Springer 8th inning homer lifts Astros past the Cardinals.

WP: Sipp (1-2)

LP: Siegrist (4-2)

Save: Harris (5)

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Game Zone

Adam Wainwright commercial A Damn Wayne Wright Commercial

The game started as a pitcher’s duel between Adam Wainwright and Collin McHugh, in the end, neither factored in the decision. After the Cards took a 1 to 0 lead in the bottom of the 7th inning, the Astros doubled down in the top of the eight when George Springer smashed his 15 home run of the season to give the Astros a 2-1 lead. It turned out to be all they would need, but for good measure, they tacked on a couple of more runs in the top of the ninth as well.

Springer was also a star in the field, making some great throws, picking up one outfield assist and he nearly had two more.

After dropping the first three Wednesday games of the season, the Astros have now won eight Wednesday games in a row.

The Astros have Thursday off. Friday they welcome the Reds from Cincinnati, Lance McCullers will go againt mound opponent John Lamb. Haircuts in homerun alley?!?!? Who goes to a game to get a haircut? Gym bags to the first 10 thousand or something like that.

June 14, 2016

Astros 5, Cardinals 2

W: Fister (7-3) L: Garcia (4-6) S: Harris (4)

Game Zone

Box score

Win Probability

There were many factors in the Astros’ 5-2 victory over the hated Cardinals on Tuesday night – not the least of which were:

• Carlos Gomez donning eyeglasses, which may or may not be prescription wear, and proceeding to go 2-4 with 3 runs scored;
• Colby Rasmus avenging himself upon the Cardinals on behalf of his family, launching a Colby Jack and singling and scoring another run;
• Your powers of math and deduction showing that the Astros scored all their runs on the evening from the 6th and 7th spots in the order – which is not bad for a team that has only 25 runs from the 6th spot all year;
• and Doug Fister continuing his witchcraft, throwing 7 1/3 innings of 2-run ball with only 2 solo home runs scarring his profile.  (Let us ignore the fact that his ERA is 1.5 runs lower than his expected ERA based on his strikeouts, walks, HR, etc.  Let us instead focus on the 2 runs that he drove in to make it 5-2 instead of 3-2, which reminded us all of what we’re missing in the NL.)

No, the real reason the Astros were victorious on this muggy summer evening was that Alan Ashby was suffering from laryngitis, necessitating Robert Ford’s move to TV play by play – where he could then demonstrate his absolute superiority to Ash in every facet of the job.

Let us hope for continued laryngitis this evening.

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

June 5, 2016

Astros 5, Athletics 2

W – McCullers (3-1)
L – Dull (1-1)
S – Harris (1)

Box Score

GameZone thread

Another sweep in the books and sole possession of third place in the division.  The only way this weekend could have possibly gone better is if the Mariners had taken just one game from the Rangers.

First of all, no, that’s not a misprint up above – Luke Gregerson did not pitch in a save situation.  Harris got the call today and pitched a 1-2-3 9th for his first save of the season.  This may not be a permanent solution, but it’s an improvement.

Coming off the DL and on a pitch count limit, Sonny Gray pitched five good innings, giving up just one run – Carlos Gomez’s first home run of the season – in the 5th.  Against Oakland’s relief corps, Gattis went yard – his fourth in five games – to tie the game in the 6th, Correa hit a go-ahead RBI double in the 7th, and Springer and Rasmus added a couple of insurance runs in the 8th on a groundout and a booted play, respectively.

McCullers spotted the A’s two runs in the top of the 1st but then held them at bay through seven strong innings, striking out nine A’s batters.  Sipp and Neshek split duty for a scoreless 8th.

Off to Arlington for four games.  Fuck the Rangers.

June 4, 2016

Astros 6, Athletics 5 (12 innings)

W – Feldman (3-3)
L – Madson (2-2)

Box Score

GameZone thread

There are always some positives to come out of an extra inning win, so let’s hit those first.

The team has gotten really good at bouncing back from adversity lately.  The A’s loaded the bases on McHugh with nobody out in the top of the 2nd and built a 3-0 lead.  The team answered in the bottom half of the inning, getting two runs back on a monster Gattis two-run homer to left and then tying it up with a Marisnick sac fly later in the inning.  They got a 4-3 lead in the 4th and extended it to 5-3 in the 5th.

McHugh got bounced a couple batters after giving up a leadoff blast to Danny Valencia in the 6th, and the bullpen came in and performed up to recent expectations… except for the 9th, when it performed down to recent expectations.  But that’s bad stuff and I’m not done with the good stuff.  Feliz, Harris, Sipp, Giles, and Feldman combined for six innings of shutout ball.  Well done, guys.

So extra innings happened, and things didn’t really get interesting until the 12th inning.  Springer led off the inning with a double and moved to third when Altuve sac-bunted(!) him over.  Kind of a bold strategy given Altuve’s hot bat but it worked out in the end.  Correa lined a would-be double down the right field line to score Springer easily (he probably would’ve scored from second anyway, even without Altuve’s sacrifice) and walk it off.  This team was losing these types of games this time last month and now they appear to no longer be spooked or snakebit by them.

Now it’s time to talk about Luke Gregerson.  Hinch may think that tonight is not the time to talk about him (he said as much in the postgame presser) but it’s really time for someone else to start closing games.  With his game-tying, save-blowing homer to Jed Lowrie in the 9th, Gregerson now leads the majors in blown saves with five, and those blown saves are directly responsible for 16 innings of extra play this season.  That also doesn’t include the bottom halves of 9th innings that wouldn’t have needed to be played were those save converted

Making Gregerson the closer in 2015 was defensible since there weren’t a whole lot of other options on the roster.  This year they have: Giles, who, despite his failings, has closer stuff and has improved greatly over the last month; Feliz, who looks like a natural closer if he doesn’t end up starting games; and Harris, who may not be a natural closer but sure as hell looks the part this season.  One of these guys – probably Feliz – needs to get a look, now, before the team’s extra-inning fortunes worsen again.