Rangers 6, Astros 2
W: Martinez, N (2-8)
L: Keuchel (10-8)
Submitted by Reuben
The Astros started out with a 2-0 lead in this game, and Dallas Keuchel hadn’t allowed a hit through the 1st 3 innings. After that things didn’t go so well. The heat map below – designed by CSN Houston’s infographic guru, The Predator – really tells the whole story:
As you can see, the Astros scored single runs in the 1st and 3rd innings, but had little-to-no run-scoring events after that. The Rangers, on the other hand, concentrated their run-scoring in the middle innings – creating very clear “hot zones” of run-scoring activity. This could be very instructive the next time the Astros face them. They should probably avoid pitching to them during the 3rd, 4th, and maybe even for a few innings after that.
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Futility Watch: The Astros remain in 28th place overall in baseball. The Rocks have lost 8 of their last 10 to fall into a tie for last place with the Rangers. The Cubs and D’backs, meanwhile, are a full 2 games ahead of the Astros in 26/27th place. The Astros still need to win 3 more games to surpass their shameful total from 2013.