(tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock......) So much for that. Really, there is no silver lining to this week except nobody got hurt. Maybe Hector Rondon is the lone bright spot other than the Astros continued to get above average outings from the starters. Houston was in every game they played and they should have won at least two other games which would have changed the complexion of the whole week. A combination of totally messed up relief pitching coupled with an offense that is now ranked 10th according to MLB stats and they had to have taken a tumble after scoring a grand total of 11 runs in the seven games this week, that's 1.6 runs per game for all you stat geeks. The Astros were actually shutout 3 times this week. Just pitiful for a team that was touted as the best offense in baseball a few short weeks ago. Houston returns to playing inside the division this coming week. Three in Oakland against the A's and 3 back at home against the Rangers next weekend. It just so happens that the A's and Rangers are the bottom feeders in the division but that could change if Houston's offensive woes continue. As much as I love the Astros pitching coach Brent Strom (even though his magic touch doesn't seem to work on the relievers) I have always complained about the Astros hitting coach Whiff McGraw. Okay that's not his name but maybe it should be. The actual guy's name is Dave Hudgins. I am still hoping he will decide to retire so AJ Hinch can replace him. Maybe Jeff Luhnow has a guy in his bag of tricks. One can only hope.

The Astros record has fallen to 21-15 and they are in 2nd place in the AL West by a full game behind the LA Angels. It's early in the season but when the Astros have done well they start fast and don't really hit a slump until August or September. If the playoffs started tomorrow however the Astros would make the playoffs. Guess who they would play in the Wild Card elimination game? Yep, the confounded Yankees. I'm glad the playoffs are not starting tomorrow. Or a week from tomorrow. Sheesh.

[eagle eye]

So, Dallas Keuchel has been giving up home runs this year. He’s allowed 8 in his first 7 starts of the season. 3 in one game on April 27th in Houston to this same Oakland A’s who Keuchel faced last night in Oakland. Keuchel has also been giving up more walks this season than in the past allowing 10 BB’s in those same first seven games. This isn’t who Dallas Keuchel is. He’s a ground ball pitcher who doesn’t walk people so, except for a couple of exceptions, Keuchel hasn’t been himself this season. Not that he’s been bad, he’s had moments when he wasn’t his best but when you consider heading into last night’s game he had never given up more than 3 runs in a game and had failed to go at least 5 innings just once. Going into the game with the A’s last night his ERA was a respectable 3.98. Certainly not Keuchel-esque but decent.
His record doesn’t reflect his effort because at 1-5 you have to wonder what the heck is going on. The offense is the prime offender. In 5 of Keuchel’s previous 7 starts the team either hadn’t scored at all or scored just one run. You don’t win many games like that. The no-decision game was a direct result of the bullpen not doing their job which has happened way too frequently this season. So, on a cool night in Oakland Dallas Kuechel did what Dallas Keuchel does. He kept the ball in the strike zone and he kept the ball on the ground so his defense could do their work. Not only that but the Astros offense wasn’t offensive. Led by George Springer’s record setting 6 for 6 night (no Astros hitter had ever gone 6x6 in a 9 inning game and only one Astro had ever done it at all when Joe Morgan, way back in 1965, did it in a 12 inning game) Houston pounded A’s pitching for 20 hits including 3 home runs and they earned 5 walks as well. Keuchel went 8 full innings allowing just one run with 2 BB’s and 5 K’s. The walks were un-Keuchel-like but the 13 ground ball outs to 5 flyouts was definitely right up Dallas’ alley. What was definitely in Keuchel’s favor were the 16 runs the Astros exploded for on the night.
Everything wasn’t perfect, George Springer was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle and Tony Sipp came in to pitch the 9th in relief of Keuchel and he allowed 3 hits and a run before he finally got bored enough to finally put the A’s out of their misery. Final score? 16-2. Keuchel is now 2-5 and his ERA is down to 3.53. George Springer raised his batting average 30 points, up to .297 now. Jake Marisnick is still striking out more than he’s hitting and Evan Gattis is still below the Mendoza line. But, for one night, the Astros offense did its job the way “they” expected it to do. The question is, was last night a breakout night for the offense or was it just a one-off in the middle of a season long slump? Lance McCullers will be on the bump tonight and he’ll find out right quick and in a hurry if the Astros offense is really beginning to click.

[eagle eye]

The Astros pulled out the brooms and completed the sweep of the A’s winning by a score of 4-1. Gerrit Cole picked up his 4th win of the season improving his record to 4-1 ironically enough. Cole “only” went 6 innings and he “only” had 9 K’s while allowing the one run. Houston has retaken the AL West lead with the sweep and Houston enjoys a day off before taking on the Rangers this weekend. AJ Hinch is shuffling the starting rotation a bit Friday as Justin Verlander will start instead of Charlie Morton. Hinch said the move was to keep JV on his regular schedule. Morton will start Saturday with Dallas Keuchel starting the series finale on Sunday. Go, Stros!!

[Dracula]

The position players SUCK. They sucked all game long vs Hamels and the Rangers, on Friday night. Words cannot describe how pitiful they were. What does Verlander have to do to get some run support ? He and the bullpen pitched a whale of a game and still lost because the batting order just plain sucked. Thank You

[eagle eye]

The position players SUCK. They sucked all game long vs Hamels and the Rangers, on Friday night. Words cannot describe how pitiful they were. What does Verlander have to do to get some run support ? He and the bullpen pitched a whale of a game and still lost because the batting order just plain sucked. Thank You

I couldn't agree more Drac!!! Verlander now has given up 1 run in the last 14 plus innings covering his last two starts. In the first he lost 4-0 when Ken Giles put on his "I suck" uniform and proceeded to crap all over 8 shutout innings by JV. Last night JV pitched into the 7th allowing 0 runs until loading the bases. Chris Devenski allowed one run to score before retiring the Rangers but that was all the dick weeds from Arlington needed because of this no-show offense. There is a marked difference in the Astros offensive performance on the road and at home and it's at home that Houston is severely lacking. They are scoring on average 2 full runs less than they do on the road and that's IF they score at all. It kills me for Houston to lose to Texas. I would rather the Astros lose to almost any other team in baseball if they just beat the hated Rangers every single time. I just don't like those guys or that team. The offensive woes at home may be becoming a mental thing but Houston needs to find a way to turn that around. They are just getting such good pitching from all of their starters it's just a shame to see all their quality work swirl down the drain because this so-called great offense can't even make contact.

Verlander is getting the same treatment as Dallas Keuchel and Gerrrit Cole in terms of lousy run support. Keuchel has the biggest gripe IMO as his record of 2-5 is primarily because of lack of run support. Keuchel has given up no more than 3 runs in any start this season and he's only failed to go at least 5 innings one time. It seems Gerrit Cole has to pitch a complete game one hit shutout to get a win and given how dominant he's been so far this season the state of affairs with the offense is almost unbearable. The loss drops Houston into second place in the AL West percentage points behind the Los Angeles Angels. Charlie Morton goes this evening for Houston trying yet again for his 5th win on the season in what will be his 8th start.

[Dracula]

Good lord, just how historically good is the Astro's starting pitching and bullpen.
http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/pitching

[eagle eye]

Week 7 Recap - First, I can't believe it's been 7 weeks already. That said, Houston rebounded nicely from the dismal Week 6 going 5-1 for the week. It wasn't without frustration as Houston dropped the opening game against the Rangers on Friday night despite another great performance by Justin Verlander. Why? Lack of offense but we've been down that road already. After pulling out a series sweep of Oakland which included Dallas Keuchel's first win this week and also featuring a 16 run outburst that included record setting hitting by George Springer who went 6 for 6 on the night. What continues to amaze is how awesome the starting pitching has been. Win or lose the starters can be counted on to give more than their fair share of innings. Keuchel, after enjoying a huge hunk of run support on Monday, got some welcome support today led by Evan Gattis' 2-run homer in the 3rd that eventually ended up being a 3-0 lead by the end of the inning. Today's win gives Keuchel a record of 3-5 and more importantly he is on a Keuchel-like run that includes going at least 7 innings in his last 4 starts which includes a 3-1 record. Verlander and Keuchel are leading the staff but Gerrit Cole (4-1), Charlie Morton (5-0) and Lance McCullers (5-1) could lead any staff in baseball. The bullpen is getting more reliable as well which means if Houston does eke out a small lead you can be fairly confident they can hold it. Well maybe not Joe Smith but I'm sure a quality pitcher like Smith will figure it out with the help of the best pitching coach in baseball Brent Strom.

I don't know what's going on with Jose Altuve but he can't seem to make any sort of contact. He actually went 0-13 against the Rangers as he saw his batting average tumble from his usual .344 on May 1st to a pedestrian (for him) .306. The rest of the lineup came through after Friday's embarrassment with 14 runs over the last two games. The big blasts on the weekend came from Gattis and Brian McCann as well as Carlos Correa. The hitting is improving overall except for Altuve and Jake Marisnick. Marisnick's struggles are really puzzling. He was hitting in the .260 range last year until he broke a bone in his hand in August which caused him to miss the rest of the season and all of the postseason. He performance so far this year is disappointing but his defense is what makes him so valuable. That's why, when George Springer was hit in the elbow by Cole Hamels Friday night, Marisnick stepped into center field and make positive contributions all weekend.

As the week ends Houston is in 1st place in the AL West by one game over the Angels. Their record is now 26-16 and they have the 3rd best record in MLB 2 games behind the Red Sox and the Yankees. They begin a 3 game series against the Angels beginning tomorrow night. Houston could put some space between themselves and the Angels or they could end up in 2nd place in the division depending on how they fare in La-La Land. The offense is showing signs of waking up with only Derek Fisher and Marisnick among the regulars in the lineup still hitting below the Mendoza line but Fisher is showing improvement as he has actually gotten some clutch hits of late. Evan Gattis is now hitting .214 and Josh Reddick and Marwin Gonzalez are showing signs of improvement as well. Maybe it is a good thing the offense is not at their peak right now. The ideal thing is for them is to be peaking in September and October in defense of their title. The hope is as they move toward that peak that they can stay in on top of the division to be in position to defend that title. It's the middle of May so it's not too soon to be thinking about September after all as fast as this first 7 weeks have come and gone it's only 7 weeks until the All Star break and then............................

[eagle eye]

The Astros were 0-14 when trailing after seven innings so far this year. Make that 1-15 now because last night, after I gave up on them and went to bed, the Astros loaded the bases on Angels reliever Jose Alvarez in the 8th inning when Jose Altuve came to bat. Altuve was 1 for 2 in the game but he had been in a 2-17 slump going back to the Rangers series when he went 0-13. Altuve finally got a hit in the 9th inning of the Game 1 loss to the Angels. Earlier in the game Altuve had been hit by a pitch (1st inning), flied out (4th) and he singled in the 6th. The Astros have had hell getting a clutch hit pretty much all season as evidenced by their poor record trailing late in games but last night was Altuve’s first multi-hit game in over a week as he reached out and yanked an outside pitch out into shallow left field and right down the base line. Josh Reddick, Yuli Gurriel and Alex Bregman all scored on the double by Altuve. The 3-run double erased a 3-1 Angels lead giving Houston its first lead of the lead of the series 4-3. Houston tacked on a weird insurance run in the 9th when Ian Kinsler misplayed a Marwin Gonzalez ground ball allowing him to reach 1st base. During Evan Gattis’ AB Gonzalez stole 2nd. Gattis flew out for the 1st out of the inning and he was followed by Josh Reddick who hit a ground ball to the right side forcing pitcher Jim Johnson to cover 1st. Johnson failed to catch the ball to get Reddick out and that error allowed Gonzalez to score the insurance run making it 5-3. That was it for the scoring in the game as Gurriel hit into an inning ending double play and Ken Giles came on to get his 6th save on the season with very little drama. Maybe Altuve’s clutch double will be just what the doctor ordered to help turn around this lack luster offense.
Josh Reddick made two stellar outfield assists in the game. In the 5th, on a Shohei Ohtani single to right, Mike Trout tried to go from 1st to third but Reddick gunned him down for the 3rd out in the inning. In the bottom of the 7th Kole Calhoun singled to Reddick with Ian Kinsler on 2B. Kinsler tried to score on the play but Reddick nailed him as well. Both plays were not even close as Reddick’s strong and accurate arm was on full display.
After the game Jake Marisnick was sent down to AAA Fresno so he could get regular at-bats to try to break out of the slump that has plagued him since opening day. Marisnick has had trouble even making contact as he’s had 85 AB’s and he’s struck out 41 times. His .141 BA is really not even that good. The Astros will likely bring up either Tyler White, Tony Kemp or JD Davis who is currently batting .407 at Fresno. All three players are hitting over .300 for the season but JD Davis has just been sick at the plate.
Gerrit Cole had a rough outing last night. He went just 5 innings, his season low, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits with 2 BB’s and “only” 7 K’s. Cole doesn’t give up home runs normally but he gave up two last night. He allowed a 2-run shot by Justin Upton in the 1st and a solo HR to Rene Rivera in the 3rd. It’s only right that a guy who has been burned by a lack of run support in the past should get saved from a loss by some late inning runs being scored when you ‘struggle’. It’s a testament to how good Houston starters have been when a pitcher has a night like Cole’s and you say he is struggling. Another ‘struggling’ pitcher, Justin Verlander, goes in the series finale tonight in Anaheim.

[eagle eye]

Astros Week 8 Recap.
Houston had a decent week going 4-2 on the week winning both series they played. After losing Game 1 of the Angels series on Monday, wasting yet another really good pitching performance by Lance McCullers who allowed just 2 runs over six innings pitched, they came back and took the final two.
Gerritt Cole was saved in Game 2 against the Halo after he “struggled” through 5 innings allowing 3 runs when the Astros offense woke up late in the game scoring 3 runs in the 8th and another in the 9th to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 5-3 win.
Justin Verlander pitched a complete game shutout of the Halos in Game 3 as he became the 33rd pitcher to reach 2500 K’s in a career. Verlander got a 2-run homer by Evan Gattis in the 2nd inning and that is all Verlander needed, and that’s all he got, in a 2-0 win.
The Astros began a 3-game home stand last Friday against the Cleveland Indians. This Indians club was the Astros nemesis in 2017 and given how they beat up on Houston it’s a good thing the Yankees came back on them in the ALDS to advance to the ALCS against Houston. Houston had been lousy in the late innings of game this season until they beat the Angels with a late rally on Tuesday and they did it again in Friday’s Game 1 by scoring 2 in the seventh, breaking a 1-1 tie and giving Charlie Morton the chance to win. Houston got an insurance run in the 8th giving Houston a 4-1 lead and Ken Giles came in and got the save. Morton got the win extending his record to 6-0 on the season in 9 starts. Tony Kemp, who was called up for Jake Marisnick, who was sent to the minors to try to work out of the slump he’s been, doubled down the right field line scoring the go ahead run. He was cost a 2nd RBI when an Astros fan reached over the wall in the field box and touched the ball making it fan interference forcing the runner who would have easily scored from 1B to go back to third.
As much as I bragged about Dallas Keuchel looking like he was rounding into his Cy Young form he abused the pooch in Game 2. Most good pitchers are vulnerable in the 1st inning as they try to get into the flow of the game and this is apparently what happened to Keuchel. He allowed 3 doubles and a home run in the 1st inning to dig a 3-0 hole for the Astros offense which they couldn’t overcome. The Indians added a run in the 5th and 6th to make the score 5-0. Houston’s offense finally semi-woke up scoring 2 in the 6th on a Carlos Correa 2-run HR, 1 run in the 8th on an Alex Bregman HR and a run in the 9th on a Marwin Gonzalez HR but that is all they could get and their comeback attempt fell short as Houston lost 5-4.
Last night Lance McCullers got some redemption for the loss on Monday as he pitched 7 innings of 1 hit, shutout ball. He got enough run support to get a 3-1 win. It didn’t look like McCullers was going to get a lick of help as after he pitched the top of the 7th the game was still locked in a 0-0 tie. In the bottom of the seventh, after a Yuri Gurriel single and a sac bunt by Marwin Gonzalez, Evan Gattis jacked a 2-run homer into right center field. The Astros added an insurance run in the 8th on a Josh Reddick RBI double scoring Alex Bregman. The Indians got an oh-by-the-way run in the top of the 9th but Ken Giles locked down his 8 save of the season and his 3rd save of the week.
Houston is in 1st place in the AL west with a 30-18 record but they still trail the Yankees (30-13) and the Red Sox (32-15) for the best record in baseball this season. The Astros, Yanks and Bosox are the only teams with 30 or more wins in either the AL or the NL. The Astros lead the, now 2nd place, Seattle Mariners by 2 games with the 3rd place Angels 3.5 back.
Houston has a rough couple of weeks to close out the month of May and begin the month of June. This week Houston hosts the San Francisco Giants (24-24) for two games on Tuesday and Wednesday and the got to Cleveland for 4 games to close out the week. They then go to New York for 3 games with the Yankees followed by 4 at home hosting the Red Sox. Yep, a very big couple of weeks indeed. The Astros averaged almost 4 runs a game this past week as it looks like the offense may be starting to wake the hell up. If so, it’s just in time to help get them through the next tough stretch of games.

[eagle eye]

If Dallas Keuchel doesn't want to kick everyone on offense right in the family jewels he must want to sue them for lack of support. If he doesn't want to do this I will sue the offense for mental abuse and cruelty. Keuchel wasn't his best last week at home against Cleveland but he wasn't terrible after he gave up 3 runs in the 1st inning but the Astros could only muster zero runs in his six inning of work. Tonight Keuchel wasn't perfect but he was good. Again, he went 6 innings allowing just 2 runs but, again, the offense was nowhere in sight. Zero runs until the 8th AFTER Keuchel had left the game when Houston woke up and scored 4 runs to take a 4-2 lead following that up with a huge 7 run inning in the top of the 9th. I'm sure Keuchel appreciated getting of the hook for the loss but Houston had runners in scoring position that could have given Keuchel a lead and a possible win. Keuchel's record is stuck on 3-6 and it's a shame because it really ought to be better than that. All he would need is a little run support. Way back when he was 1-5 he got two games in a row where he got some help from his offense that upped his record to 3-5. Since then the offense has gone back to sleep when he pitches. Hopefully with the recent uptick in offensive output improving maybe he can turn his record around. The thing is, Houston's offense hasn't come to life until the late innings. Even AJ Hinch said in his postgame the offense needs to get going sooner in games. Keuchel would certainly agree with that sentiment.

Speaking of AJ Hinch, I think he was guilty of overthinking a situation in the top of the 7th. With the bases loaded and just one out Tony Kemp was the next man up. Kemp has been the most clutch hitter the Astros have had over the past week since he was called up from AAA Fresno. 6 hits and 8 RBI's over the past week made Kemp the best possible batter to be coming up to bat. Instead, Hinch pinch hit for Kemp with JD Davis. He's been okay since his call up but he's no Tony Kemp. I say that a bit tongue in cheek but it's also true. Hinch sat the hot hitter for no real good reason other than he was hoping Davis would use his power to drive in two or three or even four runs in one fell swoop. I wish he had stuck with Kemp.

Jose Altuve has been in a funk. He was 0-8 heading into the top of the 8th inning against Cleveland in the series when he finally broke through with an RBI double scoring George Springer and Alex Bregman to tie the game at two. He added another double in the 9th to start the 7 run rally that buried the Indians. It would be nice to see Altuve put his recent troubles at the plate behind him and go on one of his patented hot streaks. With the Yankees and Red Sox, not to mention the last two games with Cleveland, the Astros really need his bat to wake up.

Houston goes Prime Time on Fox tomorrow night at 6 o'clock in Game 3 of this 4 game set with the Indians. Lance McCullers will be trying to log his team tying high 7th win as he squares off against Cleveland's Carlos Carrasco.

[eagle eye]

If you asked me which of the Astros staring pitchers I worried most about my answer would have been either Charlie Morton or Lance McCullers. Ironically, Morton leads the team with 7 wins but Morton is proving that last season's September and October were not a fluke as he has forged a perfect 7-0 record to this point. McCullers, a playoff hero for sure last fall, had a 6-2 record but the same worries I had for McCullers beginning the season are still there for me. You see, despite all the horn tooting for him because everyone gushes about how great his 'stuff' is, he can be so inconsistent. Between injuries and meltdowns he is the real weak link in the Astros rotation. His saving grace is he is the one starter who has gotten the most run support from his offense. It's bailed him out of some mediocre outings and saved him from suffering more losses than he has. If Dallas Keuchel and Gerrit Cole had gotten similar run support Cole would be in the 5-6 win column and Keuchel would at least be .500 or a game over .500. I'm not complaining. Houston is leading the division and has the third best record in all of MLB. My point here is McCullers sucked last night in an 8-6 loss to Cleveland. He gave up 6 hits including 3 home runs in just 4.1 innings of work. In the 2nd inning Yuli Gurriel mishandled a ground ball that allowed the Indians first run to score. McCullers acted up showing up Gurriel in the process which isn't a good thing ever. You depend on your defense and if McCullers didn't like a Gurriel error allow a run to score he shouldn't have loaded the bases in the first place. I'm just saying. Jose Altuve, after recording the final out in the inning had a little talking to with McCullers on the way to the dugout. It must have pissed off Jose a bunch because he went on to have a 4-4 night with 2 RBI's and 3 runs scored in the game. That, Mr McCullers, is how you channel your anger. Houston chipped away at the lead McCullers had staked the Indians to getting to within one run at 7-6 in the top of the 7th but Brad Peacock gave up a solo HR in the bottom of the inning to extend the Indians lead to 8-6 and that was all she wrote for the Houston comeback attempt.

This afternoon Houston sends Gerrit Cole to the bump to face off against former UCLA team mate Trevor Bauer. This isn't a pleasant reunion because apparently they did not get along for some reason so there is a little rivalry on tap this afternoon. Houston can secure the series win today and worst they will do is end up with a 2-2 tie. Not bad for a long road series. Go 'Stros!

[eagle eye]

Week 9 recap.

It wasn't a bad week but it wasn't great either. Okay, it sucked and it's all because of one messed up game. It looked like it was going to be an easy Astros win on Sunday. Gerrit Cole was all over the Cleveland offense. Yes he did give up 3 runs but it didn't matter for a change because he got run support at long last. Cole went 7 innings giving up just 4 hits and 2 BB's with 8 K's. He left owning an 8-3 lead and he was seemingly on his way to upping his season record to 6-1. The only bad thing was Cole's ERA crept just about 2. Nice afternoon of work. Time to relax and coast home. Wrong. After Chris Devenski pitched a perfect 8th inning it came down to Ken Giles in a non-save situation to nail down the win. But no, he gave up 3 hits and 3 runs and didn't record an out. Giles got the yank and Will Harris came in to right the ship. Didn't happen. Harris gave up 2 hits and 2 runs and he recorded one out before Hector Rondon came in to stop the madness. Wrong again Kemosabe. Rondon allowed 2 inherited runners score tying the game at 8. He did get the final two outs but not before the Astros took a trip to the Twilight Zone. Evan Gattis gave the Astros a 9-8 on a solo HR in the top of the 13th but Collin McHugh, working his 2nd inning of relief gave it right back in the bottom of the inning on HR to Yonder Alonzo to re-tie the game, this time at 9 all. In the bottom of the 14th Brad Peacock came in and ended the game by allowing a walk off HR to Gary Allen to end the Astros misery. That one game ruined the who week in my eyes even though Houston finished with a 4-2 record for the week. The Astros were still in first place in the AL West with 33-20 record and they still own the 3rd best record in the AL and MLB. The thing is, Houston will be playing the #2 and #1 teams with the best records this week in the Yankees and Red Sox. Houston has three on the road in New York and they return home to host the Red Sox for 4 games next weekend. So far, Houston is 1-0 against the Yanks as they beat the Bronx Bombers 5-1 behind Justin Verlander's pitching and JD Davis' first HR run of the season, a 3 run shot, that gave the Astros a good start in the Big Apple. The meltdown on Sunday was more than irksome. I still am sick to my stomach over that loss. I'm glad I am close to a bar here in Playa Del Carmen, I need to soak my sorrows in some free rum and Coke.

[eagle eye]

For the second time in two days the Astros bullpen has come on and molested that poor pooch and ruined what should have been a post game victory celebration. That's right, the guys who sit by themselves in the outfield came on a snatched defeat right out of the jaws of victory. First, it was Chris Devenski who came on in the 9th to close out the win for the Astros and preserve Charlie Morton's MLB best 8th win of the season. Didn't happen that way. Devenski led off the inning walking Miguel Andujar. He struck out Gleybar Torres for the first out but Gary Sanchez took Devenski deep for a game tying 2-run HR that had to make everyone in an Astros uniform sick. Devenski did get out of the inning but the damage had been done. In the top of the 9th Houston had a chance to add some insurance runs when walks to Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve gave us all hope Houston would tack on some meat to the bone but that didn't happen either. Yuli Gurriel struck out swinging, Evan Gattis grounded into a force out at second retiring Altuve and Jake Marisnick had one of the most pathetic AB's ever. He struck out on 3 pitches and never swung at any of them. (I just threw up in my mouth a little bit thinking about that) The Astros came back in the 10th inning and they had an opportunity but as fate does sometimes it crapped all over the Astros big time. Tony Kemp had walked and stole 2nd with 2 outs against Aroldis Chapman. With George Springer at the plate Chapman uncorked a wild pitch on a 100 mph fastball that sailed over the catcher's head. Kemp took off for 3rd as you would expect but the ball hit something solid at the backstop and the ball sailed straight back to C Gary Sanchez who wheeled and threw out Kemp by two steps. Inning and threat over. Brad Peacock came on the bottom of the inning and just like in Cleveland 2 days earlier he came in and gave up a walk off single to Gleybar Torres that scored Miguel Andujar who had doubled just before him. All that came with 2 outs in the inning. Facing Andujar, Peacock got him down 0-2 and the 3rd pitch should not have even been in the strike zone but Peacock hung a slider that Andujar lined about 6 feet inside the left field line for a double. Against Torres Peacock had a 2-2 count and on the 6th pitch of the AB Torres poked a 95 mph fastball into right field. George Springer was all over the ball but his throw was off line and Andujar scored easily to end the game.
The offense plays a part in this loss too because if they had even been decent the score would have been (maybe) out of reach. Houston stranded 10 base runners and they went 3-17 with runners in scoring position. Just pitiful plus the Yankees committed 5 errors in the game. Last night was the first time the Astros lost a game since June 12 of 1993 against the Rockies when their opponent committed 5 errors during the game.

The Astros placed Brian McCann on the 10 DL because of persistent soreness in his knee. He was sent back to Houston for further evaluation. To fill his spot in the roster the Astros called up Tim Federowicz from AAA Fresno. Federowicz was hitting .337 with five homers, 18 RBIs and a .407 on-base percentage at Triple-A. Federowicz was a non-roster invitee to spring camp this year and has played parts of six years with the Dodgers, Cubs and Giants. He's a .196 career hitter in the big leagues.
Dallas Keuchel will try to get his 4th win of the season this evening in the final game of the series with New York. The Yankees counter with Luis Severino who is going for his 8th win of the season. Let's hope Severino's luck is just like Charlie Morton's and he gets to watch Houston come back and win. Will Fate be on the Astros side for a change? We can only hope.

[eagle eye]

The recap of this past week's games is easy to sum up, it wasn't good. Against the top two teams in the American League Houston laid a big fat stinky egg. An excellent outing by Justin Verlander (7-2) who went 6.2 innings allowing just 2 hits and one run dominating the Yankees lineup like nobody's business. Will Harris, Chris Devenski and Ken Giles were given a bit of redemption for blowing a 5 run lead against Cleveland. Trouble is, this bullpen is not reliable. They are giving up runs left and right and you can't trust any of them. Devenski is the closest thing to a sure thing in the Astros bullpen. If it's not Devenski then Carlos Rondon would be that guy but he's blown some opportunities too. The bullpen blew a chance to win Game 3 last Sunday against the Red Sox but after 7 innings by Gerrit Cole who allowed 3 runs on 4 hits with 8 K's Devenski pitched a perfect 8th then Cole's 5 run lead went down the toilet in the 9th. You know the rest of the story of how Giles, Harris and Rondon gave up 5 runs that allowed Cleveland to tie the game. In extra innings Evan Gattis gave the Astros a lead that was almost immediately surrendered by Collin McHugh who allowed a solo HR in the bottom of the inning. In the 14th Houston did nothing in the top of the inning and Brad Peacock came in a gave up a walk off hit to give the Indians a 10-9 win that should never have been. 2 Days later against the Yankees the bullpen did it again. With a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the 9th Chris Devenski in a rare trip gave up a 2-run homer to Brett Gardner to tie the game and Peacock came on in the 10th to give up a walk off hit to give the Yankees a win when, if Houston had a decent closer, would have been a win for the Astros. After winning the first two games of the 4 game series with Boston Houston worked a 3-2 lead for Justin Verlander who threw just over 100 pitches in six innings of work. No sooner did Verlander leave the game than Will Harris in just 2/3 of an inning gave up 3 runs giving the Bosox a 2 run lead which turned into a 1-run win after an RBI single by Yuli Gurriel in the 8th. Verlander had a chance to get his 8th win Saturday and Charlie Morton had his second chance to go 8-0 yesterday but the bullpen screwed Verlander and Morton screwed himself by allowing 6 runs in what was his worst outing of the season as Boston beat up the Astros 9-3 to end the weekend series and the week on a down note.
For the second time this season the Astros have played their way out of first place in the AL West. The trail the Mariners by one game, they are actually tied in the win column but Houston have two more losses giving Seattle the division lead. Last week the Astros had a chance to really make a statement by beating the Yankees and Bosox but instead they basically blew their chance for a mic drop week. The Astros will begin a 12 game stretch against bad teams. Well, two with the Mariners then 3 bad teams in the Rangers, A's and Royals. Houston has today off to lick their wounds and they have a chance to retake the division lead with a 2-game sweep of Seattle at home. Then, they go on the road to play the Rangers, A's and Royals. BTW, the Royals are a bad team this season. They are currently in 4th place in the AL Central with a 21-38 record with a dismal 10-21 home record. That series is 2-weeks away. This week Houston needs to take care of their division foes and build a little confidence in the process. The offense isn't what people expected as just about everyone in the lineup is having a subpar season to date. As they say, it still early. Expectations are funny, before the season the Astros were seen as the proverbial unstoppable force but in many ways they have been their own immovable object. A long winded way to say they are their own worst enemy so far this season. The thing about that is despite all their troubles they are a tick off the division lead and 13 games over .500. See what I mean about expectations? Despite all their success this season it still feels like they stink because they are not as dominating as we thought (or hoped).

[eagle eye]

Did anyone notice that the MLB First Year Player Draft was just completed? What a difference between the NFL draft and the baseball draft in terms of hoopla. The NFL draft is a major event covered in depth by ESPN and the NFL Network not to mention the extensive coverage given by sports networks and local sports reports. Baseball’s draft sort of gets swept under the rug as so many other things are more important in the grand scheme of the sports world. There’s the NBA and the NHL finals grabbing headlines. The French Open tennis tournament is in its 2nd week as the field is narrowed down to the final which will be on Sunday and the NFL teams are in the last week of voluntary OTA’s. The MLB draft is such a ho-hum, oh-by-the-way event it flies way under the radar. The reason, in my humble opinion, is because even the #1 pick in the draft will never see the field this season, or next. Maybe even the season after that. Carlos Correa was the #1 pick in the 2012 draft as a 17-year-old phenom out of Puerto Rico. He was drafted on June 4, 2012 and he made his MLB debut June 8, 2015. 3 years and 4 days after he was drafted. Of course, you have a guy like Alex Bregman who was the 2nd player drafted in the 2015 draft and one year later he made his MLB debut for the Astros in July of 2016. It was still a full year before he came up to the bigs. So why get excited about the MLB draft since you won’t even see the drafted players for years down the road. It’s not like basketball or football where draft picks are supposed to contribute right away. There are no minor leagues in either sport. The teams grab those players by the seat of the pants and chunk them into the deep end of the pool and not only expect them to swim but they are expected to win the race. Like the game of baseball itself, there is no sense of urgency to get these players on the field. Baseball is a passive sport and their approach to new players is passive as well. Let them get experience and seasoning in the minors and when they are ready they will get the dream call up to The Show. As I said, the draft was completed over the last 3 days. 40 rounds are in the books. The Astros are happy with their draft as they looked to restock their minor league system after having to trade away a chunk of their talent to get players like Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Ken Giles. In many cases those draft picks end up being poker chips used by teams who are going all in to win big. The Verlander deal was the move that won the Astros the World Series last year and the Cole deal was an effort to win it all back-to-back but it cost Houston a lot in terms of the minor leagues. The Astros have built a strong organization that should guarantee success for a long time. Jeff Luhnow, Reid Ryan and the rest of the Astros front office have shown they know what the heck they are doing. They are, as I said, very pleased with this year’s draft even though they were picking late in the rounds. Linked below is a recap from Astros.com of the draft which included drafting Alex Bregman’s little brother AJ, one of two left handed pitchers drafted this year by Houston and Carlos Correa’s younger brother JC, an infielder, and Jose Cruz’ grandson Antonio Cruz. (Wait-what? Grandson??? God, I’m old.). The Astros also drafted Antonio’s big brother Trei Cruz in last year’s draft.
https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/astros-pleased-with-their-2018-mlb-draft/c-280114008

[eagle eye]

Wow, did Charlie Morton ever throw a stinker of a game last night. Morton, in just 3.2 innings of work, walked 6 batters and he tied an American League record by hitting 4 others. He also gave up just one hit that ended up scoring one of the 3 runs he allowed. In the first inning Morton walked two batters and hit another one to load the bases. He got a visit from pitching coach Brent Strom with 2 out and the bases loaded and he proceeded to strike out Isaiah Kiner-Falefa on 3 pitches to end the inning. In the second he wasn't so lucky. He led off the inning hitting Redneck Odor and walking the next 2 batters to load the bases with nobody out. He buckled down and struck out Shin-soo Choo and he got a taylor made double play ball which Jose Altuve booted allowing a run to score and no out to be recorded. Morton gave up an RBI sac fly to Nomar Mazarro but then he hit Jurickson Profar with a pitch. He got Joey Gallo to fly out to left to end the inning but both runs in the inning were unearned because of Altuve's error.
Houston is so frustrating and to add to that frustration they have become the kings of hitting into double plays. I was looking at team stats the other day and I was shocked to see that Houston is top 5 in almost every offensive category except for home runs where they are 12th. I think we can all agree that Houston has not been clicking like people expected before the season began. God help the rest of MLB if the offensive gears begin to really mesh. The Astros starting pitching is not as dominating as it was in April and May. Charlie Morton just failed for the 3rd time to notch his 8th win. He didn't have near his best stuff last night but he was good enough to limit the Rangers to just 3 runs. Believe me, it could have been much worse. The Astros guaranteed they win the 4 game series with Texas with their 3rd straight win last night. They will be looking to pull out the brooms when they play the Rangers this afternoon. Dallas Keuchel will be looking to end his current losing streak this afternoon. It's a help that Keuchel has had success against the Rangers and it doesn't hurt that the Rangers suck. That said, Keuchel has to figure out why he is giving up so many home runs so far this season. Keuchel is a ground ball pitcher who depends on his command of the strike zone and especially early in games he hasn't had that Tom Glavine-like command he had when he won the Cy Young a couple of years ago or that took him to 11-0 prior to his neck injury last April and May. Happy Sunday people. It's sunny, hot and a great day to soak up some A/C and watch a baseball game.

[eagle eye]

This week's recap is a lot jollier than the past two. First, Houston went 5-1 on the week. They split a 2-game series with Seattle on Tuesday and Wednesday and followed that with a 4-game sweep of the Rangers and they began their longest road trip of the season in Arlington. The Rangers series was hard fought especially Saturday and Sunday's game because the Astros starting pitchers struggled and both failed to make 5 innings of work. On Saturday Charlie Morton put his 7-1 record on the line as he tried to for the 3rd game in a row to get to 8 wins. Morton flat was bad, as he walked 6 and he hit 4 others with 1 hit. All this in just 3.2 innings of work. It's a testament to Morton's heart that he only gave up 3 runs during his outing. He battled the Rangers and himself. The bullpen came on and held the Rangers scoreless over the final 5.1 innings. Tony Sipp, Ken Giles, Will Harris and Hector Rondon closed the door on a 4-3 win. Today, Keuchel only managed to last 4.1 innings as he just couldn't seem to close out a batter. He gave up a whopping 13 hits but he didn't hit anyone and he didn't walk anyone. The shame of it all is Houston staked Keuchel to a 6-0 lead after 2 innings but Kuechel started giving it back as he gave up 2 runs in the 2nd, 2 in the 3rd and the final 2 in the 5th. Houston did take the lead on a solo monster home run by Yuri Gurriel who celebrated his 34th birthday today. Will Harris allowed a double and an RBI single in the bottom of the 8th to tie the game again. In the 9th, as befitting a weird weekend of baseball Houston scored on a balk by pitcher Keone Kala. The controversial nature of the balk call got Rangers manager Jeff Banister kicked out of the game. Hector Rondon got his 3rd save of the week as AJ Hinch has been using Rondon as his closer. It was disappointing to have to start the week out with a split but the Mariners came in a very hot team on a 5 game winning streak and they finished the weekend 4 gamer against Tampa Bay 3-1. After the Houston series Houston was one game behind the Mariners and with Seattle going 3-1 it mean Houston closed the gap and end the week tied with the Mariners. Seattle has played 2 less games than Houston so they are slightly ahead of Houston by winning percent. The Yankees lead all of baseball with a .700 winning pct with Boston right behind at .667. Seattle is next at .631 and then Houston at .627. No team in the National League is even close to the teams in the AL.

[eagle eye]

The Astros completed their 2nd straight sweep by beating the Oakland A’s 7-3 in an afternoon contest yesterday. Justin Verlander went 7 innings allowing 3 runs on 5 hits, no walks with 7 K’s. Verlander did a good job on the way to his team leading 9th win on the season. His season record now stands at 9-2 in 15 starts. The Astros offense has certainly picked up over the last 10 days and they are starting to give runs support to the starting pitchers who have taken a step or two back from the awesome staff numbers they put in up in April and May.
As a staff the starters are going fewer innings with roughly the same amount of pitches and they are allowing more runs lately than they did in prior weeks. What that tells me is, the hitters are catching up to the pitching overall and the pitchers may be a little less sharp than they were to start the season. It’s all good as the pitching has been good enough to hold teams down while the offense’s output has improved - a lot. In the past week Yuli Gurriel has joined Jose Altuve as the only players to be hitting .300 or better on the team. They were joined yesterday after a 2-4 game by Tony Kemp who joined the group by upping his BA to .301. Tony Kemp has played his way on to this roster both with his play but his bat as well.
Derek Fisher was the guy who Houston wanted in the lineup and he had every chance but after two months he was hitting below the Mendoza line and it was even more noticeable because the rest of the lineup was struggling too. In late May Fisher went on the DL with a gastrointestinal problem and in that time Kemp was a spark that seemed to ignite the whole offense. JD Davis was another guy who the Astros brought up when Josh Reddick went on the DL but, unlike Kemp, his bat was ineffective and he went back to the minors when Reddick returned. The current lineup sans Fisher and Davis and with Kemp has caught fire and they have won 8 straight and 8 or their last 10 games. Besides showing up with his bat Kemp has flashed the leather as well. Whether playing left or center field Kemp has made plays, some spectacular, in the field. Welcome to the fold Mr Kemp, I hope your stay will be a pleasant one!
As Houston’s batting averages climb you have to wonder about Jake Marisnick. He seems to be the only guy on the team who can’t break loose from the terrible start at the plate he’s suffered through so far. As he watches his team mates batting averages climb he is still languishing with a .164 BA. Virtually every man in the Astros lineup struggled through the first 6 weeks of the season. Even Jose Altuve slumped as his BA was dangerously close to falling out of the .300’s at one point. Virtually every man in the lineup has rebounded as the Astros are starting to look like the team that won the World Series 7 months ago. All except Jake. Even a short stint at AAA Fresno didn’t help rattle Jake out of the doldrums. I like Jake and I think the Astros like him too. That’s why they are being so patient with him. The thing that is special about Marisnick is he is a plus-plus fielder. He’s fast, he’s a quality fielder and he’s got a cannon for an arm. Just the other day against Oakland Jake ran a ball down to deep center field, robbed the batter of a home run and he began a relay that doubled off a runner who was at first who thought the hit was going for extra bases at least. Heckuva play by Jake. I just wish he could get his bat going. He’s a career .222 hitter and last season after concentrated offseason work he was much improved at the plate hitting .243 before being injured in early September. Jake missed all of the Astros postseason as a player because of the injury and you wonder if the injury, a fractured right thumb may have something to do with his troubles at the plate. Any way you look at it, Jake is struggling. I hope he is able to figure out his problem, as all of his team mates have, and get back into the groove. I’ll take a .240-.245 Jake Marisnick any day of the week and I’ll bet the Astros would too.

[eagle eye]

There is absolutely nothing to complain about when you win 11 games in a row. When you set a team record for a 10-game road trip by going 10-0. The previous record was 8-2 so Houston beat that record with their win Saturday. Sunday’s win was just lagniappe in that regard.
Saturday’s win was nice because I wasn’t expecting to win because I didn’t have any confidence in Dallas Keuchel. Keuchel had been struggling surrendering runs at an alarming rate and he was definitely the weak link in Astros starting rotation for the past month. He was 0-3 in 5 starts and he looked helpless at times. Saturday was different. He looked like the old Kuechel. He kept the ball low and moved the ball in and out in the strike zone. He went 6 innings allowing just 6 hits, 1 BB with 5 K’s. The most telling stat was his ground ball/fly balls stat. Keuchel was 12/0 for the game which is definitely vintage Keuchel. In fact, neither of the 2 runs allowed were earned.
Lance McCullers was victimized by an error in yesterday’s game too. In the bottom of the 1st McCullers got into a bases loaded-one out jam as he walked two and allowed a hit to load the bases but he got a ground ball out of Hunter Dozier but Alex Bregman made a bad throw to the plate one hopping it to Brian McCann who could not handle the throw. A run scored and no out was recorded on a ball that should have resulted in a double play. McCullers went 6 innings allowing 4 runs, 2 earned and he left after his 6 innings down one run in a 4-3 game. The Astros came back with 3 in the 8th and another in the 9th to take the game 7-4. It was enough to win and it saved McCullers from having to eat the loss.
This past week was great as Houston swept Oakland and Kansas City to go 6-0 for the week. The Astros have retaken possession of 1st place in the AL West by 1.5 games as Seattle lost 2 of 4 against Boston at home. Houston now has 3 starters with 8 wins as Charlie Morton finally got his 8th on Friday night. Justin Verlander got his 9th win of the season on Thursday in the finale against Oakland. Keuchel is lagging behind his fellow starters with a 4-8 record but if what we saw Saturday is a return to form then this is a very strong rotation no question.
The return to form by the offense is nice to see. And it comes at a very opportune time. While the starting rotation carried the team through April and May, it has been the offense that has taken up the slack so far in June. The starters have combined for an ERA over 4 but Houston’s offense has averaged 6+ runs per game. The offense, and a suddenly effective bullpen, have carried the team during the recent win streak. Evan Gattis, Marwin Gonzalez and Yuli Gurriel have been red hot and Gattis and Gonzalez have gone from below the Mendoza line to hitting in the .255 range. Yuli Gurriel is now the 3rd member of the Astros lineup hitting .300 or better. He joins Jose Altvue (.337) and Tony Kemp (.316) in the .300 club. The only hitters who have been struggling lately are George Springer, who was terrible against KC, and Brian McCann who broke a 2-15 slump with 2 hits in 4 AB’s yesterday.
The Astros took over from KC yesterday in a stat I’m sure they would not like to be leading. After hitting into 3 double plays yesterday, 2 by Springer, the Astros lead all of MLB in that category. The had the 3 rally killers yesterday as they had men on 1st and 3rd with just one out when a twin killing ended the threats. Houston should have beaten the Royals in a rout but it didn’t happen that way. On the one hand Houston is getting a lot of base runners but on the other they are killing themselves with poor hitting with runners in scoring position. If you had one gripe about this team right now it would be that. But, it’s a trivial gripe as Houston has won 11 straight games. Now the challenge will be to win as consistently at home as they do on the road. Houston leads the bigs in road wins with a 29-11 record. The Astros will play 20 of their next 26, all the way to the All Star break, so they have an opportunity to improve on their 19-14 home record. None of the opponents Houston faces have a record above .500 so this will be a prime opportunity for Houston to extend their lead in the AL West, their standing in the AL overall and show the rest of MLB that they do not intend to be a one-hit wonder. It all starts with Tampa Bay for 3 games beginning tonight. Gerrit Cole will be looking to join Justin Verlander in the 9-win club as he looks to extend his AL best 130 K’s for the season.

[eagle eye]

The Astros got their 12th straight win last night with a walk off 2-RBI hit by Alex Bregman. The bases were loaded at the time of Bregman’s hit thanks to walk, a hit, a lovely sacrifice bunt by Tony Kemp to move the runners into scoring position and a catcher interference on George Springer. Bregman took a slider on the outer half of the plate and pulled it into the gap in left center for the game winning runs. Houston trailed virtually all game When Gerrit Cole gave up a 2-run home run after a walk to give Tampa a 2-0 right out of the box. Gerrit Cole wasn’t good in the first 3 innings as he walked the bases loaded in the 3rd and then allowed two run scoring hits to extend the Rays lead to 4-0. Cole righted the ship beginning in the 4th and he ended up going 7 innings. Houston chipped away at the Rays’ lead and they were trailing 4-3 when Bregman got his game winning hit giving Houston a 5-4 win. This is the third time in franchise history the Astros have logged 12 game winnings streaks. They did it before in 1999 and 2004.
Reymin Guduan was recalled from AAA Fresno just a few days ago to replace Joe Smith who was placed on the 10-day DL back on June 10. After making one appearance in a 13-5 win over Oakland Guduan was placed on paternity leave for the birth of his child on June 15. Tyler White was called up to replace Guduan. Yesterday Guduan was reinstated from paternity leave after the birth of his child. On the same day he was optioned back to AAA Fresno.
We knew Evan Gattis was hot as a cheap pistol at the plate lately but yesterday he was named AL Player of the Week for the week of June 11 to 17. Last week he hit .417 with 4 home runs and 15 RBI’s. It is the first time in his six-year career he’s won this honor.
In a press conference yesterday with Astros owner Jim Crane and GM Jeff Luhnow it was announced that Luhnow had agreed to a contract extension and a promotion to Team President in Charge of Baseball Operations and General Manager. Luhnow had been the GM of the team since 2011 when he was hired while working for the St Louis Cardinals club. Luhnow turned the team around from being a 100-loss team to a 100-win team and 2017 World Series Champions. The terms of Luhnow’s deal were not released. No other changes to the Astros organization is expected at this time.
Justin Verlander will go for his 10th win of the season as he hopes to lead the Astros to a franchise record 13th win in a row.

[eagle eye]

Houston rebounded after their first loss in 13 games on Tuesday with a nice 5-1 win last night over Tampa Bay to take the series 2 games to 1. Several interesting things happened last night in the process.
The series win over Tampa was the first time Houston has won a series vs the Rays since moving over to the American League in 2013.
The Astros are grateful to the Tampa Bay Rays organization for allowing them to play what would have been a home series if not for Hurricane Harvey in their stadium. Tampa stepped up after the Rangers would not swap home series with Houston in the aftermath of Harvey. The Astros organization is very appreciative of Tampa for their understanding and hospitality in a very difficult time. As a fan, I really began to hate the Rangers for their no-class gamesmanship in their attempt to derail the Astros march to their first World Series title last season. It was a bush league move and I’m so happy Texas totally sucks this season. If you believe in karma then you have to acknowledge the universe is paying the Rangers back for being so chicken you-know-what. The Rangers behavior is in stark contrast to how much the Cowboys and Mavericks did to help Houston as they could not even return to Houston to check on their families and homes in the immediate aftermath of Harvey. Tampa showed grit and they gave all Houston wanted on the field. Nathan Eovaldi and Blake Snell are two really good pitchers who we will see again in ten days when Houston travels to Tampa for 4 games next week.
The Astros have become the first MLB team to reach 50 games. The have a 50-26 record, 24 games over .500. They have a 3-game lead in the AL West as Seattle has lost two straight to the Yankees. The Yankees technically have the best record in baseball based on winning percentage. Their .690 WP bests 2nd place Houston’s .658 but the Yankees have played 4 to 5 games fewer than anyone else due to rainouts.
Houston had the first back-to-back-to-back homers in ten years last night when George Springer, Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve did it in the bottom of the sixth inning to break open a 1-1 tie. The last time Houston had 3 HR’s back to back was May 2, 2008 when Miguel Tejada, Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee did it. Jose Altuve’s shot was his second of the game as he jacked one to left field in the bottom of the 4th to tie the game at 1. In all, Altuve went 3-4 on the game with a double and 2 dingers. Every man in the Astros lineup had one hit during the game last night. The only person with multiple hits was Altuve.
Earlier this week Altuve became the AL leader in batting average at .342. After last night’s outburst that has increased to .347. 2nd place belongs to the Red Sox’ Mookie Betts at .340 and 3rd place is the Reds’ Scooter Gennett with a .336 BA. Altuve leads the majors with 105 hits on the season and he is on a pace to rack up his 5th straight 200-hit season. He is on pace to get 224 hits which is just 1 shy of his team record 225 hits he set in 2014.
The play of the game was likely in the bottom of the 1st inning when Tony Kemp made a diving catch of a sinking liner to left field to end the Rays half of the inning. The bases were loaded and if Kemp doesn’t make the catch two runs would likely have scored and the Rays would still have been batting. It could have changed the whole complexion of the game. As it was, Charlie Morton went on to pitch 6 strong innings, allowed just one unearned run while giving up just 2 hits and 4 BB’s with 4 K’s. The four walks and a hit batsman show he still has some control issues but he’s pitching well again and he joins Justin Verlander in the 9-win club. It was surely due in large part because of Tony Kemp’s stellar effort in the first inning. As Milo Hamilton used to say, “Put a gold star on that play!”
Houston gets a well-deserved day off today. They resume play on Friday night as Dallas Keuchel looks to build on the great outing he had last Saturday against the KC Royals. Keuchel went 6 strong innings allowing 2 unearned runs. He will be facing the Royals again and we all are hoping his last outing was more a back-to-form performance rather than an anomaly in a not-so-great season. He will be looking to improve on his 4-8 season record.
Last night was the biggest single game attendance of the season due, in all likelihood, to the promotion offered by the Astros. The Astros gave away a replica World Series ring to all people who came to the game. Heckuva keepsake and it obviously inspired the crowd to a playoff level of intensity as Houston came back to win the game and the series against the Rays.

[eagle eye]

The Week in Review - Welcome to Sunday Night Live!!! I'm not Chevy Chase and neither are you.

Several things ended this week a couple had something to do with the Astros........

First, the winning streak that began about two weeks earlier came to a screeching halt as the Astros offense went silent in a 2-1 loss to Tampa. Despite 6-2/3 innings of his usually brilliant pitching Just Verlander came up with bupkiss despite giving up just one run. It was 1-1 heading into the 8th as Ken Giles came on and did his usual crap job allowing a double and an RBI triple to score the go-ahead run which was enough to break the streak at a franchise tying 12 games. Houston bounced back behind a nice outing by Charlie Morton who went 6 innings allowing just 2 hits and one unearned run go with 4 BB's and 4 K's. Houston won 5-1 to take the series against the Rays. The Astros had won the first game of the series on Tuesday that took the streak to 12. After the rain that had been drenching the area finally came to an end on Thursday which was a day off for Houston, as luck would have it. Or was it?
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The Astros offense came out and was the epitome of futility as they fell in the series opener to the woeful KC Royals by a score of 1-0. The Astros had base runners pretty mush all evening but they couldn't get a hit off the Royals starter, Danny Duffy - he of the 5.55 ERA. It was pitiful to watch how futile the Astros were against Duffy. What was even more frustrating was watching Keuchel pitch so well and not be rewarded for the effort. Not only that, but Houston lost the game in the top of the 9th when Ken Giles gave up a double and an RBI triple with 2 outs that gave the Royals the series opener. It didn't get much better on Saturday as the offense continued to struggle. Lance McCullers Jr pitched okay although he did give up a 3 run home run in the top of the 4th to give the Royals a 3-0 lead. Houston answered with 2 runs in the bottom of the 4th. That's the way the score stayed until the bottom of the 9th when Evan Gattis tied the game with a sac fly. The score remained 3-3 until the bottom of the 12 when the baseball Gods finally granted Houston a break. George Springer walked to lead off the inning. Alex Bregman got a doink single just out of reach of the first baseman who couldn't catch up to the ball in shallow right field. To make matters worse, he bobbled the ball allowing both Springer and Bregman to move up an extra 90 feet. Jose Altuve was intentionally walked setting the table for Carlos Correa. With a 1-1 count Royals reliever Justin Grimm made a mistake and left a ball up over the plate and Correa drove it into right center for a walk off single to earn a win for the Astros. Today, behind some nice pitching by Gerrit Cole for just 5 innings. Cole labored through those 5 innings tossing 104 pitches. He only gave up 2 hits with 3 walks and he added to his AL leading strikeout total by adding 8 K's. Through all that he only allowed 1 run and the bullpen did its job with Collin McHugh and Tony Sipp each gave up one run but it didn't matter as Houston scored 8 runs in the bottom of the 1st highlighted by a grand slam by Yuli Gurriel. The Astros were never threatened after that. Houston won the game 11-3 and the series 2-1.

The Astros went 4-2 on the week but it was a struggle. The offense that came alive over the previous two weeks struggled like crazy at home. The split between home and away is puzzling. Houston has the MLB best 29-11 record while they are 23-16 at the Juice Box. Short porches in left and right field and huge alleys in left and right center field but Houston can't seem to take advantage. The only guys in the Astros lineup that seem to hit okay at home are Jose Altuve, Yuli Gurriel and Josh Reddick. Go figure. Houston has opened up a 4.5 game lead over Seattle who struggled against the Yankees and Red Sox this week just the same way Houston did 3 weeks ago. The Astros and Red Sox are tied for the most wins, 52, have identical 52-27 records but they are percentage points behind the Yankees who are the 3rd team to reach 50 wins this past week. The Yanks are 50-25.

Houston will face the Blue Jays for the first time this year. The Blue Jays are in 4th place in the rough AL East with a 36-41 record but if anything the past week has taught us is that Houston is capable of losing to practically anyone when they are at home. It will be the opportunity for former Astros Teoscar Hernandez and Tyler Clippard to get their World Series rings. Both were dealt to Toronto in the offseason.

Houston now has 26 of 40 draft picks signed and all of their top 10 picks. The Astros are very pleased with their draft this year as they reload an already stacked minor league system. Only a few of the Astros picks were right out of high school as Houston opted for drafting college grads. Only 8 picks came straight out of high school. One of those high school picks is the Astros round pick, Jayson Schoeder, is a right handed power pitcher from Juanita High School in Kirkland Washington. He was committed to attend the University of Washington but he opted to sign a contract with Houston. He signed for $1.25 MM which is above the slotted value of $965,300 for his spot in the draft.

The Astros have a little something to brag about at AA Corpus Christi. Randy Caesar of the Corpus Christi hooks set a Texas League record notching his 40 game in a row with a hit. Here's a link to the article about him from Astros.com.

https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/astros-prospect-cesar-extends-hit-streak-to-40/c-282623404

[eagle eye]

Houston reached the half way point of the season last night and they did it by beating Toronto 7-0 giving them their 2nd best record after 81 games in franchise history with a 53-28 record. Their best record came last season when they were 54-27. Obviously, this year’s team is a bunch of slackers. While on a pace to win 108 games last season the Astros had their usual August swoon having their only losing month of the season and they ended up winning “just” 101 games. This year’s team is on pace for 106 but they will still have to go the August gauntlet unscathed to hit that mark.

George Springer has had his own swoon to deal with in the second half of the month so far. In his first 10 games in June he got hits in 9 of the 10 with 3 multi-hit games. His past 11 games are a different story. In 45 at-bats over the past 11 games he has 4 hits. That is an .088 batting average. That sucks for a guy batting last in a lineup much less your lead-off hitter. It’s been painful to watch. Springer was in the midst of an 0-20 stretch when he got a double in his final at-bat last night against Toronto. The relief on his face was obvious and he was so happy to finally get a hit he asked for the ball he hit. One hit doesn’t end a slump but it’s a start. Springer, who was hitting in the neighborhood of .295 when the slump began, has lost 30 points on his batting average. He is currently hitting .263. As Astros fans, we certainly hope last night’s hit was just the slump-buster we have all been waiting for.

Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. After a couple of rough starts we saw the April version of Charlie Morton last night. In 7 innings of work he allowed zero runs on just 4 hits, 2 walks and 13 (that’s not a typo folks) K’s. Morton becomes the first pitcher on the staff with 10 wins. It seemed like the offense was taking another night off until Evan Gattis got a base hit that scored Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve to give Morton a 2-0 lead after 5 innings. Houston scored 5 runs in the eighth inning thanks to a 3-run homer by Jake Marisnick, who is breaking out of a season long slump over the past few days, and a 2-run shot by a red-hot Alex Bregman who went 4-5 last night with 3 doubles and the HR.

This afternoon the Astros send Dallas Keuchel to the hill in the series finale against Toronto. Keuchel will be looking to continue his run of good pitching. He’s 1-0 in his last two starts and he really should be 2-0 but for lack of offensive support in his last outing when he didn’t allow an earned run. One o’clock game this afternoon for the series win and a 6-3 home stand.

[eagle eye]

Okay, so I was too busy watching Japanese porn to notice that Alex Bregman hit a two-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the 9th inning to snatch victory right out of the jaws of defeat at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays yesterday afternoon. Believe me, I am ashamed of myself for the misalignment of my priorities! Okay, so maybe part of that wasn’t exactly true. I was at work and I forgot the Astros started at 1:10 yesterday. I remembered just as I was about to leave work at the end of the day that Houston was playing a get-away game. I peeked at the score and it was 6-5 Jays. Houston just hasn’t got the same mojo for late inning heroics that they had in 2017 and assumed they lost. Biiiiiiigggg mistake on my part. Of the 4 walk-off hits the Astros have had this year Alex Bregman has 3 of them. Yesterday’s game was number 3. Tony Kemp led off the inning with a single and he advanced to 2nd on a wild pitch by Jays reliever Ryan Tepera with George Springer batting. Springer flew out to left bringing Bregman to the plate. Tepera had an 0-2 count on Bregman when he left a fastball too much over the plate about belt high and Bregman smashed it high off the wall above the Crawford Boxes in left field giving Houston a 7-6 win for the game and the series win over the Jays. This made the 6th straight series win for the Astros who went 10-0 on their last road trip and they finish the current 9-game home stand with a 6-3 record.

Dallas Keuchel’s evil doppelgänger began the game yesterday allowing 5 Blue Jay runs in the top of the first. It seemed as though everyone in the Jays lineup hit a double in the inning. It gave the Astros some semblance of hope when they scored 3 runs in the bottom of the inning thanks to a 2-run double by Evan Gattis and an RBI single by Josh Reddick scoring Gattis to keep the score close at 5-3. Keuchel put up goose-eggs for the next 4 innings and Houston inched closer to Toronto on the strength of doubles by Alex Bregman and Evan Gattis making the score 5-4 after 5 innings. Then the evil Keuchel came out in the 6th as he loaded the bases with one out. Keuchel recovered and got Devon Travis to hit a sharp ground ball to Jose Altuve. Easy-peazy double play, right? Wrong. Altuve misplayed the ball and he didn’t even record one out. The run scored from 3rd as everybody was safe on the play. That was it for Keuchel who had thrown 98 pitches in the game. At least Keuchel didn’t have to eat a loss in this one. Brad Peacock came in with the bases still loaded and struck out the next two hitters to stop the bleeding and that was probably the thing that saved the game for the Astros. The score was 6-4 after 6.

In the eighth Alex Bregman led off the inning with a double and 2 batters later Gattis doubled off the same spot of the wall in left that he hit to in the 1st inning to score Bregman to make the score 6-5. In the 9th came Bregman’s heroics and it was ballgame.

Fun Fact: Houston, Boston and the Yankees are the only teams in the majors with a winning percent over .650. The next best is Seattle with a .617 WP. Boston and New York have a .667 WP while Houston has a .658. Houston has also played one more game than Boston and 6 more games than New York.

[eagle eye]

Short and sweet this morning. Astros win the series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays 1-0. The stars of the game were Lance McCullers who was great. He went 7 innings allowing no runs. His dominance is illustrated in the fact that he only allowed 3 hits with 2 walks, a hit batsman and he had 7 K’s. Only 2 Rays base runners even reached 2nd base against him. McCullers is now 9-3 on the season and his ERA is down to 3.55. The Astros offense couldn’t figure out any of the 3 pitchers the Rays used. They were 0-4 with RISP and they stranded 9 base runners. The one bright spot was a solo home run by Jake Marisnick in the top of the 5th. Jake has been on a roll lately as he has run his batting average up to .199. That doesn’t sound great, I know, but after floundering around most of the season with a .160-ish BA it’s definitely an improvement. His low point of the season was .118 on April 21st but he’s been gradually improving since then actually raising his BA 81 points. Jake is hitting .324 for the month of June. His career stats say that he won’t sustain that but we will certainly take for as long as it lasts. If his BA ends up in the .240-.250 range I think fans and the Astros will be happy with that.

Yuli Gurriel has been hot as can be. As of Wednesday, he led all of the MLB in batting average with runners in scoring position with a .435 average. That is a phenomenal stat.

George Springer did not break out of his slump with his double off the left field wall in Tuesday night’s game. It did set the table for a 2-run homer by Alex Bregman in the Astros 7-0 win. Trouble is, he hasn’t had a hit since unless you count catcher’s interference which MLB does not. Springer has hit the ball hard a bunch of times but it goes right to someone or someone makes a great play to rob him of hits. Springer is now 3 for his last 54 AB’s. Maybe AJ Hinch just needs to sit Springer for a couple of games to break this bad mojo he’s living under. Who knows? What I do know is Springer is better than he’s showing. I just hope he hasn’t forgotten that himself.

[eagle eye]

The Astros lost to Tampa last night 3-2. It was a combination of bad defense and poor offense. The Astros offense made a pitcher, Wilmer Font who came into the game with a 6.46 ERA look like Justin Verlander. In the 6th inning Font apparently hurt himself by pulling a muscle in right lat area. He tried to push through the pain ultimately he was taken out in the middle of pitching to Jake Marisnick. Diego Castillo came in for Font and he ended up walking Marisnick and the next batter, Alex Bregman hit a bomb into the left-centerfield seats. That made the score 3-2 in favor of Tampa who scored 3 runs in a weird 4th inning for Gerrit Cole. After two leadoff singles and men on 1st and 3rd the next hitter, Adeiny Hechaveria, hit a long fly ball to deep center field. Jake Marisnick race back and seemed to make the catch just as he banged into the wall but when he hit the wall it jarred the ball loose. The man on 3rd scored and it left Cole with men on 1st and 2nd and still nobody out. A sac bunt left Houston with men on 1st and 3rd. Cole struck out the next batter and he seemed to have gotten out of the inning without any more damage when he got Kevin Keirmaier to hit a ground ball to SS Marwin Gonzalez who then threw the ball into the Rays dugout. The errant throw allowed two more runs to score on the play. Cole struck out the next batter for the final out but it was clear he was upset at the turn of events in the inning. Of the 3 runs scored only 1 was earned as the runner on third would have scored when Marisnick dropped the ball even if he had held on for the out. That was all the scoring as Cole went 6 innings and Collin McHugh pitched two scoreless innings. Unfortunately, the Astros offense didn't even threaten to score after Bregman's HR.

If you look closer the offense didn't have much of a lineup last night. George Springer was given the night off, Carlos Correa was placed on the 10 day DL with back soreness earlier this week and Yuli Gurriel is off on paternity leave. AJ Reed was called up to replace Gurriel and he made the start at 1B going 0-3 in the game. Josh Reddick, who hits much better at home than he does on the road went 0-4 hitting in the 3 spot and Evan Gattis hit cleanup, or actually he didn't hit cleanup, going 1-4. Houston had a pretty weak offense on the field last night and it didn't help that the defense let the team down too. Game 3 of this 4-game series is this afternoon beginning at 3:10 PM. Justin Verlander will be making his 3rd bid to get his 10th win of the season. Tampa will send Ryne Stanek to the hill to make his second start of the series. He pitched 1.2 innings in Thursday's opener. This is what Tampa is forced to do because they have a lack of starting pitching so relievers have to give them innings on days when Nathan Eovaldi and Blake Snell are on their off days.

To fill the open roster spot while Carlos Correa is out the Astros have brought up LHP Cionel Perez. He was active on Friday night but he did not make an appearance in the game.

With Houston's loss and Seattle beat Kansas City 4-1 picking up a game on the Astros. They are currently 2.5 games behind the Astros who, as I mentioned before, are struggling offensively right now. If Houston can't find out where they put their offense they could go into the All Star break in 2nd place in the AL West.

[eagle eye]

June is over and given he troubles the team has had to deal with for most of the month I say good riddance. It wasn't all bad of course. A franchise tying 12 game winning streak and a franchise tying 11 game road winning streak, both streaks overlapping a bit. The bad was the struggles the starting pitchers had. To a man all their ERA's went up 2 runs or more. The final starts of the month for Justin Verlander yesterday was indicative of the June swoon. It wasn't just the pitchers, the offense has struggled for two weeks. George Springer is in the middle of an epic slump. Evan Gattis is starting to struggle and Josh Reddick can only seem to hit the ball when the team is home in Houston. There are exceptions to that too. Alex Bregman has been on fire as has Yuli Gurriel who leads the majors in batting average with runners in scoring position. An then there's Jose Altuve who been, well, Jose Altuve. Lump all this together and you have a team who is still leading the AL West but that lead has dwindled down to just 1.5 games thanks to the Astros 2 game losing streak coupled with a Seattle Mariners 6 game winning streak has seen the division tighten up considerably.

Houston is now standing at 55-30 for the season. Boston has the best record in baseball at 56-28 and the Yankees are second best at 53-27. Nobody else in either league other than Seattle is even close to the top 3. It's been a challenge as Gerrit Cole, Justin Verlander and Dallas Keuchel can't seem to find their mojo as of late. Lance McCullers and Charlie Morton have had their struggles too but they have all been spectacular at times. Finding some offensive consistency would be helpful. It would certainly take the pressure off the pitching staff. But, the stats aren't as bad as they seem if you take a closer look. In 2017 Houston led just about every hitting stat there is and they were in the top five in the others. Houston isn't leading anything but they are still near the top in most most categories. It's a just a case of 2018 is just a different year than last year. As much as we all would love to see the Astros dominate the way the pundits predicted but when you think about how often the pundits are wrong you realize they just gave us all unrealistic expectations. I really think that may be it. We all just expect too much out of the Astros.

Lets take a look at hard numbers. The Astros are currently 3rd in team batting average, 2nd in runs scored, 2nd in total hits. The Astros are #1 in batting average against which mean the perceived pitching woes are just not true. The Astros pitchers are tops in staff ERA. The Astros have 14 games left until the All Star break and all but 3 of them are at home. Hopefully, they can find a bit of their mojo as they head into the break and hopefully the starting pitchers can find their way back to the April/May dominance again. I thinking if this team catches fire in September they way they did last season we will all be some happy campers!

[eagle eye]

Houston had a bad week last week. They went 3-4 on the week after losing the opening game against Toronto last Monday night they finished the week losing 3 in a row to Tampa Bay. Tampa just isn’t that good but when you are missing 3 big contributors to your lineup like George Springer, Carlos Correa and Yuli Gurriel and almost every other position player seems to be in a slump you can’t win very often. The Astros offense is painful to watch right now. Case in point: yesterday Houston was trailing Tampa 2-1 in the top of the 8th inning. They finally got to Rays starter Blake Snell who went 7.1 of nearly no-hit ball. The Astros had the bases loaded with just one out and Jose Altuve and Yuli Gurriel coming up to bat. You had to figure Houston will get the tying run across at very least, right? WRONG!!! Jose Altuve struck out swinging on a pitch that was so far outside he couldn’t have hit the ball with a telephone pole. Next up was Gurriel who hit a weak ground ball to short for the 3rd out. No runs with bases loaded and one out is almost unforgivable. All this and the defense has been shaky all week. Yesterday with men on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs and a 1-0 lead Charlie Morton was pulled by AJ Hinch (another too early hook by AJ Hinch IMO). He brought in Chris Devenski who gave up a short, bloop single to right field to Matt Duffy. Josh Reddick was there and he fielded the ball on the first hop then he turned around and became a spectator watching both runners score to take a 2-0 lead. It’s maddening to think how far up his derriere Reddick had his head on the play. Maybe-MAYBE the first runner scores but there’s no way a runner should score from first base on a ball hit no more than 130 feet from home plate. So, in the 7th Houston takes a 1-0 lead on an Evan Gattis solo home run and they give it right back in the bottom of the inning on a bonehead non-play by Josh Reddick. Then came the bases loaded fiasco in the 8th followed by a solo home run in the bottom of the inning by Tampa’s Mallex Smith to make the score 3-1 (thanks a lot Brad Peacock!) Evan Gattis got a solo home run in the top of the 9th but that was it. Tyler White walked after Gattis’ lead off HR but Josh Reddick grounded into a double play and Marwin Gonzalez grounded out to end the game. See what I mean? Maddening. Charlie Morton and Gerrit Cole both robbed of wins because of a lack of offense and poor defense this past week.
The bad thing is Houston is now on a 3-game losing streak and the Seattle Mariners have pulled to within ½ game of the Astros in the AL West because they are on a 7-game winning streak. Seattle will lap the Astros this week if the team can’t figure out how to get out of their own way. Houston stinks right now. In four games against the Tampa Bay Rays they scored a grand total of 7 runs. That’s less than 2 runs a game on average and you don’t win many games doing that. In fact, if not for Alex Bregman and Evan Gattis and a solo shot by Jake Marisnick in Game 1 Houston literally would not have scored at all against Tampa. I have never liked the hitting coach for the Astros and given the extended slumps so many of the Astros have been in this year I like him even less now. Houston has a day off today so I’m counting yesterday’s loss an extension of the June Swoon. To me, July begins tomorrow in Arlington where Houston will finish the current road trip with 2 against the stupid Rangers. Houston will play the final 11 games before the All Star Game at home. 4 against the White Sox, 4 against Oakland and 3 against Detroit. None of these teams should be able to hold a candle to the Astros except for the fact that the Astros aren’t very good right now either. Like I said, Maddening!!!

[eagle eye]

The Astros had a good game against Chisox last night. It was close until the bottom of the 8th when Houston scored 7 runs highlighted by an Evan Gattis 3-run dinger. It's a good thing too because Brad Peacock in the 9th inning thought he was pitching in a home run derby. Going into the 8th Houston led 4-1. If Houston doesn't get those insurance runs the 2 homers and 3 runs Peacock allowed would have tied the game. I guess you let your guard down a bit when you are working with a 10 run lead.

Lance McCullers won his 10th victory of the season after going 7 innings and striking out a career high 12 batters. The 10 wins are also a career high.

Today it was announced that Jake Marisnick is being optioned to AAA Fresno and Astros top prospect Kyle Tucker is being called up. It was just a matter of time for Tucker, who has been tearing it up in the minors. I kind of feel bad for Jake though. The guy has really struggled at the plate all season but in spite of his struggles at the plate he continues to be one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball. He made a highlight reel catch last night in the 8th inning. Shading toward right-center a ball was hit toward the gap in left-center. Marisnick got a great jump on the ball and on a dead run he dove and caught the ball in midair for the final out of the inning. I like Jake and I hope he figures out what he needs to as a hitter and I hope he gets called back up in September. The Astros offense could use a shot in the arm at the back end of the batting order. AJ Hinch said Tucker will be in the lineup tonight and will play left field and bat 7th.

We could be seeing the future of the catching position. The Astros had to call up Tim Federowicz after Brian McCann had to have arthroscopic knee surgery this past week. On the same day McCann went on the DL Max Stassi was hit by a pitch in the right wrist. There were no broken bones but he has been day-to-day ever since. Federowicz has made 4 starts since his call-up and he's hit .263 so far and he got his first two RBI's last night.

[eagle eye]

The Astros first week in July was a good won. Yeah, I know but when you go 6-0 for the week you can forgive a corny pun. The Astros joined the Red Sox as the first two teams to win 60 games this season. The Astros still trail the Yankees in winning percent but the Yankees are playing a double header today so they will make up one of the 4 games they are behind most of the league. Houston finishes the week 3.5 games up on Seattle who lost 2 or the 4 games against the Rockies (Kids, tell Colorado thank you. Thank you Rockies!) While Seattle stumbled a bit a 6-game winning streak by Houston is most welcome especially after losing 3 of 4 to Tampa Bay to end the previous week. First the Astros won a short 2-game series against Texas meaning they have won 8 straight against the Rangers this season. After Texas was the four-game sweep of the White Sox. Houston completed a season sweep of 7 games against the Pale Hose and that is significant because the Astros had never swept a season series against either an AL or NL team before.

So, Houston ended the week with a 3.5 game lead in the AL West and they are tied with Boston with most wins in all of MLB. Also this week the Astros saw Charlie Morton win a team high 11th game and Lance McCullers won his 10th. Unfortunately Justin Verlander was denied his bid for his 10th win of the season and Gerrit Cole was denied his 10th after the offense failed to give them run support. Verlander's game was a real kick in the nuts after he went 7 innings allowing just 4 hits and 2 earned runs and failed to get the win. 3 of the 4 games he has tried to win his 10th game Verlander has given up just 5 earned runs. The phrase 'snake bit' comes to mind. Dallas Keuchel got some luck as he won both his games last week beating the Rangers on Tuesday allowing 2 runs, both unearned and he came back yesterday with a one-run gem. Keuchel went 7 innings and he needed every one of those innings to allow Houston to get 2 measly runs on the board. A 4th inning solo HR by Jose Altuve and 2 out, 2 strike suicide squeeze play in the bottom of the 7th to qualify Keuchel for the victory. Collin McHugh and Hector Rondon each pitched a scoreless inning to preserve the win with Rondon getting the save.

As I sit here writing the recap I'm looking at the A's make the Astros hitters look foolish which is a shame because Gerrit Cole pitched 6 innings of shutout ball with 3 hits, 3 BB's and 11 K's. Somewhere in notching those 11 K's Cole became the all-time leader in strikeouts before the All Star break. Brad Peacock was so impressed he gave up the only run of the game so far in the top of the 7th to A's RF Stephen Piscotti when he allowed a solo HR to lead off the inning. In the bottom of the 6th the Astros had one last chance to score to help Cole qualify for the win. Houston had men on 1st and 2nd with just one out and Jose Altuve at bat. Guess what? Yep, you guessed it. Altuve hit into an inning ending double play to end the threat. Did you know that Cole had 7 starts with a no-decision? And did you know that Houston won 6 or those 7 games? It looks like Houston will lose this 8th no-decision game as the A's have scored another run in the 8th to make the score 2 zip. When you face pitchers with an ERA over 4 you don't expect to be held to just 3 hits and no runs through 7 innings. Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander have to have sore crotches after continuously being kicked in the groin by the lack of offensive support they get when they pitch.

One last note. Houston brought up top prospect Kyle Tucker for the White Sox finale on Sunday. In his first game in the bigs Tucker went 1-5 with a walk and 3 K's in his first 3 AB's. Tucker's walk late in the game came with the bases loaded giving him his first big league RBI. He was the talk of the Astros postgame show but really, he's struggling in much the same way Alex Bregman did when he first came up. Bregman began his big league career going 1 for his first 34 AB's. So far in two games Tucker is 1-7 giving him a .143 BA which, technically, is worse than the guy he replaced. Jake Marisnick was hitting .190 for the season when he was sent down in favor of Tucker. Look for Tucker to get a lot of AB's this week prior to the All Star break. I hope Houston can come back in the 9th and sneak out a win. They have George Springer, Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve coming up to bat. The Astros also have Yuli Gurriel on the bench to pinch hit after AJ Hinch gave him the night off. The A's went down in the top of the 9th so it's all up to the limp noodle offense to pull one out. I'm going to bed.

[eagle eye]

Quick notes on the A’s series so far.
First, could Houston be more frustrating to watch? Monday the offense was nowhere to be found and on Tuesday the bullpen tried to give the game away. Twice. In both games you have to feel for the starting pitchers, Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander both pitched 6 innings of shutout baseball only to see victory slip through their fingers yet again. In Verlander’s case, He had a 4-0 lead all the way into the 9th inning. Unfortunately, the bullpen had one of their epic meltdowns. The ring leader of the meltdown was Ken Giles. He allowed 3 base hits and a run without ever recording an out. Hector Rondon wasn’t any better as he allowed the 2 runs he inherited from Giles to score plus a run that was charged to him that tied the game at 4 before he could record the 3rd out. Verlander had to be thinking “WTF is going on??? Whose mother do I have to kiss to get a win around here?” as he watched the 9th inning unfold. I’m tired of the Ken Giles show. More often than not it sucks. You can’t trust him and this is the 2nd time this year Giles was so bad he passed his bad mojo to the other guys who relieved him that cost, or almost cost the Astros a win. Collin McHugh allowed a solo HR to give the A’s a 5-4 lead in the top of the 11th. Not a great night for the bullpen.
Alex Bregman seems to always be at the plate in walk-off situations. He was there again in the bottom of the 11th. After a walk to Josh Reddick and a base hit by Kyle Tucker it left the Astros with runners on the corners with no outs. A ground ball up the middle by Tony Kemp looked like the A’s were going to get Reddick at the plate but C Jonathan Lucroy couldn’t handle the throw allowing Reddick to score the tying run. Tucker at 2nd and Kemp on 1st with no outs. George Springer came up and he flew out to right field for the first out of the inning. Now it was Bregman’s turn. With a 1-2 count Bregman swung and just clipped the top of the baseball. It hit in foul ground right beside the plate but it rolled forward and eventually went fair. At that point the A’s catcher picked up the ball and attempted to tag Bregman who thought the ball would stay foul and he never ran. Bregman jumped back and the ball slipped out of Jonathan Lucroy’s hand. Bregman made a dash for first and Lucroy’s throw hit Bregman in the head, skidding off his batting helmet into right field. Kyle Tucker scored from 2nd base for the win. One of the most bizarre walk-off plays ever. This is the second time Bregman has been involved with a walk-off that was beyond weird. On April 8, against San Diego, Bregman hit a high pop up that traveled all of about 15 feet from home plate with a man on 2nd base. The runner went on contact and his hustle paid off as the Padres first baseman overran the play and the ball dropped harmlessly in play just as he crossed home plate with the winning run. It’s hard to say which play had a greater weird factor.
Jake Marisnick didn’t last long at AAA Fresno. As you recall Marisnick was sent down to make room for Kyle Tucker who got the call up based on his excellent production in the minors. As it turns out, Jake never went to Fresno, he never left Houston, because AAA was going into their All-Star break which took place this past Sunday. Yesterday, Gerrit Cole was put on bereavement leave due the loss of a grandparent. Cole will only miss a couple of days and he will be back in time for his next scheduled start on Saturday. This is the 2nd of his grandparents to pass away this season. As for Jake? This is just a slight reprieve as he will likely be headed to California by the weekend.

[Dracula]

When feeling depressed about the freakin, what the hell are they doing, may they all go to that special place in hell, Astros, just remember the wise advice from Animal House's Bluto.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LARx7M9s15w

[eagle eye]

Week in review;

Houston had a crap week going into the All Star break going 3-4 for the week. They lost 3 of 4 against Oakland and they should have really come away with a 2-2 split at very least. They won the series with Detroit after beating a sad sack Tigers team who had the opposite record of the A's going in. The Tigers had lost 19 of their last 23 games. The sweep of the Tigers would have pretty much salvaged the week but it wasn't going to happen. Justin Verlander was making his 5th try at winning his 10th game of the season and he came up snake eyes yet again. Part of it was the offense's ineptitude against a lousy pitcher in Francisco Liriano didn't make matters any easier for Verlander. Actually, Justin's day sort of reflected the previous 98 games of the season. Sometimes the Verlander was really good but then, all of a sudden, Verlander couldn't get anyone out. In the first inning he struck out the side and in the 2nd inning he allowed a single, home run and a single. While pitching to the 4th batter in the inning he tried a pick-off move on the man on 1st and promptly threw the ball away allowing the runner to advance all the way to 3B. A sack fly to right-center and all of a sudden it's 3-0. Houston closed the gap to 3-2 over the next two innings but in the 6th evil Verlander re-emerged. He allowed back-to-back HR's to extend the Tigers lead to 6-2 after he allowed a solo HR to lead off the 5th making the score 4-2. The Astros got an oh-by-the-way run in the bottom of the 9th to make the final score 6-3. Verlander struck out 12 Tigers hitters but he also gave up 4 home runs in the game. All pretty much mistake pitches that none of the Tigers missed. The good, the bad and ugly all in one game. Just like the previous 98 games.

Houston has the 2nd best record as m in Astros history going into the All Star break at 64-35. That's 2 games off the pace of last year's team who was 66-33 at the break.

[eagle eye]

I honestly figured Alex Bregman’s Home Run Derby appearance would be nice but I really didn’t expect him to get past the first round regardless of who his opponent was. Bregman is 6’ tall but he really doesn’t look that big on TV or from the Crawford Boxes at the Juice Box. You want to give Bregman the benefit of the doubt because you just love to watch him play. His first-round opponent was Kyle Schwarber of the Chicago Cubs. For the record, Schwarber is listed at 6’ tall too but when he and Bregman hugged it out at the end of their first-round match Schwarber looked bigger, read taller, than Bregman. I’d bet you a cheeseburger Bregman is really in the 5’9’’ to 5’10’’ range.
Either way, their first-round matchup was really entertaining. Schwarber went first and he hit 16 home runs. Every player has 4 minutes to hit as many HR’s as he can. A player can win a 30 second bonus if he hits 2 HR’s that travel 440 feet or more. Schwarber hit two long balls that qualified him for the extra time so, he had 4 minutes and 30 seconds to hit his 16 dingers. Seeds for the Derby were decided by how many HR’s each player had hit going into the All-Star break. Bregman was actually the higher seed as he hit 20 round trippers to Schwarber’s 19. Where all this power from Bregman has come from is a bit of a mystery since he only hit 19 homers all of last season. Bregman took his 30 second timeout around the 2-minute mark with 7 homers. After his break he came back and got on a roll and he got to 15 homers with about 25 seconds left. Bregman hit a rocket that would have tied Schwarber but it hooked foul. Bregman had about 4 swings to tie but, all his efforts fell just short of the mark with his last swing hitting the left field wall about half way up. Without the power to generate the long balls needed to qualify for the 30 second bonus all Bregman had was the 4 minutes everyone gets. Without the bonus Schwarber would not have beaten Bregman because Schwarber only had 14 HR’s after his 4 minutes and he was able to hit just 2 long balls with the bonus. Bregman had to feel pretty good about his first appearance in the Derby and he was surrounded by teammates from the Astros who were his own personal rooting section. Schwarber ended up in the final against the National’s Bryce Harper who beat Schwarber in a 60 second hit-off after the two were tied at the end of the regulation.
Way to go Alex Bregman! You did the Astros proud. Good luck to you and the other Astros and American Leaguers in tonight’s All-Star Game. A nice time will be had by all!!!

[eagle eye]

If you watched the All-Star game last night you saw a pretty good game that featured the unusual stat that every single run, save one, in an 8-6 AL win scored because of a home run. There were 10 home runs hit in the game and all but 2 were solo shots. The multi-run shots were hit by Seattle’s Jean Segura who hit a 3-run shot in the top of the 8th giving the AL a 5-2 lead at the time and a 2-run shot by Cincinnati’s Scooter Gennett in the bottom of the 9th that tied the game and sent the contest into extra innings. That 3-run shot by Segura was the difference in the game in terms of overall scoring. Still, a really nice game with the last 3 innings of regulation and the 10th inning featuring a pretty awesome display of power.
The AL led 2-0 as of the top of the 3rd thanks to solo HR’s by Aaron Judge in the 2nd and Mike Trout in the 3rd. It was star vs star as Judge homered off Max Scherzer and Trout hit his HR off Jason deGrom. Blake Snell of Tampa gave up a 2-out solo shot to the Cubs Wilson Contreras in the bottom of the 3rd to make the score 2-1. The score remained the same heading into the bottom of the 7th when Houston’s Charlie Morton gave up a solo HR to Rockies SS Trevor Story Tying the score at 2. In the top of the 8th came Segura’s 3-run shot making the score 5-3. In the bottom of the 8th the NL came back and got a solo HR off Morton by Tampa’s Christian Yelich, in his second inning of work, to close the gap to 5-3. The AL went down without scoring in the top of the 9th. In the bottom of the inning came Cincy’s Gennett’s 2-run blast to tie the score at 5. In the top of the 10th Alex Bregman hit a leadoff HR to give Houston a 6-5 lead. George Springer was up next and he went deep to extend the AL lead to 7-5. Jean Segura followed with a single. Mitch Mooreland was next and he hit a slow rolling single into right. Segura was hustling all the way and he advanced to 3B on the play. Yan Gomes struck out next for the first out but Michael Brantley picked him up by hitting a sac fly to left that allowed Segura to score making the score 8-5 and the only run scored in the game not as a result of a home run. Oakland’s Jed Lowry grounded out for the final out of the inning but the damage had been done. Former Astro and current Blue Jay JA Happ came to lock down the game for the AL but Happ gave up a solo HR to Cincinnati’s Joey Votto to make the 8-6. Happ buckled down after that and he retired the NL 1-2-3 to end a really good game.
In the 10th it was like a 2017 World series flashback with the Astros and Dodgers coaching staffs coaching the game for their respective leagues and Dodgers pitcher Ross Stripling on the mound facing the Astros Alex Bregman and George Springer to lead off the inning. Just like the WS Houston hitting bested Dodger pitching as Bregman and Springer went back-to-back to give the AL a 2-run lead.
Alex Bregman won the MVP Award and I’m happy for him but he was wrongly credited with the game winning hit when he was responsible for the go-ahead home run. Bregman was 1-2 with a K and a HR. Nice but not MVP worthy. George Springer actually hit the home run that was responsible for the winning run and Springer went 2-2 with a HR, a single with 2 runs scored and an RBI. If a Houston player was going to win it should really have been Springer. If it was up to me Jean Segura would have won the MVP. He hit the 3-run homer in the 8th and he singled and scored the AL’s 8th run to give him a 2-2 night with 3 RBI’s, 2 runs scored and a HR. Fans voted online for the MVP and Bregman is a fan favorite so good for him.

[eagle eye]

The week wasn't terrible but the last two weeks Houston had a chance to sweep bad teams and on consecutive Sundays the team as a whole stunk to high heaven. After winning back-to-back games to begin the post All-Star Game run to the playoffs Houston failed to show up against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Lance McCullers started today and it was clear the AS break hurt him. He lasted only 4.1 innings giving up 5 runs putting Houston in a hole they couldn't crawl out of. Joe Smith pitched a third of an inning without giving up any runs and Brad Peacock did the same and virtually every other pitcher who made an appearance today sucked. The Astros offense was pretty much anemic too. Oh, George Springer and Marwin Gonzalez had multi-hit games but everyone else was a limp noodle. Jose Altuve came into the series hitting .333 and after today's 1-5 day he's down to .328. Evan Gattis continues to struggle. Yuli Gurriel has begun the 2nd half of the season in lousy fashion and where, oh where, is the Alex Bregman who won the ASG MVP award? Houston took a 14-5 shellacking just a week after Detroit put a smack-down on them. Houston did win the series and they picked up a game on Seattle last night but they gave it right back today as they continue to lead the AL West by 5 games. After Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander looked like the #1 and #2 starters in the rotation, McCullers looked like a poor man's #5. It's messed up how much better Verlander's 10-5 record looks than McCuller's 10-5. McCullers is still the starter for Houston I trust least. It's the offense and their lack of consistency that bothers me. On Friday Houston eeked out 3 runs in support of Keuchel and fortunately that's all he needed. On Saturday Verlander struck out 11 Angels in 6 shutout innings but how messed up is it that I was still biting my nails in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings before the Astros closed out a 7-0 win that featured George Springer's 6th career grand slam. In both games Houston had multiple opportunities to score more runs, especially early, but failed to do so. With Gurriel, Evan Gattis and Josh Reddick struggling they was they are in 2018 the only bright spot at the back of the Astros lineup has been Tony Kemp. Jake Marisnick and his .199 batting average has been sent to AAA for Kyle Tucker's .143 BA. Tyler White was sent down because he just can't seem to figure out big league pitching and the brought up for the 3rd time this season JD Davis. Davis has more position versatility than White and, if truth be told, even though White was hitting .219 to Davis' .200 the potential of Davis has a higher ceiling. The fact is the only starter hitting .300 or better is Altuve and his BA is heading the wrong way and Yuli Gurriel's .301. Springer is 30 points lower than last year. Reddick's BA is 60 points lower than last year. Worst of all Marwin Gonzalez' BA was .303 last year and his average after today is .236, 67 points lower than last year. Carlos Correa was around 50 points below what he hit in 2017 when he went on the DL on June 28. It's a testament to the Astros resilience that they actually have the 2nd most wins in baseball behind Boston. The Bosox are 70-31 as they won their 70th today. Houston is 66-36. This matters as home field advantage in the playoffs was a huge key to Houston's World Series win last fall. Houston is 4.5 back of the Red Sox in the home field race.

Houston goes to Colorado for a 2-game series on Tuesday and Wednesday before they come back to the Juice Box to play the Rangers next weekend. Either the AL West is tougher than it was last year or Houston just isn't as tough as they were last year. Who knows but if they don't start to mesh they could be in for a very disappointing fall in their quest to repeat as world champs.

[eagle eye]

I was listening to ESPN radio yesterday evening. I never do that but I was out and about running some errands and I was listening to the Patrick Crayton show and his topic du jour was, “Do you think the Astros are underachieving?” I answered out loud to the radio in my truck and emphatic, “YES!” Coming into the 2018 season the experts all agreed the Astros offense was much better than the one that led all of Major League Baseball in almost every offensive stat you could find. Wow, did the experts ever set us all up for a big letdown. I believe if the offense was what it was in 2017 Houston would have 80 wins by now with a double-digit lead in the division and the best record in baseball. Statistically, the 2017 Astros offense were a juggernaut and this 2018 club was projected to be better.
What are you gonna do, cry about the fact that 3 of your top 6 starters (Springer, Correa, Reddick) are hitting 50 points worse than last season? No.
Are you still going to sit around pouting because other contributors are having an extremely subpar season compared to last year (Gonzalez, Marisnick, Gattis)? Hell’s no!!!
Are you going to going to have a hissy fit because your starting shortstop and catcher have missed, and will continue to miss, time due to back issues and knee surgery? Not on your life!
All that said Houston still has the 2nd most wins in MLB and their run differential, the difference between how many runs Houston has scored and the runs their opponents have scored is an astounding +188 which leads all of baseball by almost 20 runs. By contrast 2nd place Seattle differential is +1! Plus freaking ONE!! and they are only 5 games behind Houston in the AL West standings!!! Boston, who has the best record in the league is at +169 and nobody else is even close. The dichotomy between what the Astros are and what they are not is inexplicable and a source of frustration to fans who bought into the preseason hype. And still they are winning games.
Right now, I would juggle the Astros lineup starting with putting Tony Kemp (LF) in as the leadoff hitter. His .301 BA and .400+ OBP is just the table setter for the lineup as it stands. I would keep Bregman (3B) and Altuve (2B) hitting 2nd and 3rd. Springer (CF) would hit cleanup and Gurriel (1B) would hit 5th. The Astros have missed Correa’s pop in the lineup and Springer has the juice that been missing with Correa out. Reddick (RF) would hit 6th and Marwin Gonzalez (SS) 7th. Gattis (DH) would hit 8th and Max Stassi (C) would hit 9th. I would ride this lineup without change for the rest of July and into August and see what happens. I’m tired of screwing around with the Kyle Tucker’s, JD Davis’s and Tyler White’s. It’s too late in the season to be patient with players who aren’t producing the way they should or, the way you would like them to. In April and May you can be patient but August and September you need to win games.
Houston takes on Colorado in Denver tonight and tomorrow. Gerrit Cole is on the mound looking for win #11 on the season. Houston has 60 games left in the season to be played over the next 69 days left in the season. What that means is Houston will get more days off than they had pre-All Star Game. They have only 28 home games left in the season which means they play 32 games on the road. Fortunately, playing on the road is no problem at all for this team. If Houston continues to play at a .647 winning percent then they will finish the season with a 39-21 record which will give them a final tally of 105 wins and 57 losses. That’s better than the 101-61 record they had last year.

[eagle eye]

Aside from an inexplicable 6 run outburst in the 10th inning of Game 1 against the Rockies on Tuesday night this Astros offense has been horrendous. Opposing pitchers with ERA's over 5 have been making this team look like crap. Now, to add injury to insult Dallas Keuchel wasn't his best in Game 1 against the stupid Rangers and the bullpen was even worse. Add to that this limp noodle offense and you have the cellar dwelling Rangers kicking the stuffing out of the Astros to the tune of 11-2. I don't like it when Houston loses but losing to the Rangers is just the pits. (I just threw up a little bit in my mouth ---- yech!) The past few years, even when they have been good the Astros go on vacation in August. Last year the only losing month for a team that won 101 games was August. It actually started in late July when Carlos Correa went on the DL and now Jose Altuve is nursing a sore knee (we hope it's only sore) and he was held out of last night's game. Correa might be about ready to come back as his rehab has gotten more aggressive of late. It's about time with him already being gone over a month now. That's the rub about Correa, he seems to need to spend significant time every season on the DL. It makes you appreciate how durable and reliable Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell were.

Houston has made a couple deals to bolster the roster this past week as the non-waiver trade deadline approaches. First, Houston got catcher Martin Maldinado from the Angels in exchange for minor leaguer Patrick Sandoval and $250 K. Maldinado is a nice pickup as he's a Gold Glover which is an upgrade behind the plate and the best thing is he leads the AL and he's 2nd overall in MLB in throwing base runners out. He's gunning down base stealers at a 44.4% clip this season. At the plate, even though he's only hit .223 for the Angels, it's still an upgrade over Tim Federowicz who was optioned to AAA to make room for Maldinado on the roster. Maldinado made his first appearance for Houston last night as a pinch hitter in the 9th inning and he drove in the Astros 2nd run on a sac fly.

The other move was to get reliever Ryan Pressley in a deal with the Minnesota Twins. Pressley is a definite upgrade for Houston as they get a player who will be with Houston through the 2019 season and he's one of the best relievers in baseball. So far this year he is 1-1 with a 3.40 ERA. He has 69 K's in 47-2/3 innings. Pressley is tied for second in innings (51) in the AL and he's tied for 3rd in K's and he's 7th in K's/9 innings (13.03) AJ Hinch said that he will be a good fit in Houston because he fits the style the Astros like to pitch. It is quite possible he will see action this series against Texas. The good thing is the Astros didn't have to give up any of their top prospects for either deal made this week. To get Pressley Houston traded minor league prospects Jorge Alcala and Gilberto Celestino. Nice work by GM Jeff Luhnow to upgrade the roster without giving up much in the process. Now, if he could just figure out how to jump-start the blasted offense.

[eagle eye]

This week in review is easy. The Astros suck. They went 1-4 on the week wasting pitching performances by Charlie Morton, Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander and today Lance McCullers was both good and horrible as he struck out 11 Rangers batters but he also allowed 4 runs, 3 earned as Houston was swept by the hated Rangers in a series where they only averaged a tick over 2 runs per game. The bullpen was decent for a change as 3 relievers over 3.2 innings did not allow a run. The Rangers didn't overpower the Astros in the series they just didn't suck as much as Houston did. When the opposition runs starting pitchers out with an ERA over 5 on consecutive days and the limp noodle boys can only muster 2 runs you have to just throw up your hands and wonder WTF out loud. Tony Kemp is the best hitter the Astros have right now and he's the only man on the roster with an OBP over ,400. Why he's not leading off is a total mystery to me. Kemp needs, and deserves, more at-bats than the 3 a game he's getting at the ass-end of this suddenly putrid lineup. He should be hitting leadoff and Springer, who has hit 3 homers since the All-Star break, should be hitting cleanup. Gurriel should be hitting 3rd and he would see better pitches with Springer behind him. I don't know where they are but the real Josh Reddick and Marwin Gonzalez and Evan Gattis better show up soon or the Mariners will pass the Astros by lickety-split. Houston has such high hopes for JD Davis but he sucks and has every time he's been brought up to the big club. His .190 BA makes me long for Jake Marisnick to come home from Fresno. Tyler White was brought up to replace the suddenly absent Jose Altuve who was placed on the 10 day DL with that bum knee he aggravated in the 5th inning on Wednesday against the Rockies. White did what White does, he played well in the first game but, and trust me on this, he will suck from here on out. White has been up and down more time than a yo-yo over the past 3 seasons between Fresno and Houston because he can't seem to consistently solve big league pitching. Kyle Tucker is struggling as you might imagine a rookie would do but he is almost as bad as Alex Bregman when he first came up in 2016. This team is dying for some offense and AJ Hinch won't do anything to shake the offense out of their doldrums. Just before the All-Star break the offense struggled and they have struggle since the ASG and still Hinch does nothing. He is doggedly determined not to make any changes even though this team needs to be shaken, not stirred, like a James Bond martini.

The only saving grace of the past week is that Seattle and Oakland have been slumping too. Houston is still leading the AL West by 5 games although that will change as Seattle is handing the Angels a loss this afternoon which means Houston's lead will shrink to 4 games by the end of today. Houston is still the 3rd best team in the AL as the Yankees have equaled the Astros 67 wins on the season with 3 fewer losses and both are way behind the 74 win Red Sox. Home field advantage seems like a pipe dream right now. What to hear something scary? Houston plays Seattle 10 of the next 20 games. Generally, Houston is terrible in August and the end of their July isn't exactly a rosy picture.

Martin (pronounced mar-TEEN) Maldinado made his first start of the season for Houston since he was acquired on Thursday. He was behind the plate for a team record 19 K's for the game. How do you strike out 19 batters and lose. Well, your starter sucks and the offense sucks worse, that's how. I saw Maldinado giving the home plate ump an ear-full for squeezing his pitcher. That's what Houston has missed with Brian McCann on the DL, a backstop to remind the umpire to pull his head out and call a strike a strike and a ball a ball. Thank you Mar-teen. Welcome to Houston.

Verlander is 10-6 in 23 starts, Cole is 10-2 in 21 starts and Morton is 11-2 in 20 starts. All 3 are in the top ten in K's with Verlander and Cole #'s 4 and 5. Verlander and Cole are in the top ten in ERA and all 3 are in the top ten in Batting Average Against them with Cole #2, Verlander #5 and Morton #8. How in the world do these guys have so many (23) no-decisions between them? (knock-knock-knock. Hello offense, could you please wake the heck up? Hello bullpen, could you find a way not to suck every other day?) It was a bad week and as July rolls into the Astro-dog days of August I worry this team might not even make the playoffs much less win the division.

[Dracula]

Tell me where I am reading this wrong.

Lance McCullers Jr.
5.1 6 3 0 11

Joe Smith
0.2 0 0 0 2

Collin McHugh
2.0 0 0 1 4

Brad Peacock
1.0 0 0 0 2

11+2+4+2= 19 strike outs +1 walk=20 at bats. The Rangers had 6 hits=26 AB's but the line sheet is showing 34 AB's. I don't understand the math.

What I do understand is that right now the Astro's suck.

[eagle eye]

Houston lost yet another All Star when George Springer when down with a shoulder problem after diving for a ball in the 2nd inning of last night's game. He is being listed as day to day. With Springer joining Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa on the injured list where the heck are the Astros going to find any offense. Well, last night it was juiced by two guys who you would expect some juice from, Evan Gattis and Josh Reddick. Both had 2-run homers to go with a run scored in the 5th by Tony Kemp on a Josh Reddick single. Houston won 5-2 with Charlie Morton getting his 12th win going 6 innings allowing 2 runs on 6 hits and a walk while striking out 8. Morton probably could have gone another inning as he only threw 90 pitches but AJ Hinch chose to rely on the bullpen instead. The 'pen was steady allowing 0 runs on just 1 hit from a combined 4 relievers. Hector Rondon got the save.

So far this afternoon Houston is leading the Mariners 4-2 through 4 innings with Marwin Gonzalez and the just called back up Jake Marisnick providing the fireworks so far. Marwin has 2 homers in the game, one in the 2nd inning and another in the 4th. Marisnick hit a 2-run homer in the 2nd inning as well. Dallas Keuchel is on the mound trying to bounce back from a so-so outing against the Rangers last Friday night. Keuchel got in a jam in the bottom of the 2nd loading the bases allowing both runs. Outside of that 2nd inning Keuchel has been pretty good.

Top of the 5th Houston has put another run on an RBI single by Josh Reddick and the Astros still have runners on 1st and 3rd with just one out. Houston needs to get the run home from 3rd but I don't have much faith in Max Stassi who is currently up to bat. Okay, I'll eat my words, Stassi hit a 3-run homer to center giving Houston an 8-2 lead.

Houston acquired more relief help when they picked up Roberto Osuna from Toronto. Osuna is on a rehab assignment following completion of a 75 game suspension for domestic abuse. For this type of situation Astros GM Jeff Luhnow said the Astros did "unprecedented" due diligence in acquiring Osuna. Osuna comes to a very close clubhouse and he will get the benefit of the family nature of the Astros as a team. Osuna has paid the price for domestic abuse in the USA but he still has domestic violence charges in Canada. Nobody knows any details of the DV charges and I'm sure the team will be under close scrutiny for this deal which saw Houston send 2 top pitching prospects and Ken Giles to Toronto for a guy who is acknowledged at a top closer and a former All-Star. All of you out there who were tired of the Ken Giles ordeal now have a potential sure fire closer on the roster. Not only that but Osuna is only 23 so he could become an Astro for a long, long time. He is currently on a one year deal so a long term deal would have to be done after the season is over. All of that is contingent on his off-field issues.

Houston is leading Seattle 8-2 after 5-1/2.

[eagle eye]

Houston won by the way. On Wednesday, you remember, I left my last post with Houston leading 8-2? The Astros hung on to win 8-3 and Keuchel evened his season record - again - going 6 innings allowing the 3 runs. For the 2nd game in a row Houston banged out 15 hits as it's looking like the offense may be showing signs of waking up.

Tonight the Astros are going into a much ballyhooed 2017 World Series rematch with the LA Dodgers. Appropriately enough, Justin Verlander will be on the hill for the series opener. Both teams are pretty much different physically and spiritually but you know how the media likes to exaggerate situations.

Remember how I said this team is different? Well, a big difference is Houston currently has 3 main players out of the lineup. You know about them, Altuve, Correa and Springer are currently out. Now, Correa has begun a rehab assignment with the AA Corpus Christi Hooks and should be back next week. Springer's shoulder is not as bad as first feared and he could be back in the lineup as soon as tonight. Altuve is slated to come off the DL next week. But, another Astro is joining them on the DL. Relief pitcher Chris Devenski was placed on the 10 DL with tightness in his hamstring. Astros #4 prospect, Cionel Perez was recalled from AAA Fresno.

The team Houston needs to be looking out for is the Oakland A's. They have been making a push from the nether regions of the AL West to come up and push their way into sole possession of 2nd place in the division. The A's and Mariners were tied after Houston's win over Seattle Wednesday coupled with the A's win over the Angels Wednesday. Houston and Oakland had yesterday off while Seattle lost it's 3rd straight to Detroit yesterday to fall 1/2 game behind Oakland. Houston is maintaining a 5 game lead in the division.

Houston's newest acquisition, relief pitcher Roberto Osuna, is slated to make his Astros debut this weekend against the Dodgers. I would imagine there is quite a bit of rust to knock off after he served a 75 game suspension for domestic violence charges but we'll soon see how rusty he really is soon enough.

[Big T]

Big lead for the hometown heroes up 12-0 at LA in the 8th. Unfortunately Lance went down with elbow soreness tonight. Just as you think the team is getting healthy again, another key piece of the puzzle falls to the injury bug. It's just that time of the season when guys bodies start breaking down. Better now than in September and October.

[Big T]

3-2 loss today for the good guys and Srpinger left the game with what the team is calling thumb discomfort. It looked like he was in a lot of pain. They've been falling like dominoes here the past few weeks.

[eagle eye]

Astros week in recap was pretty good but the past 3 weeks they have lost on Sunday which taints your impression of the week. In a ‘What have you done for me lately.’ world, the lately hasn’t been great. On one hand, Houston went 4-2 but on the other hand they lost the first and the last game of the week. Houston’s record is 71-42 and you ask me if I would take a 67% winning percentage like they had this past week and I would be all over that. I would prefer they win every single game but that’s just the homer in me. Another downer was that Oakland won their 6th straight game and moved to within 4 games of the Astros division lead. The A’s have been the second-best team in the bigs for the past two months as they rose from the ashes to their current status. They have been so good that they were buyers, not sellers, up to the non-waiver trade deadline.
Another thing not so good is the way the Astros are dropping like flies. Already without Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa the Astros have lost George Springer again when he injured his thumb trying to steal 2B in the 3rd inning of yesterday’s game. X-rays on his thumb were negative but he may miss a bit of time if he has swelling in the thumb. Correa was sent on a rehab assignment over the weekend to AA Corpus Christi and he’s scheduled to return to the team Thursday. Lance McCullers left his start on Saturday in the 5th inning with elbow soreness and he and Altuve were sent back to Houston to get more thorough checkups yesterday. McCullers is currently on the 10-day DL.
Good things happened last week too. Houston picked up a veteran catcher, Martin Maldinado, from the Angels and they added a nice reliever in former Minnesota Twins pitcher Ryan Pressley. They also made a deal late in the week for former Toronto Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna. There was a downside to the trade for Osuna because he just came off a 75-game suspension for a domestic violence incident earlier this year in Toronto. DV is a hot button issue and according to GM Jeff Luhnow the Astros did unprecedented due diligence before pulling the trigger on the deal. Osuna was activated Sunday but did not pitch. Maldinado is a great pickup as he has thrown out 44% of potential base stealers so far this year and he gunned down a Dodger in Saturday’s game. Pressley has pitched a couple of scoreless innings in a couple of appearances this past week.
The question is, ‘Who will replace Lance McCullers in the starting rotation?’ This is the reason the Astros kept Collin McHugh and Brad Peacock and I believe the guy who gets a start or two while McCullers is out is McHugh given how well he has pitched all season. He has earned the right to start and I think he’s the best option.

[eagle eye]

On Monday Charlie Morton went 7 innings allowing just one run on 3 hits with 3 BB’s and 8 K’s. Yesterday Dallas Keuchel went 6 innings allowing just one run on 3 hits with 2 BB’s, a hit batsman and 5 K’s. What they have in common is neither factored in the decision. Their brilliant starts were not wasted because on Monday night Marwin Gonzalez hit a 3-run homer in the top of the 9th that led to a 3-1 victory and yesterday afternoon Tyler White hit a 2-run homer in the top of the 8th that led to a 2-1 Astros win and a sweep of the short 2-game series with the San Francisco Giants. The Mariners and A’s were off on Monday and both lost last night so Houston picked up a game and a half on both. Houston has a day off today as they return home for 4 games against the Mariners beginning Thursday.
You feel bad for Morton and Keuchel because they didn’t get any run support until after they had left the game. Keuchel especially because the Astros went 1-11 with RISP and they had 3 baserunners on 3B with less than two outs and failed to score any of them. Part of the reason was SF’s Madison Bumgarner the rest was all on Astros poor hitting.
JD Davis was recalled way back on July 21st and he’s gone 6-37 at the plate since that time. He is currently batting .183 for the season. Derek Fisher was recalled from AAA on Monday and he’s had one AB the past two days and he’s oh-fer so far and he’s batting just .171 for the season. Throw in Kyle Tucker and 3 of Houston’s top prospects are the biggest busts ever in their time in the bigs even though they were tearing up the pitching in the minors. Very disconcerting.
Bright spots are present though. Tyler White has been hitting pretty consistently since his most recent call up in late July. He’s hitting 12 for 45 (.267 BA) in that time and he got the game winning home run yesterday. Also, Jake Marisnick was called up again from AAA on August 1st to replace the struggling Kyle Tucker and he has been on fire since. So far in August he’s gone 6 for 14 (.429 BA) as he is above the Mendoza Line for the first time all season (.212 BA). Jake is kind of my pet cat on the Astros. He’s one of the top 3 or 4 defensive outfielders in the game and I’m glad to see him finally getting his hitting on track.
Busy transaction week as the first week in August passed. Lance McCullers was placed on the 10-day DL with arm soreness but he will not like be back until September. At least the worst fears were allayed when tests showed it wasn’t his elbow and he’s not a candidate for Tommy John surgery. Cionel Perez was called up to take his place. Chris Devenski was placed on the 10-day DL with tightness in his hamstring. Roberto Osuna was activated this past Sunday. George Springer was placed on the 10-day DL yesterday with a sprained thumb. Again, the injury is not as bad as first feared. The bright spot here? With none of the injuries serious this is giving some of the Astros best players, Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve included, a good long rest. It’s giving these players a chance to heal up and when they do come back they will be rested and healthy with fresh legs. As long as the guys on the roster keep winning this is a win-win situation both literally and figuratively. Correa may be back on Thursday when Houston begins a homestand against the Mariners.
Okay, does this sound familiar? Game tied 5-5 going into the 10th inning and Ken Giles comes on giving up 5 runs on 4 hits and a walk with two home runs in just 2/3 of an inning before getting the hook by his manager. Giles’ team ends up losing the game 10-7 because he sucked so bad. Thank goodness this is a nightmare the Toronto Blue Jays will have to deal with now since Giles was part of the Roberto Osuna deal last week that sent him to Toronto. I’m not sure how this will affect the US-Canadian relations but at least he’s not going to cost Houston any more wins.

[eagle eye]

I am writing this week's recap even as the final game of the week is still in progress. One reason why is because my wife wants me to do a honey-do and the other reason is I really believe Houston will go ahead and lose. The Astros were 0-3 in their last 3 home games and they are currently 0-7 since they blew today's game. Why was I so sure Houston will lose? Because after losing the first 3 games of this four game series with Houston scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning to take a 3-2 lead only to see that lead disappear on a Ryan Healy solo home run to tie the game. Houston went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 9th. As I have been writing this Roberto Osuna came on in the 10th getting a leadoff out then a single and a double that scored the runner from first to take a 4-3 lead. Mitch Haniger has been royal pain in the derriere. I think about 3 games ago I would have hit drilled Haniger with a fastball right in the earhole. The top of the 10th ends with Seattle leading 4-3. Houston is doomed and they will have been swept by division rivals in four game series. Two weeks ago Texas tuned up the Astros and this week it was Seattle. I cannot figure out for the life of me why Houston stinks so bad at home. Assuming I'm right, Houston will have gone 2-4 on the week. They are still in the lead in the AL West but that lead will either be 3.5 or 2.5 games margin over the Oakland A's depending on how Oakland fares against the Angels of Anaheim. That game is tied 3-3 after 3 innings in Anaheim. The Yankees have passed Houston for the 2nd best record as they had the Rangers to beat up on.

It's not just one phase of the Astros that are letting them down but their offense continues to be putrid as they only managed to score 13 runs in the four games against the Mariners while allowing 20 runs to the Mariners. Just in case rudimentary math is not your strong point Houston averaged 3.25 runs per game. If this was April when the starting pitching was nearly flawless the Astros might have swept Seattle but not now when the starters were porous as a screen door. Dallas Keuchel is the exception and he was really abused again today as he gave the Astros 7 innings of work allowing just one run. Unfortunately, the offense didn't score until the 8th inning. It did save Keuchel from taking another hard luck loss but it's little consolation when you get swept at home. Verlander, Cole and Morton were bad in varying amounts in the previous three games. The only saving grace for the week was Houston beating San Francisco in a short 2-game series to begin the week. With roughly 6 weeks left in the season Houston not only has to worry about the surging Oakland A's but by getting hammered by the Mariners it got them right in the thick of things as they are only 4 games back in the division now.

Houston's offense is short handed with George Springer, Jose Altuve, Brian McCann, Lance McCullers, Chris Devenski and now Jake Marisnick all on the DL. The only guy expected back is Springer next weekend - maybe - the Astros have to figure out a way to generate some offense. The starting pitching has been spotty and the bullpen seems to be good until it's time to hold a team to get a win. I really wish the Astros would fire their hitting coach. This is nothing new because I have been bitching about him since AJ Hinch was hired. I don't have any faith in the guy. Their is no excuse for more than half the lineup hitting 50 or more points less this season compared to last season. How else can you explain why top prospects like Kyle Tucker, JD Davis and Derek Fisher hitting well over .300 at AAA and they can't get above the Mendoza Line in Houston?

Houston has a short two game series against Colorado beginning on Tuesday and then they play their next 9 games on the road all against division foes. In fact, Houston plays nothing but division foes to the end of the month. It is a make or break stretch for a team that is struggling mightily but they have to find a way to pull it together or they could very well be watching the playoffs at home instead of the dugout.

Justin Verlander pitches on Tuesday with an eye on rebounding from the shortest outing as an Astros in the first game against the Mariners on Thursday night. He went 2 innings giving up six runs including 3 home runs. In the second inning of that game Verlander picked off Mitch Haniger on 1B but he was called for a balk by the home plate ump. It was a BS call and instead of getting the 3rd out of the inning Verlander gave up a 2-run homer followed by a solo HR to give the M's another 3 runs before getting out of the inning. It also gave the Mariners an insurmountable 6-0 lead in the game. After seeing the replay in the dugout Verlander gave the ump royal hades, so much so, he got tossed. Hopefully, he has regained his composure and can shut down the Rockies and get back on the winning track.

Poor Jake Marisnick. He came back from his latest demotion to AAA on fire at the plate. Since he came back on August 1st he raised his BA from .192 to .217. This late in the season improving your batting average nearly 20 points is big. How big? He hit .421 with an OBP of .560 in August, that's big. He pulled a groin muscle legging out a double on Friday that landed him on the 10-day DL but the Astros said today he will likely miss several weeks. Some of the reason teams win championships depends on how healthy they are especially down the stretch of the season. Houston has definitely not been lucky avoiding the injury bug in 2018. How do I know that? Just look at the players on the DL and when you realize this is the first time in his career Jose Altuve has even been on the DL you see just how unlucky the Astros have been.

[eagle eye]

The Astros threw their fans a bone last night winning 12-1 over the Rockies in the series and homestand finale. This leaves Houston with a dismal 1-5 record in the recent homestand. It was nice to see the Astros win but you’d love to see this a little more consistently.

The Astros offense threw Garrett Cole a bone by giving him some run support for a change enabling him to finally get his 11th win of the season. It only took him 5 starts going all the way back to July 14 to get win #11. The only other pitcher on the staff with more of a gripe about lack of run support is Justin Verlander but, to be fair, he has sucked at times.

Evan Gattis threw himself a bone by getting off an 0-20 string of AB’s going 3-4 with two RBI’s and 2 runs scored. At least for one game Captain Caveman was back. Here’s hoping that gets him going again and his alter ego Major Whiff will be kept under wraps for the rest of the season.

Carlos Correa threw baseball fans everywhere a bone with a crazy play to get a batter out with one out in the 9th inning. The Rockies Tony Wolters hit a ground ball up the middle with the Astros playing a shift to the right side meaning Correa was playing just on the right field side of 2B. Correa got a great jump on the ball - too great - as he overran ball. In desperation Correa got low and reached behind his back and he actually stopped the ball. He quickly recovered and threw out Wolters by a step. It would have not been possible to make the play if Wolters had not hit the ball hard which gave Correa time to make the spectacular play.

Last, but not least, Seattle threw Houston a bone by beating Oakland snapping an A’s 4-game winning streak and increasing Houston’s division lead to 2 games. Houston begins a 9-game road trip where all their games will be against division opponents starting with those pesky A’s on Friday. As they say back on the ranch, “It’s nut-cuttin’ time boys!”

George Springer will likely return to the lineup this weekend which is good news. Jose Altuve fielded grounders, took some BP and did some running yesterday which would make you think his return to the lineup is imminent. Brian McCann is out on a minor league rehab assignment so he should be back soon, maybe after the current road trip.

[eagle eye]

To recap last week I just need a moment. The Astros suck right now. They have sucked for about 3 weeks. To be clear, it's a group effort that I have chronicled before. Starting pitching, relief pitching, defense and offense have all contributed to the lousy state of affairs. The Astros ended the week with a big win over the A's to regain sole possession of 1st place in the division but after going 2-3 for the week that was highlighted (?) by blowing a win on Friday over the A's, losing 7-1 to fall into a tie for the division with those same A's the Astros pulled out a win on Sunday.

George Springer returned to the lineup on Friday only to have to sit out the past few games because of a pulled quad muscle. Carlos Correa returned to the lineup on August 10th but so far he's gone 6 for 35 (.171 BA) which is the opposite effect on this struggling offense. George Springer came back on August 3rd and he had been doing okay batting .261 since his return but the pulled quad has been a problem. Jose Altuve had on rehab assignment at AAA Fresno which technically came in Tacoma Washington against the Tacoma Rainiers. The game was convenient for the Astros as they were about to begin a series with the Seattle Mariners on Monday. Altuve played his only game in AAA on Sunday getting his first AAA hit but it didn't prepare him for his return to the big club on Tuesday as Altuve went 0-3 with a walk. Houston is pretty close to being at full strength again assuming Altuve's knee doesn't act up again and Springer's quad calms down. You just don't know with this team. As I've stated before, the August swoon by the Astros actually began in mid July and they are 3-11 in the last two weeks. The Astros have successfully lost their division cushion to the A's and they also successfully brought a dead and buried Seattle team back to life. If Houston continues down this path they will watch the A's win the division and Seattle claim the 2nd Wild Card spot. Houston has 36 games left as of today and they only need to win 24 games to get to 100 wins. Can Houston go 24-12 to finish the season? The way they are playing now, especially with their offensive struggles, it doesn't seem likely. At least they hung on to beat Seattle last night to remain in a first place tie with the A's. Maybe the A's are due a slump of their own. I certainly hope so. Heck, even the Red Sox are slumping going just 6-4 in their last ten games and losers of 3 straight. If Houston can get on a roll at the same time the A's stumble it could be just the thing to get Houston through September in good shape. Just a homer and his desperate dreams.

[eagle eye]

This past week Houston didn't do bad, certainly they did better than the previous week since they did have a winning record for the week at 4-2. they lost the first games to start the week to Seattle but they recovered to take game 3 of the series to salvage a little bit of momentum. They went into Anaheim and beat the Angels 3 straight to end the week on a positive note so there is that. The Astros finished the week with a game and half lead in the AL West over the A's and Houston will either have the opportunity to extend that lead or lose it altogether as they host the A's in a 3 game series beginning tonight.

This past week saw the Astros get Jose Altuve back and his return sparked a bit of an offensive resurgence. The Astros, Altuve and every Astros fan everywhere got a scare when Altuve was hit on his left elbow by a 98 mph fastball but he stayed in the game and he played the whole weekend. George Springer missed the entire week with a pulled quad but he did pinch hit yesterday for Max Stassi in the 9th but he struck out swinging. Houston is getting healthier and they seem to be starting to hit the ball a little better. The Astros have barely been a .500 club at home and they really need to overcome whatever demons are holding them back in the friendly confines of the Juice Box put a little distance between themselves and those pesky A's. Aren't the A's due a slump right about now?

The Red Sox, the Yankees and the Astros are 1-2-3 for the best record in the AL and all of the majors. Nobody's catching Boston for the best record but Houston needs to catch and pass the Yankees for as much home field as 2nd place gives you. If the season ended today the Yankees and A's would play the one game playoff between the wild card teams and the winner would play Boston. Houston would take on Cleveland. Isn't that really a better deal for the Astros anyway?

[eagle eye]

This past week was so-so for the Astros. They played seven games last week, all against division opponents. They won the series against Oakland, the 2nd place team in the division 2 games to 1 that extended the lead to 2.5 games. As of Saturday's win the Astros tied their record from 2017 at 83-53. As Houston played the last two games of August they ended the month pretty much as they began it, with losses in the first two games against the LA Angels. The Astros rebounded with wins on Saturday and Sunday to tie the series at 2 games apiece to begin September on a positive note. I have no idea why Houston sucks so badly in August but it's been this way for several years and this year is no better. The Astros finished August with a 14-12 record which is the first time since 2011 the Astros have completed August with a winning record. So, there's that. Thanks to the win of the series over Oakland earlier in the week and the fact that both Houston and Oakland split their respective 4 game series Houston ended the weekend like they started it, 2.5 games up on the A's

Tyler White continues to be clutch but no more clutch than Alex Bregman who is the most dangerous hitter in the Astros lineup right now. Jose Altuve came off the DL and started out like his old self but after the first couple of games he's been struggling. The reigning MVP doesn't look like an MVP and hasn't for a while. You have to believe that he will come around but he might be in jeopardy to not getting to 200 hits. In fact, he's probably not going to get there which breaks a streak of 4 straight seasons he's eclipsed the 200 hit mark. Altuve needs 54 hits with 25 games left in the season. Unless Altuve goes on some sort of epic hitting streak he will fall well short of 200. He didn't begin the month very well going oh-fer in the last two games.

Wondering what will happen to the Astros after Verlander, Keuchel and Morton retire? I think Houston is looking pretty good from the starting pitching perspective. The Astros have a good lefty coming up in Framber Valdez. His 2-1 record belies a good pitcher in the making. On Saturday a hard throwing righty, Josh James, made his major league debut going 5 innings with the only blemish being a 3-run homer by Cole Calhoun. James got a no-decision but the Astros got the win sparked by a big 5 run 8th inning. James has really good stuff highlighted by a 99 mph plus fastball. The future of the Astros looks pretty bright.

[eagle eye]

This past week the Astros were not horrible. As a matter of fact, they were pretty darn good! Houston swept Minnesota earlier in the week and they took 2 out of 3 against the Red Sox in Boston. Truth be told, there is a real likelihood Houston would have swept the Bosox if not for a blown replay call in the 7th on Sunday night. Jose Altuve singled to start the inning and he advanced to 3rd on a passed ball with one out. Yuli Gurriel grounded to Xander Bogaerts at short and Altuve tried to score from 3B. Bogaerts threw to C Sandy Leon to get Altuve at home. The umpire called Altuve out even though replay showed Altuve’s hand touched home plate before any tag was applied so AJ Hinch challenged the call. The replay officials in NYC saw the replay and still got the call wrong saying something about a long tail on one of the rawhide laces on Leon’s glove touched Altuve before he touched home plate. FYI, the actual glove must tag the runner not one of the glove’s laces. It was a huge mistake by the replay system and it likely changed the outcome of the game. All other things remaining the same, Houston would have had a one run lead going into the bottom of the 9th and Hinch may have opted to use Roberto Osuna rather than Ken Giles - er - I mean Hector Rondon. (Rondon has been money all the way through August but in September he has two blown saves and now a walk off loss in the 9th. Very Ken Giles-esque!)
The loss on Sunday night ended Houston’s 7-game win streak and because the piece of crap Rangers were swept in 4 games by the A’s meant that Houston’s division lead went down from 3.5 to 2.5 games. (Kids, thank the stupid Rangers for gagging big time. Thank you, stupid Rangers! Great, now kids go play with your new flame thrower.) The loss also cost Houston the opportunity to join the Red Sox as the only 90+ game winners on the season. Houston is tied with the Yankees for the 2nd best record in the AL and all of MLB at 89-54.
If the playoffs began today the Yankees and A’s would play the one game wild card game and the winner would face the Red Sox in one of the ALDS series. Houston would have home field advantage against Cleveland in the other ALDS series. With 19 games left in the season this should be the way the final standings should end up unless Houston stalls and lets Oakland overtake them. If that happens it would be the Astros vs the Yankees with the winner playing Boston. Much easier road to the ALCS if Houston wins the division.
The offense is showing signs of coming out of their extended slumber. Jose Altuve has a 5-game hitting streak but he’s still not hitting the way we know he can. But, he is improving. Carlos Correa continues to slump and he’s dropped from 4th to 5th in the batting order. Tyler White has become the cleanup hitter role and he’s earned that recognition. George Springer is coming around but someone needs to teach him how to hit a fastball. Most hitters struggle with the breaking stuff but not Springer. His bane this year is the fastball. If he fixes that disconnect lookout.
Houston got their 90th win last night against the Detroit Tigers while the Yankees got their 90th against the Twins. Justin Verlander got his 15th win of the season going 7 innings allowing 2 runs on 6-hits, a walk and 10 K’s. The 10 K’s pushed his season strikeout number to 258 which means that Verlander and Garrit Cole, who has 251 K’s have become the first right handed pitchers on the same team to record 250+ strikeouts in MLB history. They are the first tandem to accomplish this feat since Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling did it for Arizona in 2002. (Johnson is a lefty and Schilling is a righty.) This was also Verlander’s first time to pitch in Detroit since he was traded to Houston last August 31st. The Tigers prepared a tribute video to honor his 13 seasons with the club and Detroit fans gave him 3 separate standing ovations. The last one coming when he left the game after the 7th inning after recording his 9th and 10th K’s to end the inning. Class all around from the Tigers organization and the fans of Detroit. I don’t even think the Tigers fans were even disappointed their team lost because Verlander got the win. It was a sloppy game that had little excitement but it ended like a true storybook tale should end - with the hero getting the win.

[eagle eye]

Another week in the books and as weeks go it wasn't half bad. Houston played just good enough to sweep the Detroit winning all 3 games by just one run. The Astros have played better on the road this year than they have at home and that didn't change on the trip to Detroit. Justin Verlander led off for Houston and the Tigers and fans welcomed Verlander back to Detroit with a tribute video as he walked to the mound in the bottom of the 1st inning and the fans gave him 3 separate standing ovations, the last one coming as he left the field after recording the final out of the 7th inning, his last in the game. Some players move from a team and they leave on bad terms but Justin Verlander is, as he always was, beloved by Tigers fans. He did everything for Detroit except bring them a championship. He forged a Hall of Fame career in Detroit and his only regret is he couldn't give the fans a World Series champion. The cool thing was that the Tigers organization and fans did not fail to show him their love on his first trip back to the Motor City since becoming a Houston Astro last August. I have become a fan of Detroit because of last Monday's show of support. Verlander ended the week today in Houston doing his part in defeating the Arizona Cardinals. For the second game in the week Verlander went 7 innings tying a career high in strikeouts with 11 and he allowed just one run on the afternoon. Today's win gave Houston the series win as Houston split the first two games. Charlie Morton got his 15th win on the season. Morton was surgically efficient going his 6 innings allowing just 2 runs with no walks and 7 K's. The most telling stat, to me, is that Houston's starting rotation all have at least 10 wins. It could be even better given that Lance McCullers Jr hasn't pitched since early August. He had 10 wins then so there is no reason to believe that if he stayed healthy he could be right there with Verlander in the 16 win area, if not more. I'll take a week when Houston goes 5 out of 6 games played.

The great thing is by beating Arizona this weekend they have extended their lead in the division to 4.5 games as Oakland finally had a bucket of water thrown on the red hot Oakland A's by the Tampa Bay Rays who beat them 2 games to one. Oakland has 12 games left in the season and Houston has 13 games left. The Astros magic number to clinch a playoff berth is 4 games while the magic number to clinch the division is 9 games. The schedule and the momentum belongs to Houston for winning the division but let's not count any chickens just yet. What is looking better is George Springer's bat has risen from its extended slumber and Jose Altuve is getting there. Alex Bregman had a rough weekend but there is time before the postseason. The one guy we need to worry about is Carlos Correa. He has continued his slump and he's dropped to 6th in the batting order. This might be the season he just slumps or it might be the season he explodes out of his slump right as the playoffs begin. It will be a fun two weeks -- and nerve wracking as heck!

[eagle eye]

Last night the Astros had the chance to eliminate the Mariners from contention for winning the division. The Astros failed. They had a tenuous 1-0 lead going into the 8th inning. The offense had only managed 3 hits to get that one run but, still, they had a lead. That is until Hector Rondon came in the game. He gave up 4 hits and a walk in his one inning of work but one of those 4 hits was a grand slam that proved to be the margin of a 4-1 victory by the Mariners. I am officially done with Rondon. We can keep him only to provide company for the guys in the bullpen who actually get opposing batters out without blowing saves or allowing handfuls of runs. Yep, If I was manager Rondon would not be on my postseason roster because I just don’t trust him. For the first 5 months of the season Rondon was a good asset but now I have the same feeling of dread when Ken Giles came into a game. Houston dropped to a 4 game lead over the idle Oakland A’s. Houston has been kind of lousy in first games of series so hopefully with Garrit Cole on the hill Houston will relocate their offense and NOT use Hector Rondon unless they have at least a 10 run lead.

[eagle eye]

The second to last week of the 2018 Houston Astros season is in the books. I believe you have to admit it was a very up and down week. They began the week loosing 2 out of 3 to the Seattle Mariners who have been a thorn in the Astros side in September especially at Minute Maid Park. The last two home series the Astros have been smoked by the Mariners losing 6 out of 7. Good bye and good riddance for 2018, Seattle. I am NOT sorry to see you go.

Next up were the Angels from Anaheim who have been hard on the Astros in September as well. Like the Mariners, the Angels have been particularly frustrating when in Houston but, the tables turned in Houston's favor in this final home stand of the season. Houston pulled out the brooms and swept the Angels as the Houston pitching staff was in perfect alignment for a cleanup party. Garrit Cole got a dozen K's on Friday night AND he got some run support (which is unusual) in an 11-3 blow out. On Saturday Justin Verlander was going for his 17th win of the season and of course events conspired against him yet again. First he got one measly run to support his double digit K performance but the Astros made a 1-0 lead last heading into the 8th inning. That's when Ken Rondon, er, I mean, Hector Giles, oh, I mean Hector Rondon came into the game and promptly gave up the lead and put Houston down by a run as Rondon gave up 2. Not only that but he left all that bad mojo on the mound for Joe Smith who gave up a 3-run homer to stake the Haloes to 5-1 lead. It didn't look good for Houston at all. But wait! Houston's bats came alive and they scored the most runs they have scored in a game all season when they hung 9 runs on the Angels to take a 10-5 lead into the 9th. The Astros nailed down that win and for the first time since 1998 they were 40 games over .500.
This afternoon Charlie Morton took the hill but only lasted one inning before being removed with shoulder soreness. It's being reported that the Astros were just being cautious because they definitely want Morton for the postseason which, by the way, they clinched a spot with Saturday's win. Fromber Valdez came in a threw 6 innings for Houston allowing just one run while striking out 9 Angels. Today's win means the Astros magic number for winning the division is 3. Why? Because the 2nd place Oakland A's lost today to Minnesota giving Houston a 4.5 game lead in the division with 7 games left to play. The A's have played one more game so far have only 6 games remaining in the season.
Houston will play 3 games against Toronto starting tomorrow and they finish the season with 4 games in Baltimore. Houston is 98-57, 41-games over .500 and, of course, they only need 2 wins to eclipse 100 in a season for the second year in a row. If they sweep all 7 of their remaining games (which isn't likely) they will have 105 wins which is better than last year's mark of 101-61. All this with their best players spending extended time on the DL this season and most of the lineup hitting well below what they hit last season, or in their careers. The Astros could have had 120 wins if their offense had been as good as last year's group. That is a scary thought.

Carlos Correa missed all the Angels series after tweaking his back against the Mariners on Tuesday night. Correa has called this season the most difficult of his young career because of the issues he's had with his back.

Lance McCullers is back, finally. He was back in Houston this weekend just waiting to be activated which should happen during the road trip. AJ Hinch would be stupid not get McCullers some work in this week in prep for the post season. FYI, AJ Hinch is NOT stupid.

[eagle eye]

One game closer to a 2nd consecutive division title. One game away from triple digit wins for the 2nd consecutive year. All this after Game 1 against the Toronto Blue Jays in which Houston won by two runs, 5-3. Toronto outhit Houston by one, 11 hits to 10. Both teams had one error in the game. Even one former Astro, Ken Giles, voiced sour grapes over the way he was supposedly treated in Houston. Giles blamed Astros manager, AJ Hinch, of not communicating his role well enough. An accusation Hinch emphatically denies. Hinch has a reputation for being a great communicator and, to honest, I believe Hinch this one time.
To continue with the “one” theme, Dallas Keuchel got the win putting his season record one game over .500 at 12-11. Keuchel may or may not have one more start this season which would be Saturday’s game against Baltimore if he does get one more start.
Yuli Gurriel was named AL Player of the Week for last week’s play. Actually, the honor was based on one game, last Friday’s series opening win over the LA Angels. It was a game in which Houston won 11-3 mainly due to Gurriel’s 2 home runs and career high 7 RBI’s in that game. One of his HR’s was a grand slam which occurred in the first inning. Also, Gurriel’s brother, Lourdes, who plays for the Blue Jays also hit a 1st inning dinger. This is the first time in MLB history that brothers have done this on the same day, much less the same game!
With last night’s win Houston’s magic number to clinch the division title is 2. The Oakland A’s also clinched a playoff berth last night beating the Seattle Mariners. Houston is still 4.5 games up on the A’s with 6 games left to play. Actually, the one game behind that Houston is for games played in the season will be made up Thursday when Oakland has a day off and Houston begins its season ending series with Baltimore, meaning that half game thing in the standings will go away.
Today’s game will feature newcomer RHP Josh James who was called up from AAA as September began. He’s made 4 appearances so far including 2 starts. James has a 1-0 record and 16 innings of work with a 2.81 ERA. James and fellow newcomer, Framber Valdez, have been pleasant surprises for Houston down the stretch. I would think one or both of these guys makes the postseason roster hopefully at the expense of Hector Rondon who has been absolutely awful in September.
Lance McCullers was activated off the DL yesterday. He has been with the team since joining them in Houston over the previous weekend. He is expected to pinch in relief this weekend in Baltimore to get an inning or two as a tune-up before the postseason.
Charlie Morton left this past Saturday’s game after just one inning because of shoulder soreness. He was on the 10 DL earlier in the month for the same reason. AJ Hinch said it’s just precautionary to save him for the postseason. He is currently back in Houston with his wife who is expecting their 4th child any day. He is expected to be back with the team by the weekend and he will pitch an inning to two as a test for the shoulder and to keep him sharp for the postseason.
Carlos Correa has been out with a bad back since last week. It was reported that he took batting practice yesterday and had no discomfort afterwards. He claims he’s feeling good and ready to go. If he shows no ill effects from yesterday’s workout he could be back in the lineup in Wednesday’s series finale against Toronto.

[eagle eye]

The Astros finished the last week of the regular season with a 5-2 record. What they did this past week was clinch the AL West division title avoiding a harrowing trip through the playoffs as a Wild Card team, they tied their win total of 2017 with a win Friday night. They tied the franchise record for wins in a season with the win in the first game of the Saturday double header and they set a new franchise record for regular season wins by winning the nightcap of the double header. Sunday, today, I don't think the Astros gave a toot about anything other than confirming Charlie Morton was good to go for their second playoff run in a row. Morton was good as he pitched 3 innings allowing just one hit and no runs with a wicked breaking ball and the velocity he commands in the mid to upper 90's. Check and check. Morton is ready and the shoulder soreness that shut him down after one inning last weekend was just a thing of the past. Now, Morton had to be concerned about his wife who was expecting their 4th child and due to give birth at any moment. When he was pulled and informed that the team was shutting him down until the weekend series with Baltimore, Morton took off for Houston where he was on hand for the birth of his newest child. The healing power of child birth. Mom and child are good and so was Morton in his brief outing today. Houston lost 4-0 in a one hit shutout, bet you can't guess who got the hit. Okay, I'll tell you. It was Jose Altuve, who else?

Houston fought tooth and nail right up to the last week with the Oakland A's and after a dismal August Houston rebounded to go 21-6 for the month of September. That's a .777 winning percentage folks and if the Astros hadn't had such a great September it's likely they would be the one playing in the Wild Card game against the Yankees in the Bronx and IF they managed to beat NY they would face the 107 win Boston Red Sox for the right to play in the ALCS against either Oakland or Cleveland. As it is, Houston avoids that gauntlet and they face the 91 win Indians with home field advantage. That's no guarantee for success but it's better than the alternative.

Houston made history by being one of 3 teams to win 100 games in the same season. There is Boston, then Houston and the Yankees all eclipsing the century mark. The regular season is over now and, for all intents and purposes, so is September. I'm thinking of the Green Day song, 'Wake Me When September Ends'. Houston gets 4 days to rest and reset for their opener against Cleveland on Friday. It's October, Baby! I have get some Xanex or something to calm my nerves because games are literally going to become do-or-die. Anybody remember the movie, 'Animal House' at the end when all hell is breaking loose during homecoming? Remember Flounder standing on the street amid all the chaos saying, "Oh boy, Isn't this great!!" I do and Flounder, you are sooooo right!!!

[eagle eye]

The ALDS cranks up today beginning with the first game in the series between Houston and the Cleveland Indians. Last year the Indians were the one team the Astros didn’t want to play. The Tribe had the best record in the American League and they wore Houston out in the regular season. With all the talk about the Yankees and Red Sox and Houston, Cleveland seems to not be getting any love or respect. I think the perception is that Houston will walk all over Cleveland but, this series won’t be easy. First off, nearly every player on the roster had a sub-par season at the plate. The most dramatic drop off would be Carlos Correa who hit .315 in 2017 and finished 2018 hitting .239. That’s a 77-point difference for a guy who was one of the cornerstones of the Astros offense last season. He did struggle with back issues most of the season. Hopefully, he’s feeling good heading into the playoffs because the Astros need him to be good. Correa’s hitting struggles are not the exception but rather, the norm. Marwin Gonzalez lost 56 points on his BA going from .303 in ’17 to .247 in ’18. Josh Reddick went from .314 to .242 (-72 points), George Springer dropped from .283 to .265 (-18 points) and Jose Altuve dropped from an AL best .364 in 2017 when he won the AL batting title, league MVP and Silver Slugger Award and 4 consecutive 200+ hit season to .316 this past season (-48 points) which was 3rd in the AL and he failed in his bid for 5-200+ hit season in a row racking up just 169 hits plus he spent time on the DL in August for the first time in his career. Only Tony Kemp and Tyler White improved at the plate while Alex Bregman and Yuli Gurriel remained pretty much the same.
Cleveland and Houston have, arguably, the two best pitching staffs in the postseason. The Indians starting rotation is on a par, maybe a notch below, Houston’s. Houston’s edge may be their bullpen who had the lowest ERA in all of baseball in the regular season. With the struggles the Astros offense has had, which include grounding into a league high number of double plays (158) which is far and away the worst in baseball, the offensive edge has to go to Cleveland.
This series looks like it should be a low scoring pitcher’s duel type of series but, you just never know what will transpire when the ump yells, “Play Ball!!” Will the sleeping giant Astros offense wake up and come to life in October? Or will Cleveland outlast the Astros with quality pitching? The NL ALDS started off last night and the Brewers and Dodgers won as expected. It did take 10 innings before Milwaukee got a walk-off hit to beat Colorado 3-2. The Dodgers dominated the Braves and former Astros starter and Atlanta ace, Mike Foltynewicz, taking an early 4-0 lead through 2 innings and cruising to a 6-1 win in their Game 1. The NLDS series will continue with their Game 2’s tonight interspersed with the ALDS games beginning with Cleveland-Houston at 1 o’clock this afternoon. Verlander vs Kluber in Game 1. Verlander who is tops, or near the top, in every pitching category except ERA and wins will face off against 20-game winner Kluber. If you like pitcher’s duels this game might just be right up your alley. My fingers and toes are crossed and I’m cautiously optimistic heading into today’s game. Go ‘Stros!!

[eagle eye]

The postseason has begun and the one worry was will the Astros be able to generate enough offense to support their starting pitching. Heck, would there be enough offense period? At least for two game, the offense looks just fine. In the playoffs you shouldn't grade a team's success or failures on style points. We do that in football all the time. It doesn't seem to be enough if our team wins, they have to win looking good. The amount of media NFL teams get opens the door for style points. When I was a youngster, there was no internet, no ESPN and certainly no NFL Channel to break down every more a team makes. There was no NFL Red Zone and no NFL Sunday Ticket available to watch any and every game on Sunday afternoons. I read an article by DallasCowboys.com's Mickey Spagnola a few years ago that debunked the 'style points' notion. Spags said in his article that winning in the NFL is so bloody hard we should be thankful for the wins and move on. It was a life changing epiphany for me. Taking Mickey's advice improved my enjoyment of watching football 100%. It sort of put me in a time machine and took me back to a time when winning was the point and all that other crap was meaningless. It is glorious to not be hung up on trivial crap and just enjoy the wins when they come. When I was kid the thing people would talk about on the game broadcast and around the 'water cooler' on Mondays was the "fact" that Dallas could move the ball between the 20's but stall at the opponent's 20. It was all perception because Dallas went to 5 Super Bowls in the decade as they cemented their claim as America's Team. It was also said Dallas played up or down quality-wise according to the level of competition they were playing. They played great against the tough teams and sort of coasted through the not-so-great teams. Again, Monday morning quarterback talk because, more often than not, we were talking about another Cowboys win.

During the regular season, because it is six months and 162 games long, people talk about the defects in their team. A little less so when they are winning but still, the stats tell us how many runners were left stranded and how many runners were stranded in scoring position. We know if the bullpen or the starting pitching was the reason for last night's loss or win. Baseball is a stat oriented game. They break down play into the most ridiculous nano points like 'how a pitcher does in the 4th inning, on the road, in day games on days with an R in it.' The frustrating thing about the 2018 Astros was the offense didn't perform like the 2017 offense. Given the pitching the Astros had if Houston's offense had played up to last year's level the team could have won 110 games or more and they would have had 3 20-game winning starting pitchers. At times it seemed like Houston sucked and the season was not going well at all. But that's perception based on almost daily results. As you look back on it, Houston won 103 games for crying out loud. Most in team history. The Astros survived extended stints on the DL by its top 3 players and they still just kept on winning way more often than not.

That daily grind is over with for this year. We are in the playoffs, baby! Just where we wanted to be, right? Right. The Astros have been playing under pressure for over a month as the season wound down with the Oakland A's nipping at their heels up until the last week of the season. Houston won 101 games last year and they won the AL West by 21 games. This year Houston won the division by 6 games and it was closer than that heading into the last week of the season. This version of the Astros is resilient, battle tested, tough and determined. I kind of forgot all that as the ALDS began on Friday. I saw the warts and forgot how good this team is and why they are so good, warts and all. Houston came out Friday jumping to a 4-0 lead thanks to an Alex Bregman HR to lead off the fourth and a Josh Reddick RBI single to give the Astros a 2 zip lead after 4. George Springer led off the 5th with a home run and Jose Altuve backed him up with a dinger of his own to stake the Astros to a 4 nothing lead after 5. Justin Verlander, who was great through 5 innings stumbled in the 6th and Ryan Pressley came in with the bases loaded and shut down the Cleveland threat but not before he allowed 2 of the 3 runners he inherited to score making it a 4-2 ballgame. As it turns out, it was a minor setback. Houston scored two more times in the 7th and one more time in the 8th to forge a 7-2 lead. Pressley finished off the 6th and he pitched a scoreless 7th. Lance McCullers pitched a scoreless 8th and Roberto Osuna closed out the game in the 9th to give Houston and 1-0 lead in the series. Last night Gerrit Cole one upped Verlander by going 7 innings striking out 12 batters in the process in an awesome performance. The only mistake Cole made was in the 3rd inning when he hung a slider to the Indians' Francisco Lindor who drove the ball into the bleachers for a 1-0 lead. Indians starter Carlos Carrasco was marching through the Astros lineup until the 6th when Houston finally got to him. They took a 2-1 lead on a Marwin Gonzalez 2-run single. Alex Bregman added a solo HR in the 7th to give Houston a 3-1 lead and that's all that Houston needed to beat Cleveland and take a 2-0 lead in their ALDS series. Marwin Gonzalez had a great night for Houston going 4 for 4 as he lead the team's offense and was responsible for the Astros taking a 2-1 lead in the game.

Note: Josh Reddick hit over .300 last year and he sucked in the playoffs at the plate. This year so far, Reddick struggled through the regular season but he's come up and contributed in the first two games of the postseason. On Friday he went 2 for 4 with 2 RBI's and last night he went 1 for 2. By contrast, Carlos Correa was the only starter to not get a hit in Friday's win and he came back last night and failed to get a hit again. So far Correa is oh-fer in 7 AB's with a walk and 2 K's.

Next up it will be Dallas Keuchel's turn on the mound when Houston takes on Cleveland in Game 3 of the series in Cleveland on Monday.

Memory lane: I was thinking about how dominant Verlander and Cole were to start the series and it got me to thinking about the best pitching performance I had ever seen in a baseball postseason and I remembered the epic Game 7 in the 1991 World Series between the Atlanta Braves and the Minnesota Twins. The Braves had HOF'er John Smoltz on the hill and Minnesota countered with Jack Morris. Smoltz went 7.1 innings, Mike Stanton (of the Astros postgame show fame on ATTSouthwest broadcasts) pitched .2 innings and Alejandro Pena went 1.1 innings pitching a scoreless 9th inning and giving up the game winning hit in the tenth with one out. Morris was the star of the show on the night. He pitched the complete game, start to finish, going 10 innings allowing no runs on 7 hits, 2 walks and 8 K's. He threw 126 pitches in the game and he had to argue with Twins manager Tom Kelly to stay in the game in the last three innings. Morris was NOT coming out of that game and he rewarded Kelly and team with game for the ages. Justin Verlander said last season that one pitch in the playoffs was like throwing 10 pitches in the regular season because of the pressure of playoff baseball. That being said, it makes Morris' magnificent Game 7 all the more compelling. The video linked below is a nice tribute to that Game 7.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQolx1l5U5Q

[eagle eye]

Game 1 of the ALCS is in the books and Astros fans are not unhappy! They beat the Red Sox 7-2 last night in a game that wasn't really that close - okay, it was close until the 9th inning when Houston erupted for 4 innings to break open a 3-2 game. But, that's what Houston does, right? They keep punching until the other team cracks. The reason teams crack is because they know good and well that breaking through on the Astros pitching is harder than beating Jason Stathum in fight. Justin Verlander went 6 innings and if it wasn't for a 30 pitch 5th he might have gone the distance. The 5th was weird because the 2 runs Boston scored came because Verlander walked in a run and the other run came on a wild pitch. In total, Verlander gave up just 2 hits in his six innings worth of work. He had 4 walks on the night, 3 of which came back-to-back-to-back in the 5th. Verlander had no explanation other than something threw off his timing just a hair, enough that he couldn't even throw a strike with his fastball, but he got through the inning and mowed down the Sox in the 6th inning to close out his night. Ryan Pressly, Lance McCullers and Collin McHugh pitched 3 innings of shutout ball to seal the win.

Carlos Correa seems to finding his stroke again. In the broadcast last night, they said Correa told them that he finally feels better after dealing with a bad back most of the season. He is back and able to focus on putting together quality at-bats. He went 0 for 9 against Cleveland before coming through with a 3-run homer to help ice Game 3 to complete the sweep of the Indians. Last night Correa went 1 for 3 with 2 walks but the one hit was clutch. With 2 outs and men on 1st and 2nd Correa hit a ground ball up the middle for an RBI base hit that allowed Houston to retake the lead at 3-2. Alex Bregman didn't get a hit but he was on base 4 of the 5 times he went to the plate, walking 3 times and being hit by a pitch to start the 6th. Bregman was on 2B when Correa got his hit and he scored the go-ahead run. Josh Reddick led off the 9th inning with a home run and Yuli Gurriel finished off the scoring with a 3-run homer to give the Astros a comfortable lead heading into the bottom of the 9th. Houston only had 5 hits on the night but the Red Sox pitching walked 10 batters plus they hit 3 batters to give Houston all the traffic they needed on the base paths. The biggest news of the night was that George Springer DIDN'T homer in the game which he has done in 5 of the last 6 postseason games he's played. He did come through with a bases loaded 2-run single in the top of the 2nd. The hit staked Verlander to an early 2-0 lead.

Game 2 is tonight. Hopefully, we will get a clean sweep of Texas teams today with a Texans win, a Cowboys win and an Astros win. All things considered I want the Astros to win most of all. If the Sports Gods decide to let the Astros win at the expense of Texans and Cowboys losses, so be it and so shall it be done. My expectations for the Texas football duo is not nearly what I want for the Astros. Clearly, the Astros have the best team and the ceiling is much higher at this point. I'm still rooting for the Texas football teams to do well but I'm hanging my hat on the 'Stros. Tonight it will be Gerrit Cole vs David Price. Wouldn't it be sweet to come back from chilly Boston with a 2 zip lead? Darn tootin' it would!!

[eagle eye]

It’s obvious that the Sports Gods are dyslexic. I specifically said yesterday morning I would gladly trade for a Texans and Cowboys loss for an Astros win. The SG’s got it backwards, the Texans and Cowboys won while the Astros lost. If you can’t trust the Sports Gods who the heck can you trust?
Gerrit Cole picked the wrong night to have his worst outing as an Astro. He started the game shaky but after a 1-2-3 2nd inning you figured he was settled in for about 6 innings of quality pitching. Wrong, In the third inning he gave up a single, a double, a walk with a couple of K’s sprinkled in but when Jackie Bradley came up with the bases loaded Cole gave up a 3-run double to Bradley to give the Bosox a 5-4 lead they would not relinquish on the night. Cole gave up 2 runs in the first partly because of a throwing error he committed. But, Houston came back with 2 runs in the 2nd and another 2 runs in the 3rd to give Cole a 4-2 lead which he promptly blew in the bottom of the inning. All the things that enabled Houston to win Game 1 like walks, hit batsmen, errors and timely hits were the Astros undoing in Game 2. All except the hit batsmen but Martin Maldinado made up for that with a very untimely passed ball. Eh, what are you going to do. Cole did go 6 innings and he did look good in innings 4 through 6 but when you give up 5 runs, 4 earned, in just 3 innings it makes the rest seem inconsequential. The damage was done and that is all I have to say about that. (Forest Gump reference)
You know what, it’s really not such a bad deal. All the Astros wanted was to come out of the games in Boston with a split and they got that. For the time being, Houston has taken home field advantage away from the Red Sox. Now, Houston just has to take care of business back in Houston. All in all, it was a good weekend for Texas pro sports. I still have a bone to pick with the SG’s but as long as the Astros win four games in this series all will be forgiven.

[eagle eye]

Damn. The Astros are down 3-1 in The ALCS thanks to the 8-6 loss to Boston last night. The Bosox are making the plays and getting the hits while Houston is coming up just a hair short. Bregman could be Houston’s answer to Jackie Bradley Jr if a few of his hits was a skosh higher or shorter depending on which hit you’re talking about. Jose Altuve joined Bregman in the group that is wishing his ball was hit just 12” higher. That’s okay because it just sets the table for an epic comeback beginning tonight with Justin Verlander on the mound. Go Stros!!!

[eagle eye]

Spring Training notes and items:

AJ Hinch told the media yesterday that RHP Brady Rodgers would start the first spring game Saturday (yes, THIS Saturday!!!) He let the guys in the clubhouse know first and then made the announcement to the media. Brady Rodgers has sort of become that lost man because in May of 2017 he had Tommy John surgery and he missed all of the 2017 and 2018 seasons. If Rodgers does well he could vault himself into the mix for consideration as the Astros 5th starter. Rodgers was the AAA Pacific Coast Pitcher of the Year in 2016 so, prior to TJ surgery you know this guy has game. He’s also a Houston area homey being born in Richmond and he’s been a lifelong Astros fan. Milwaukee drafted Rodgers right out of high school in 2009 but he chose to go to college. In 2012 Houston drafted him in the 3rd round and he worked his way up to AAA. He made one big league appearance in September of 2016. I think it would be cool if Rodgers does do well and cracks the Astros roster even if it’s as a reliever. Home town boy makes good is always a feel good story. At 28 years of age Rodgers is no kid but he’s definitely a guy I will be watching for this spring.

All Tony Kemp did in 2018 was hit nearly .300 and he had some of the most clutch hits for Houston down the stretch, as Kemp played in 97 games last season. He has a left handed bat which is a plus in Houston’s right handed heavy lineup. As good as Kemp was he may not make the final 25 man roster given Houston has its starters penciled in with George Springer, Josh Reddick and Michael Brantley. The fourth man in the rotation as it stands now is Jake Marisnick but nipping at his heels will be Kemp and likely Kyle Tucker with Derek Fisher as a very dark horse. Kemp has never made an opening day 25 man roster in 3 partial seasons in the bigs. It’s a harsh reality of pro sports, no matter how good a guy you might be if you ain’t good enough you head to AAA. At least the Astros AAA franchise is in Round Rock, so the trip isn’t as far.

Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole will be free agents after this season so it would appear it’s do or die this season for the Astros to get back to the World Series but in an interview this week Astros owner Jim Crane said he would love to get contract extensions done with both men. He said he envisions an Astros future with both men part of the equation. Good news for Astros fans, we all just hope he gets it done!!!

Last season top Astros pitching prospect Forest Whitley was suspended for the first 50 games for substance abuse, PED use. Whitley said it was a mistake and he apologized for taking something he didn’t clear with the team and the fact he let his team mates and the Astros organization down. When he returned to action after his suspension he tweeted, “Daddy’s back!” I’m sure he thought that was forgotten long ago but when Whitley made his first spring training appearance this week Justin Verlander let him know “nothing is forgotten” when he and the team presented Whitley with his jersey but instead of his name it said ‘Daddy’. Everyone had a good laugh about that and he had to wear the jersey for the rest of the day. Whitley was good natured about it and he thought it was funny and he appreciated his team mates giving a hard time. It’s all about what a tight knit group this roster is even with new guys. This year is Whitley’s first big league camp and big things are expected from the Astros #1 prospect.