Cleveland 3, Houston 1
W: Bauer (5-7)
L: Oberholtzer (4-9)
Submitted by Reuben
It was a mix of good and bad Sunday afternoon in Cleveland, Ohio. The Astros tripled their hit total from each of their two previous games, but they also struck out 12 times and only scored 1 run. They mounted an impressive 9th-inning rally that brought them within a single of tying the game and a mere gapper away from taking the lead. But Fowler struck out to end it and in total they left 11 men on base.
Brett Oberholtzer notched another Quality Start™ but he ran out of gas in the 7th, allowing the 3rd run to score, and made a costly misplay on a comebacker in the 2nd that led to another run. Jose Altuve had 2 more hits to increase his league-leading AVG to .334 and stole a base to nudge his league-leading total to 47. However, Jose looks like he is slowing down, overall, and is probably exhausted from the grind of the season. A day off might do him a lot of good right now.
Corporan had a very nice day, going 1-for-1 with 2 walks and tagging out a runner at home who foolishly tried to score on a pitch that only bounced a few feet away. In the 7th, Corp hit a moon shot down the RF line that the Cleveland announcers, looking at the replay, thought was fair. Unfortunately, the Replay Umpires quickly decided it was foul, and though Corp walked on the next pitch, he was immediately erased when Castro grounded into a DP.
Bo Porter brought the entire team down into the clubhouse between the 2nd and 3rd innings. Who knows what prompted the bizarrely timed speed-meeting – Oberholtzer and Dominguez had both made stupid plays in the preceding half-inning – but in the end, it did not spur the Astros to victory. Not quite.
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Futility Watch: The Astros’ decent road trip combined with another D’backs slide has them tied for 27th place at the moment. Boston has lost 8 in a row and seems eager to join the party despite their enormous payroll, and the fact that the Astros’ highest-paid player, Feldman, actually makes less money than the Red Sox’ clubhouse attendant. At 55-76, the Astros are on pace to finish 68-94, which would only be the 10th-most losses in club history. It would be nice if they can manage a 72-90 record. The 2000 Astros had that record, and then improved to 93 wins and a division championship the next year. Fingers crossed.