Astros complete road sweep with 10 – 4 victory over Anaheim.

W: Keuchel (5-9)

L: Weaver (6-7)

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Game Zone

Starting off with a 1 run lead, Dallas Keuchel threw 55 pitches in the first two innings. He didn’t look like a Cy young award winner. After flirting with disaster and surrendering 2 runs, he settled down and watched his team score in 6 of 9 frames, three of those with crooked numbers. In the end it was not close and for the second week in a row the Astros sweep the Angels in a three game series

Jose Altuve continues to amaze, he had another 4 hit night, 2 singles, a double, and a triple. His on-base streak now stands at 32 games. He is second in the league in OPS at 1.004, first in batting average at .357, first in OBP, fourth in slugging, and second in WAR, first in hits. I think he must be the leading MVP candidate.

It’s been quite an offensive turnaround the past couple of weeks. It went from famine to feast. It seemed like Luis Valbuena was 0 for April, now he is hitting .259 and counting the one he hit Wednesday, he now has 9 home runs. George Springer hit his 17th HR and is making a strong case to be added to the All-Star roster.

All hail Wotan, the Astro have now won 10 Wednesday games in a row!

The Astros are off Thursday and Friday open a three game series with the White Sox. Mike Fiers (5-3) will go against Miguel Gonzalez (1-3) in a 7:10 pm CST start time.

June 28, 2016

Astros 7, Angels 1

W: Feldman (5-3) L: Lincecum (1-2)

Game Zone

Box score

Win probability

“I love it when a plan comes together.”

The leader of the A-Team would say that at some point during every episode, and you knew then that the A-Team was ready to kick ass and take names.

The Astros have their A-Team ready. The plan is coming together.

Oh, you lost a starting pitcher for a night due to a blister? No problem, Scott Feldman is ready to come in and throw five innings.  Would have been shutout innings, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids Valbuena’s bobble of a routine grounder.

Want to score runs? George Springer and Jose Altuve are drawing walks, and Carlos Correa is hitting homers.  Boom, 3-0 lead.

Want to keep your lead? Michael Feliz and Pat Neshek can slam the door for you – and they’re not even in your top 3 bullpen options.

Oh, and the top 6 guys in the order were all finally hitting over .250.  Doesn’t seem like much, but then again, it doesn’t seem like too long ago that 7 guys in the lineup were around .200.

Tuesday’s win guaranteed a winning record for the first half of the season.  April was a long time ago. Let’s go sweep these guys.

June 21, 2016

Astros 3, Angels 2

W: Gregerson (1-1) L: Street (2-1)

Game Zone

Box score

Win probability

Let’s start with a nod to Colin McHugh, whose night looked like a disaster when he allowed the first three men to reach on an infield single, HBP, and a laser single by Trout.  But he buckled down and struck out the next two, followed by a tapper to the mound, and limited the damage to a single run.

The Angels would get a solo homer by Cron in the 4th, and that would e it.

Meanwhile, Carlos Correa started getting some results for all his hard hit balls.  First, a solo shot in the 5th cut the lead in half.  The Astros’ leadoff hitters would reach base in the 6th, 7th, and 8th with no runs to show for it.

Come the 9th, Springer walked and stole second, followed by a walk of Marwin. An infield single by ALTUVE! loaded the pond for Correa, who rose to the occasion.  Carlos drilled a 3-2 sinker into center field to plate 2 runs and bring the club back to .500.

This was Correa’s 4th walk-off hit of his career; for comparison, Derek Jeter had 7 in his entire career.

A Wednesday matinee will see the team finally try to climb above .500.