May 27, 2016

Angels 7, Astros 2

W – Shoemaker (3-5)
L – Fiers (3-3)

Box Score

GameZone thread

When staying up for games on the west coast there’s almost always a point at which you have to decide if it’s worth staying up to watch the entire game.  On Friday night the Astros at least had the decency to answer that question fairly early.

Still scoreless in the 3rd inning, Mike Fiers ran into big trouble as ten Angels batted in the inning and scored six runs, keyed by a Mike Trout bases-clearing double to left-center and a follow-up two-run shot by Pujols.  The Halos tacked on another run in the 4th as Fiers really struggled with his command.  Chris Devenski came in with two outs and the bases loaded in the 4th and got out of the jam, then pitched another four innings of scoreless ball.

Offensively the Astro bats were unable to mount a sustained attack against Matt Shoemaker until it was too late.  Shoemaker scattered eight hits (all singles), pitched into the 9th, and struck out 11, but was chased from the game with two on and one out.  The Astros did later load the bases and Colin Moran hit a bases-loaded two-run single in the top of the 9th off Cam Bedrosian, but that was all she wrote.

May 26, 2016

Astros 4, Orioles 2

W: McCullers (1-1) L: Gausman (0-2) S: Giles (1)

Game Zone

Box score

Win Probability

How to sweep a series:

• Start with a Springer Dinger
• Add a Valbuena Dinger
• Add another Springer Dinger
• Bring in Feliz as the baseball flinger
• Let Giles put the fans through the wringer
• Cue the opera singer
• Celebrate with Winger

Astros win 5th Wednesday game in a row.

WP: Pat Neshek (2-0)

LP: Tyler Wilson (2-3)

Save: Luke Gregerson (12)

Box Score

Game Zone

Before last year, when the Astros were generally acknowledged as the worst team in baseball, the Astros had such a knack for winning on Wednesdays that it was determined that The Norse God Wotan must be one of the Baseball Gods and he that liked to shine his light upon the woeful Astros. Last year, the team was good, and Wotan became bored and disinterested, and the Astros Wednesday record was on par with the won-loss record of every other day of the week.

This years rocky start seems to have piqued the interest of our old friend Wotan. After losing the first 3 Wednesday games this year, the Astros have now won 5 Wednesday games in a row. Is it the dollar dogs? But wait there’s more, another interesting fact, that I’m sure is being overlooked by the ABT (Astros Brain Trust); in May, the Astros are 8 wins and 2 losses in games played on Mondays. Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. By contrast the team has only 4 wins against 9 losses in games not played on Wednesdays, Mondays, or Tuesdays. That’s just ridiculous.  Maybe it’s time for these advance metrics guys to start factoring in days of the week in their equation.

Starter Collin McHugh struck out a season-high 10 over 5 1/3 innings, allowing eight hits and a walk,  while surrendering 3 runs in a no-decision. His second strong start in a row without a victory to show for it. Pat Neshek earned the win with two-thirds of an inning in relief of McHugh in the sixth, and Luke Gregerson closed out the game with a scoreless ninth for his 10th save. Ken Giles in the 7th and Will Harris in the 8th were sharp as nails with holds in each of their respective innings.

After falling behind 1-0 after the first inning, Marwin Gonzales led off the third with a single, advanced to second on Tony Kemp’s sacrifice bunt, then scored on George Spinger’s RBI single. Evan Gattis, who started the night behind the plate, continued his power surge. His 2 run homer to left in the 4th put the Astros up, 3-1.

The Orioles tied it up with 2 runs in the 6th inning, and the Astros struck back in the bottom of the inning with a solo homer by Luis Valbuena to put the Astros back on top for good at 4-3. It was Valbuena’s 4th homer and 13th RBI on the season, it seems like most of that production has been in the past week.

Since Gattis’ refresher course in minor leagues, he’s hit four homers and recorded a hit in seven of eight games. Thursday Lance McCullers faces Kevin Gausman in a 7:10pm CST start.

May 24, 2016

Astros 3, Orioles 2 (13 innings)

W: Feliz (2-1) L: Bundy (0-1)

Game Zone

Box Score

Win Probability

Once again, the Astros got a good-not-great starting pitching performance.  Once again, the Astros got a largely shutdown performance from the bullpen.  Once again, the Astros allowed only 2 runs.

But this time, they eked out a win.

How?

Well, by producing 2 runs in regulation instead of 1.  No, the flip-flop of Springer and Altuve was not responsible for this.  Rather, there was actually a runner on when Valbuena(?!?!) homered, despite Moran’s best efforts to remove this via double play.

Foster allowed solo homers to Alvarez and Machado; no shame there – Machado may be ahead of Altuve this year by a nose for the MVP.  Hitch decided to lift him in the 6th with 2 out, so he fell just short of a “quality start”, but it was quality nonetheless.  The bullpen then locked things down, with a brief hiccup for Gregerson to make things verrrrrrry interesting in the 9th.

Flipping Altuve and Springer seemed to wake up Springer, as he reached 5 of 6 times, but did nothing to shake Altuve from his brief “funk”, as he went hitless.

By the 13th, the typical feeling of “we will never score again” had set in, but Little Tony Kemp knocked one over the head of Adam Jones for a triple.  (Note: the look on Kemp’s face as he raced around second was great.  Little League excitement there.)

Orioles fans will probably second guess how things proceeded from there; walking Springer AND Altuve to face Correa makes sense on one level (you need the force at home), but with Springer’s free-swinging ways, it may have made more sense to go for the K against Springer, then walk Altuve to set up a DP without loading the bases.  But they made their choice, and Correa FINALLY woke up to smack a single up the middle for the win.

Bottom line – a win the Astros absolutely had to have.

PS: Colby, the HPU was absolutely horrible.  But you cannot get thrown out of the game.  It leaves us with a cleanup hitter whose 2016 performance has shown him as likely to get a hit as an average fan.

May 22, 2016

Rangers 9, Astros 2

W – Hamels (5-0)
L – Keuchel (2-6)

Box Score

GameZone thread

Not going to lie, today’s game had a bit of an ominous feeling after the Astros dropped the first two games in the series.  It only took 2.5 innings for that feeling to be validated.

If you really want to shove a hot poker in your eye shove a hot poker up your ass read about today’s game there are plenty of places online where you can do so.  This site will not be one of them.  Suffice it to say, this is not the first time the team has been 11 games under .500 this season, but getting swept by the fucking Rangers… again… in a blowout… at home… certainly moves the needle as the emotional low point of the season so far.

May 21, 2016

Rangers 2, Astros 1

W – Ramos (1-2)
L – Fiers (3-2)
S – Dyson (4)

Box Score

GameZone thread

1. Get some pretty damn respectable performances from your pitching staff
2. Let a future Cy Young winner OR a retread with a bionic shoulder OR a 30-something career reliever on a minor league contract make you look like shit
3. ???
4. Profit