Astros win in Arlington for first time ever in a long time.

WP: Doug Fister (6-3)

LP Tom Wilhemsen (2-3)

Save: Will Harris (2)

Box Score

Game Zone

Yu Darvish started but didn’t make it to the sixth inning, his shoulder was tight. Aw. Later Adrian Beltre, limped off the field with a sore hammy. “Stinky” didn’t assault anybody.

The Astros won. In Arlington. Such a great feeling. They should do it more often.

Thursday the get a chance to win in Arlington again. Colin McHugh squares off against Martin Perez in a 1:10 pm CST start.

Attendance : 37,696

Springer’s 11th inning walk-off homer leads Astros to victory over the Diamondbacks.

WP: Michael Feliz (4-0)

LP: Tyler Clippard (2-2)

Box Score

Game Zone

Luke Gregerson might have suffered a snakebite trying to pickup his 14 save of the season but the venom didn’t have any effect on Pat Neshek or Michael Feliz. Neshek came in to finish the ninth with no more damage and Feliz continued his brilliance shutting down the legless bastards in the 10th and 11th, setting up the Astros for the big finish in their half of the 11th inning.

The Astros starter Mike Fiers  flirted with disaster early, walking batters, throwing wild pitches and was very lucky he didn’t have the Astros down 5 -0 after three. He can thank Carlos Gomez and Jake Marisnick for making some really nice runs saving catches in the outfield. The Snakes did strike first with one run in the third inning.

Diamondback starter was a bit wild himself but initially the Astros couldn’t take advantage of it. Finally the Astros scored three runs in the fifth inning following a combination of a Jose Altuve double, who scored on Correra’s single, and then Gattis followed up with a two run bomb (his 6th HR on the year) to make the score 3-1. The Astros added another run in the 8th when Marwin Gonzalez scored on Tony Kemp’s sacrifice fly.

Gregerson in for the save, blew his chance at number 14 when he gave of a three run homer to Jake Lamb. After an uneventful 10th inning and top half of the 11th inning the Astros were able to club the snakes to death via George Springer’s 13th homerun. It left a smell of napalm victory in the air.

Thursday is another businessman’s special, the Astros will try to pick up a split series sweep of the Diamondbacks in a game that features starters Dallas Keuchel and Zack Grienke and starts at 1:10pm CST.

Game Time: 3:43

Umpires: HP-Sean Barber. 1B-Ron Kulpa. 2B-Chris Conroy. 3B-Jerry Meals.

Weather: 70 degrees.

Roof Closed.Wind: 0

MPH.Attendance: 22,642

Astros win 5th Wednesday game in a row.

WP: Pat Neshek (2-0)

LP: Tyler Wilson (2-3)

Save: Luke Gregerson (12)

Box Score

Game Zone

Before last year, when the Astros were generally acknowledged as the worst team in baseball, the Astros had such a knack for winning on Wednesdays that it was determined that The Norse God Wotan must be one of the Baseball Gods and he that liked to shine his light upon the woeful Astros. Last year, the team was good, and Wotan became bored and disinterested, and the Astros Wednesday record was on par with the won-loss record of every other day of the week.

This years rocky start seems to have piqued the interest of our old friend Wotan. After losing the first 3 Wednesday games this year, the Astros have now won 5 Wednesday games in a row. Is it the dollar dogs? But wait there’s more, another interesting fact, that I’m sure is being overlooked by the ABT (Astros Brain Trust); in May, the Astros are 8 wins and 2 losses in games played on Mondays. Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. By contrast the team has only 4 wins against 9 losses in games not played on Wednesdays, Mondays, or Tuesdays. That’s just ridiculous.  Maybe it’s time for these advance metrics guys to start factoring in days of the week in their equation.

Starter Collin McHugh struck out a season-high 10 over 5 1/3 innings, allowing eight hits and a walk,  while surrendering 3 runs in a no-decision. His second strong start in a row without a victory to show for it. Pat Neshek earned the win with two-thirds of an inning in relief of McHugh in the sixth, and Luke Gregerson closed out the game with a scoreless ninth for his 10th save. Ken Giles in the 7th and Will Harris in the 8th were sharp as nails with holds in each of their respective innings.

After falling behind 1-0 after the first inning, Marwin Gonzales led off the third with a single, advanced to second on Tony Kemp’s sacrifice bunt, then scored on George Spinger’s RBI single. Evan Gattis, who started the night behind the plate, continued his power surge. His 2 run homer to left in the 4th put the Astros up, 3-1.

The Orioles tied it up with 2 runs in the 6th inning, and the Astros struck back in the bottom of the inning with a solo homer by Luis Valbuena to put the Astros back on top for good at 4-3. It was Valbuena’s 4th homer and 13th RBI on the season, it seems like most of that production has been in the past week.

Since Gattis’ refresher course in minor leagues, he’s hit four homers and recorded a hit in seven of eight games. Thursday Lance McCullers faces Kevin Gausman in a 7:10pm CST start.

Astros win second in a row, still haven’t won three in a row this year.

WP: Doug Fister: (4-3)

LP: Matt Latos (5-1)

Save: Luke Gregerson (9)

Game Zone

Box Score

Like he does so often Jose Altuve led off the game with a hit, a single. Followed by a walk to George Springer and a single by Carlos Correa, and the Astros took an early 1-0 lead. The White Sox came back to tie the Astros in the bottom of the first but it wouldn’t last. After Luis Valbuena grounded out, Jason Castro hit a single and setup Tony Kemp’s first major league at bat, his first RBI and his first hit, a double that gave the Astros a 2-1 lead and the Astros never looked back.

Doug Fister scattered 9 hits over 6.1 innings, he walked 1 and stuck out 5, allowing the White Sox 3 runs. Finishing out the 7th Ken Giles was a little shaky, allowing his inherited runner to score. Will Harris was perfect in the 8th inning, striking out two of the three he faced. Luke Gregerson got back on track, closing out the 9th for his 9th save on the year.

Tony Kemp finished the game 2 for 3. Colin Moran wasn’t a fortunate in his MLB debut, batting 6th, he was 0-3 with 1 walk and1 strikeout. Jason Castro continues to slowly improve his offense, hitting a solo homer, his third, and scoring three runs. He is now hitting .223. Jose Altuve has his average up to .348 and is really looking like one of the leading MVP candidates.

Thursday night Colin McHugh (4-3) is tasked with facing off against the great Chris Sale (8-0). A sweep will be next to impossible. Chris Sale is perhaps the most dominate pitcher in the AL if not in all of MLB. He is basically unhittable. Game time is 7:10 pm CST.

Game Time: 2:57

Umpires: HP-Dan Bellino. 1B-Adam Hamari. 2B-Tom Hallion. 3B-Tony Randazzo.

Weather: 57 degrees. Clear.

Wind: 11 MPH Left to Right.

Attendance: 14,936

Gonzales walk-off ends game in the 16th. Astros win 6

WP: Michael Feliz (1-0)

LP: Cody Anderson (0-3)

Box Score

Game Zone

Danny Salazar had a rough start walking 6 batters in 4 innings. As nice as that was, the Astros couldn’t take advantage, choosing instead to keep leaving the runners on base. Lobster was the main course Wednesday afternoon. The Astros set season-highs for drawing walks with 12, and by leaving 17 runners on base.

Doug Fister pitched well again and is starting to look like a darn good signing. He worked 6 inning, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits, no walks and 3 strikeouts. Will Harris, worked the eighth inning, and Luke Gregerson pitched the ninth with a chance to pick up his 8 save, instead blew his first of the year.

The Astros and Indians battled in extra innings, Scott Feldman (1 inning), Ken Giles (1), Tony Sipp(1.1), and Pat Neshek(0.2) all shut down the Indians before giving way to Michael Feliz who continues to impress. Feliz pitched three innings allowing 1 hit, striking out 5, and picked up his first win.

I guess by the time the bottom of the 16th came around Marwin Gonzales had had his fill of the clawed crustaceans and decided to put an end to seafood dinner by knocking a walk off 2 run homer that sent the Indians back to the kitchen for good.

The Astros now have 10-10 .500 home record. They’ve won 7 of last 11 games.  Michael Feliz threw three scoreless innings for his first big league win. Springer’s homer in the 4th, his 7th was the 1500 home team homer at MMP. They finished the home stand 6 and 4.

Thursday the Astros are in Boston, Dallas Keuchel’s (2-4 4.70 ERA) mound opponent will be David Price (4-1 6.75 ERA) and the game will start at 7:10 pm CST.

Game Time: 5:09

Umpires: HP-Dale Scott. 1B-Bob Davidson. 2B-Lance Barrett. 3B-Dan Iassogna.

Weather: 70 degrees. Roof Closed.

Wind: 0 MPH.

Attendance: 24,453

Astros beat up on the Twins 16 – 4

WP: Feldman (1-2)

LP: Hughes (1-5)

Box Score

Game Zone Thread

Wednesday night the Astros accomplished something they hadn’t done all year. They won two in a row. That is important because you can not have a winning record without winning at least two games in a row at least once during a season. Since the Astros have dug an early season hole, it will take a few more two wins in a row and a few less two losses in a row to turn the season around. But you got to start somewhere and last night was it.

After the Twins were shutdown in their half of the first inning, Jose Altuve led off the bottom of the first with another solo home run. His fifth lead off dinger and 8th homer of the year. No one closed the gate after Altuve scored and the Astros took advantage. They grabbed their good bats and swung their asses off to the tune of 16 runs.

The luxury of a lead was more than Mike Fiers could handle. He cruised through the first, struggled in the second, gave up three runs in the third, one run in the fourth, and was gone before he could finish the fifth. Josh Fields came in to get the last out of the fifth. Scott Feldman came on in the sixth inning, pitched two perfect innings and was given credit for the win. Feldman has been nothing short of brilliant in his last two relief appearances. Michael Feliz pitched well for the last two innings to close out the game.

Altuve was joined by Jason Castro (2nd) and Carlos Correa (4th) on the home run podium. Every starter but Marwin Gonzales got a hit, he did walk twice, and the team ended up with 14 hits, and 7 free passes via the base on balls. Both Altuve and Correa were a triple shy of hitting for the cycle. Fun game.

The Astros will send rookie Chris Devenski to the mound opposite Seattle’s Wade Miley in Thursday’s 7:10 p.m. CT series opener against the division leading Mariners at Minute Maid Park