April 8, 2016
Brewers 6, Astros 4
W – Anderson (1-0)
L – Feldman (0-1)
S – Jeffress (2)
Friday’s game against the Brewers gave you that same early queasy feeling that you got Wednesday and Thursday. For the third day in a row an Astros starting pitcher dug an early hole for the team. Despite a late rally that got cut short thanks to a new rule, the Astros fell to the Brewers 6-4. Five of the Brewers’ six runs came on big home runs to center or deep right-center.
Scott Feldman’s control was all over the place to start the game. Scooter Gennett started the happy fun times with one out and nobody on in the 1st, absolutely crushing a Feldman pitch that is probably still in low orbit over Lake Michigan. A couple batters later, Chris Carter did what we all were kind of expecting, taking Feldman deep for a two-run shot. Domingo Santana added an RBI double in the 2nd to take the score to 4-0. Although Feldman was able to stop the bleeding after that, he still only lasted four innings. In the last three games Astros starters have combined for just 9.1 innings. This is a problem.
Chris Devenski made his MLB debut for Houston and came in for three fairly impressive scoreless innings. Josh Fields did quite the opposite, serving up the third bomb to center to make the lead 6-0.
On offense, for almost the entire night the good guys could never put together a sustained rally when it mattered despite getting a runner into scoring position several times. One of those times was Carlos Gomez, who was erased to retire the side while getting caught in a rundown in the 5th.
Things did get interesting in the 9th, though. Correa singled and Gomez tapped an infield single to second. Tyler White then unloaded an opposite-field bomb off the top of the wall in right-center to make it 6-3. White went 3×4 on the night, is hitting a sweet .692 through four games, and is seeing beachballs at the plate right now. Marwin then walked and scored from home on a Preston Tucker double to left-center. Rasmus then walked to bring Altuve to the plate with two on and one out. On a grounder to second, Gennett flipped the ball to Jonathan Villar at short for the force play on Rasmus. Instead of a standard slide that might have actually beaten the throw, Rasmus slid with his left foot high and then slid past the bag. Thanks to the new Utley Rule to protect fielders in such a situation, Altuve was called out despite Villar not even making an attempt to throw to first. Ballgame, and a disappointing way for a promising rally to end.
There were a couple of defensive bright spots as well. Gomez made a nice diving catch in shallow left-center, and although Jason Castro is 0-fer the season at the plate, he is doing some good work behind it, nailing two runners on the night.