Astros 9
A’s 10
W: Doubront, L: Fiers, S: Doolittle
I was in San Antonio for the weekend to celebrate my Dad’s 76th birthday (as some of you may know that is quite an accomplishment for him) and from what I could tell, the Astros tried to homer their way to a win but were unable.
Here’s to a better result to tonight’s game! Kazmir v. Gray. Let’s hope the boys start a nice long win streak tonight.
Astros 8
Twins
Submitted by Neil T
Thank goodness Springer is back, and Ashby is back in the booth. You can’t mess around with karma in September, and things need to be what they’ve been, whether you like it or not. Ashby may be 2015’s Bao. That doesn’t mean you have to like him.
The official story is Springer’s return, but this was Conger’s game, with five RBI, and McHugh’s, with no runs. The game started with another Gomez-Conger out at home plate, this time of Joe (There’s a Man I’ve Got to See) Mauer, to keep the Twins scoreless. You can see it again here, complete with Twins commentary:
Bottom of the first, Singleton singletons, Clapton singles, Correa fielders choice, one run scores.
There’s no reason to describe the Twins’ at bats. Shut out. McHugh was brilliant. Thatcher got a k for the third out of the 8th, then Feliz went 3 up, 3 down for the 9th. 7 hits, 6 Ks, one walk for McHugh. Brilliant.
2nd Lowrie doubles, Astros go up 3-0 with a Rasmus bomb.
4th. Pay attention now. Gattis singles. Lowrie singles. Gomez singles. Bases loaded, let me say this again: bases loades. The Astros this season never score. Rasmus Ks. Valbuena Ks.
Feed the Conger:
An authentic Minnesotan recipe, via the Armour Spam website:
1 (12-ounce) can SPAM® Classic, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
12 small new potatoes, sliced 1/8 inch thick
1 Anaheim pepper, chopped
8 corn taco shells
2 cups torn romaine lettuce
Shredded Cheddar cheese
Diced tomatoes
Sour cream
CHI-CHI’S® Thick & Chunky mild salsa
Directions
In skillet, cook SPAM® Classic, potatoes and Anaheim over medium heat, turning occasionally, 15 to 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
Fill each taco shell with about 1/4 cup each SPAM® mixture and romaine. Top with cheese, tomatoes, sour cream and salsa.
Astros just keep giving and giving in 8 – 3 loss
WP: Smith (2 – 5)
LP: Neshek (3 – 5)
SV: Wilhelmsen ( 8 )
submitted by Sphinx Drummond
Seattle Sea Cucumbers, a disgusting creature that forages the ocean floor snacking on other animals (and professional baseball teams) excrement had plenty to dine on at Minute Maid Park on Wednesday. The Astros were crapping up a shit tornado pretty much the whole game.
They initially were just trading shits with the water-logged echinoderms from the Northwest but eventually they blew away the competition with a heaping steaming turd pile that would have made Andre The Giant proud.
Thursday is a day off, Friday the Astros host the Minnesota Twins and starter Mike Pelfrey (6-8, 3.85 ERA) who will face off against Collin McHugh (14-7, 3.92 ERA) starting at 7:10 pm CST.
Game Time: 3:40
Attendance: 18,669 (school night)
Mariners: 3
Astros: 8
W: Keuchel, L: Nuno
I’d like to think my brother is happy the Astros won on his birthday but my parents did something weird with him, he doesn’t really watch sports, of any kind. But, it was still nice of Lowrie, Correa, and Conger to hit HRs on his birthday. And Correa’s was a shot that could have gone into one of the windows of the buildings across the street. The marvelous young man can do spectacular things.
Keuchel wasn’t outstanding in his pitching performance, but he got himself out of jams by going 7 innings and giving up one solo HR. Perez pitched the 9th (Harris had a scoreless 8th) and gave up 2 runs, but better to do it when there is a 7 run lead than a 1 run lead.
Great game by Altuve, who seems to have liked hitting in the month of August. September hopefully treats him even better.
Call-ups should be coming soon, so stay tuned!
Minniepaulius 3
Astros 0
submitted by Neil T
You’ll recall that I’m an expert on Minneapolis. There are actually two cities, side by side, St. Paul and Minneapolis, which are really one city, but which is known as The Twins’ Cities because it was founded by the abandoned fraternal twins, Paul and Minnie. I have rubbed the forepaw of the famous statue of Paul and Minnie suckling from a beaver.
Scott Kazmir had one squirrelly inning, giving up 2 runs for 3 runs total, but otherwise Kazmir pitched well. I thought Twins pitching was very good. Astros hitting missed Correa, and early season Lowrie, with no runs on 6 hits, and 11 runners left on base. Ugh. Castro came out with a strained right quad, which sucks. Conger made the best play of the game though, with a bare handed bunt catch and doubling off the runner at first.
Here’s a list of other famous things from Minnesota: Spam, walleye on a stick, Bob Dylan, Prince, Minnetonka toy trucks, post-it notes, Moonlight Graham, and Norway. As usual, for tonight’s game, I wanted to supply an authentic Minnesotan hot-dish recipe. I’ve done taco hot dish and barbecue hot dish before, so tonight I thought I’d do something truly Minnesotan and less Texan:
SPAM HOT DISH
(from the Food.Com—you can look it up: http://www.food.com/recipe/spam-hotdish-277370. It’s worth it, because there’s an unforgettable picture.)
INGREDIENTS
2 cups macaroni
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1(10 1/2 ounce) can cream of chicken soup
10 1⁄2 ounces cream or 10 1⁄2 ounces milk
1(12 ounce) can Spam
1⁄2 tablespoon onion flakes
10 -12 slices American cheese (about 10-12 slices stacked together)
DIRECTIONS
Cook macaroni as directed on package.
While macaroni cooks, cut up cheese slices and spam.
Mix milk or cream, soup, cheese, spam, and onion flakes. Stir toghether and add the noodles. Bake at 325 for 1 1/2 hours.
With 2 fifths of vodka, serves a family of 4. Delicious!
Four run fifth inning is as sweet as candy.
WP: Collin McHugh (14 – 7)
LP: Michael Pineda (9 – 8 )
submitted by Sphinx Drummond
Wednesday Businessperson’s Special in the Bronx was a tight affair for the first four innings with the Astros clinging to a 1 to 0 lead of off a second inning Evan Gattis’ home run, his first of the day and his 21st of the season. Collin McHugh was tremendous keeping the Yankees scoreless through six innings before allowing 2 runs in the seventh inning and giving way to Tony Sipp who finished the frame without any further damage. Pat Neshek was solid in the eight and Will Harris was perfect closing out the ninth.
After scoring 15 runs the previous night, it seems it would have been almost typical to have a poor offensive performance for the next game, That wasn’t to be, after a modest start, the Astros opened up the run scoring machine in the fifth. Carlos Gomez got it going with a lead off single, Luis Valbuena followed with a single to CF, moving Gomez to third. Jake Marisnick came on with a bunt single scoring Gomez and moving Valbuena to second. Jason Castro then drew a base on balls to load ’em up for a sac fly by Jose Altuve, scoring Valbuena and advancing Jake to third base.
Steve Chasen took over pitching for Pineda and Marwin Gonzales made him pay with a single to CF scoring Jake and advancing Castro to second. The next batter, Jed Lowrie walked to load the bases. A wild pitch to Colby Rasmus allowed Castro to score, then Colby was called out on strikes that weren’t. Arguing about the strikes that weren’t got Colby tossed. Gattis popped out to end the inning, (but he did hit his second home run of the game in his next at bat).
The Astros are now 14 games over .500, I think that is their high water mark but I’m not 100% sure, The Astros haven’t won many road series this season, so taking 2 of 3 from the Yanks in their new stadium is very satisfying.
Thursday if an off day, the Astros will travel to Minnesota a some point to face the Twins on Friday with a 7:10 pm CST start that will put Scott Kazmir (7-8 2.39 ERA) against Kyle Gibson (8-9 3.96 ERA).
Time: 3:26
Attendance: 37,259
