June 3, 2016

Astros 12, Athletics 2

W – Fister (5-3)
L – Hahn (2-3)

Box Score

GameZone thread

This one barely got off the ground before it was over.  The Astros sent 12 hitters to the plate in a 7-run 1st inning that put the game away quickly.  A’s starter Jesse Hahn got the hook with two outs in the inning after having allowed five straight Astros to reach base.  Highlights of the inning include a two-run triple by Tony Kemp (ball went in and out of Chris Coghlan’s glove in deep right-center) and four RBI singles by Rasmus, White, Marisnick, and Springer (who had two hits in the inning).  Houston poured on a couple more in the 4th on a two-run Gattis homer and three more on the 5th.

Fister, with very little pressure on him, pitched six innings of shutout ball before turning it over to the bully.  Sipp and Devenski each gave up a run but who gives a damn?  Nice win.

June 2, 2016

Diamondbacks 3, Astros 0

W: Greinke (7-3) L: Keuchel (3-7) S: Ziegler (10)

Game Zone

Box score

Win probability

Sorry, Dallas.  You made one mistake, and that was the ballgame.

Keuchel looked like the MMP Keuchel of old, cruising through 6 scoreless innings.  But then a leadoff single in the 7th, followed by a hanger that was crushed to CF for a double, gave the Snakes all they would need in this game.

The men in blue ensured the rest, as neither HPU Ron Kulpa nor the replay crew could make out the distinct sight and sound of a ball hitting a bat, and instead awarded a HBP to Jake Lamb on an Oscar-worthy acting job.  Things fell apart after that – the Astros put on the wheel play, and Owings spanked a single exactly to Correa’s vacated spot.

The crew would further much things up, calling Michael Bourn safe on a blatantly obvious CS in the 8th.

Otherwise, the Astros never threatened at all.  The only wasted opportunity came in the 6th, with Kemp inexplicably remaining at first rather than attempting a steal with Altuve at the plate and two out.  Naturally, an Altuve single to RF and a Correa ground out followed, thus stranding men at first and third instead of plating the game’s first run.

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

May 31, 2016

Astros 8, Diamondbacks 5

W: McCullers (2-1) L: Corbin (2-5) S: Gregerson (13)

Game Zone

Box score

Win probability

Sometimes, you go take a win from your opponents.  For example:

• Your 8th hitter (hitting .188) and your pitcher both come up with 2-out hits to set up a 3-run home run from your hottest hitter to take a 3-2 lead.
• You string together 4 singles and a couple of walks to add on 4 runs for a 7-2 lead.
• You hit solo home runs (Luis Valbuena woke up!)

Sometimes, you do things to give a game to your opponents.  Such as:

• Getting your dumb ass hit by a ground ball, George Springer.  Leadoff double: erased. Video evidence.
• Walking 4 batters in your 5 innings, Lance McCullers.

And sometimes, your opponents do things to hand you the game – like lining a shot off the wall over a leaping Springer with runners on first and second, but not scoring a run because the lead runner misread the play.  Thanks, snakes.

However you look at it, the Astros held a comfortable lead for most of the game.  Feldman gave up a pair in the 9th after an Altuve error to make things slightly uncomfortable, but Gregerson absolutely slammed the door – a welcome sight after several recent outings.

The Astros come home within 5 games of .500, and there may be light in that tunnel that’s not an oncoming train.

May 29, 2016

Astros 8, Angels 6 (13 innings)

W – Feliz (3-1)
L – Morin (1-1)
S – Gregerson (12)

Box Score

GameZone thread

Lots of scoring – and innings – in this one, and you’re welcome to go check out the highlights and official recap if you want a blow-by-blow of the entire game.  In this recap I’m just going to hit on a few things, some of which aren’t really reflected in the box score.

• Astro hitters were getting solid contact all day but kept hitting it directly at defenders, or hitting it within vertical range of leaping infielders.
• Four GIDPs, one with the bases loaded and no outs (hey, at least it scored a run?).
• Ken Giles has some of the worst luck on the team.  It’s easy to see his two-run 7th inning blown save in the box score and think, “Oh great, not again”, but it wasn’t quite that bad.  With a 4-2 lead, CJ Cron on second, and one out, Giles bounced a breaking ball to the plate against Mike Trout but Gattis the Catcher lost it at his feet, allowing Cron to advance to third.  Giles was also getting squeezed big time by home plate ump Pat Hoberg; no fewer than two strikes to Trout were called balls, and after working the count full Trout ended up taking a free base.  Pujols then hit a weak bloop over Altuve to score Cron and move Trout to third.  On the next pitch Trout scored on a Johnny Giovatella bunt up the first base line.
• Correa had the day off but pinch-hit for Tony Kemp in the top of the 13th and hit a three-run bomb to left.  At first it looked like Rafael Ortega was going to catch it just in front of the warning track, but Ortega kept tracking it backward and leapt at the fence; the ball cleared his glove by 2-3 feet.
• Hinch used every reliever except Devenski.
• With two outs in the bottom of the 13th, Pujols doubled down the left field line, but Marwin (who had moved to left when Correa came into the game) got the ball back in on a hell of a throw and very nearly had Pujols dead to rights at second base.  It looked like the ball may have slightly beaten Pujols but Altuve was a bit late on the tag.  The Angels added another run after that, but it really would’ve been nice to end the game by pegging him trying to extend a single.

May 28, 2016

Astros 4, Angels 2

W – Keuchel (3-6)
L – Weaver (4-4)
S – Gregerson (11)

Box Score

GameZone thread

After one inning it looked for all the world like this was going to be another one of those games where Keuchel was going to struggle and give up gobs of runs.  That was hardly the case, though.  After back-to-back solo bombs in the 1st and a leadoff single in the 2nd, Keuchel and the bullpen went on fucking lockdown for the remainder of his seven innings, not allowing any more hits or walks while striking out five.  MLB’s official recap hailed the return of Keuchel’s “Cy stuff” but let’s see a few more of these games first.  Neshek, Sipp, and Gregerson pitched another two innings of perfect ball.  For those of you scoring at home, that’s 24 straight Angels retired to close out the game.

The Astros had gotten their first run in the top of the 1st when Correa grounded out and Springer scored.  Altuve added a sac fly in the 5th, and Castro went deep to the deepest part of the park in the 6th, driving in Gattis and giving the Astros the lead that would stand for the remainder of the game.  Of particular notoriety is Springer’s 3×5 day; George clearly likes hitting in the leadoff spot, where he is .375/.444/.708 this year and was .297/.379/.451 last year.