Astros 5, Angels 2
W: Keuchel, L: Richards
recap and box score
GameZone

Yep, this was one all about Dallas Keuchel. He went 8.2 innings before giving up 2 singles and leaving runners on the corners when Porter yanked him from the game. Of course, everyone knew what was going to happen next, Zied gave up a triple to Kendricks and a shut out was gone. Keuchel was great on the night and has been for his last couple of starts. He was mixing his pitches, pitching in a great rhythm and just getting batters out. He had 8 strikeouts on the night. He’s just been very good lately. Who’d a thunk it?

Now, in regard to the offense, the bats got to early start, which is good because they did nothing late in the game. They got all 5 runs in the top three innings. Only struck out twice.

Did you know that Mark Trout has more strikeouts that Khris Carter?? Well, Ashby and Blum made sure any one watching the game last night knew. But, it is still surprising that Trout is a league leader in strikeouts.

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.”
***

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).
***

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.
***

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…

Not Cubs 7
Astros 2
submitted by Neil T.
I can’t tell you how much I’ve dreaded this recap. Usually a couple of weeks before a Friday I check the schedule and see who’s up and then over the course of the two weeks I think about what I’m going to write. Some stuff is obvious. If the Stros are playing the Rangers, I’m going to let the governor write the recap. If it’s the Angels, I’m thinking about Astrolena. If it’s Seattle . . . I just let the hatred burn.

But the White Sox? The only thing I can say about the White Sox is that they’re the other team from Chicago. Yeah, they faced off against the Stros in the 2005 World Series, but the White Sox were just some random AL team, and it was a long time ago.

We’re in San Antonio for my son’s college graduation, and last night we had a family dinner, Andy, Austin, Grandma, Kris, and me at a place called Gwendolyn’s. The place is a farm to table place: “we buy a whole unbutchered animal and hang it in the closet, where we gather around its carcass to plan our menus. We not only buy from local farmers, we are on a first name basis with the vegetables on our menu.” On the way down I’d had too much brisket in Luling, but the dinner was good. We shared a couple of bottles of an excellent Portuguese vinho verde–I think it may be the best summer white wine for Texas, cool and crisp and just the right amount of dry, plus it’s still pretty cheap–and they had this really cool coffee service using a Bunsen burner and a German syphon. One of the restaurant’s conceits is that they don’t use machines, no mixers, blenders, sous vides, or coffee makers. It was kind of cool. They do use refrigerators, because I could see one from our table.

The wait staff had a lot of tattoos and got our bill wrong. I guess it’s hard to add stuff up when you have to use an abacus. They were earnest though, and it was nice to see how they shared the work at the tables. I’d recommend the place for family dinners at college graduations. Every now and then during dinner I’d check my phone for the score, and I followed the game a bit into the 6th when McHugh fell apart. Then I had more wine.

This morning I got up and read through the Game Zone. It seemed particularly ugly. The other team from Chicago won, and I’ve got nothing else to say about the White Sox.

Rangers 4, Astros 0

recap
gamezone

I think one of the most important things to winning a baseball game is scoring runs (another important thing is preventing the other team from scoring-more on that later). Well, the Astros got part of it right. They had 12 runners left on base. Geez, someone needs to cross the plate.

Surprisingly, the pitching only gave up 4 runs on the night. But, the bullpen went 3 innings of scoreless baseball. That’s a good thing, especially for this bullpen.

Each week I write one of these recaps and I become a bit more disillusioned about this team each week. I have such hope with the farm system, but I just don’t know if it will be enough. I’m losing hope that they’ll not have the #1 pick in 2015.

Well, here’s to the Astros, may they win the rest of the series, because I really don’t like Rangers fans.