Everything Is Awesome

Everything Is Awesome

Submitted by Reuben

Not content with simply winning a series against the Rangers, the Astros broke out the big bats on Sunday and trounced the White Sox, in the process earning their 2nd series victory in a row. It was the first time they had won consecutive series since… well, since last year, and I can’t even say with 100% conviction that they did it then.

Cleanup man Matt Dominguez, who swatted two-run homers in the 3rd and 5th innings, supplied the loudest part of the offense, but nearly everyone in the lineup chipped in. Chris Carter opened the scoring with his 6th homer, a shot that went up on the train tracks, according to Robert Ford. Jonathan Villar added some cushion later in the inning when he singled, knocking in two runs, stole third, and trotted home after the Sox’ catcher fired the ball into left field. Dexter Fowler had a hit and another walk (I believe that’s 8 games in a row where he’s walked); Altuve upped his hit streak to 10 games; Springer and Guzman also reached base multiple times.

On the mound the star of the day was Brad Peacock, who finally notched his first Win of the season. Peacock followed up his very solid 11-K effort from his previous start with a fine game, allowing only 5 baserunners until the 7th, when he wore down a bit, giving up back-to-back walks and an RBI double all with 2 outs. Josh Fields finished the inning without further incident.

Manager Bo Porter praised Peacock’s effort afterward, explaining “When you can throw 92 to 95 [mph] and you can paint down and away and you can go to the top of the zone and you throw your breaking ball, curveball and slider coming out of the same spot, it can really allow you so many different ways to attack hitters,” Porter said. “I think he’s found that out his last two starts.”
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Okay, here are some funny/sad/true stats I happened to look up today. The Astros offense currently ranks 4th overall in Home Runs (48), and 3rd in Stolen Bases (35). They are 11th in Walks. Despite these impressive figures, they are 27th in Runs Scored, thanks to their well-documented problems with strikeouts (2nd overall), and Batting Average (.233, 27th overall) in particular hitting with Runners In Scoring Position (.209, 28th overall).
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Last night we went to the drive-in, which had an odd double feature pairing: Godzilla followed by The Lego Movie. Godzilla was… about what you’d expect, and exactly the type of movie that is best seen at a drive-in. While I loved Legos as a kid, I had little-to-no interest in staying for The Lego Movie. But my friend Neil had heard it was good, and that Fox News hated it, so we decided to stick around at least for the beginning. It was actually, surprisingly, kinda great. Really, really funny, and with a lot more irreverence and good old quirkiness than your typical kids’ movie. Had a bit of an Adult Swim feel to it (sure enough, the “Robot Chicken” guy was co-director), despite the unavoidable moral didacticism.
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Futility Watch: At 16-28, the Astros are now, technically, not the worst team in baseball; the Cubs, now 15-27, have the very slightly lower winning %, .357 to Houston’s .364. Both teams are a game back of the D-backs for 28th place. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh has meandered down to join the Rays in 27th place, a mere 2.5 games ahead of the Astros. But who cares about that now? The Astros have won 4 out of 5, and besides, everything is cool when you’re part of the team…