April 26, 2016

Mariners 11, Astros 1

W: Karns (2-1) L: Keuchel (2-3)

Box score

Game Zone

Win (im)probability

There was a Major League Baseball game in Seattle last night.

It involved only one professional baseball team.

fin

April 24, 2016

Red Sox 7, Astros 5 (12 innings)

W – Hembree (1-0)
L – Giles (0-2)

Box Score

GameZone thread

THE GOOD:

• Colby Rasmus – He did it again.  With two outs in the 9th, following a Correa double to right field, “Raymus” (as ESPN announcer Jessica Mendoza called him) blasted off to nearly the same spot his Saturday grand slam landed, tying the game – off Craig Kimbrel, no less – and forcing extras.
• The defense – Bitches be makin’ plays all over the field.  Springer had two assists, one at home and another when Big Papi foolishly tried to stretch a single into a double.  Why anyone still tests Springer’s arm is a mystery; at least the Rangers showed him some respect earlier in the week.  Gomez contributed a couple of nice plays in center.  Marwin flashed some serious leather at third base, including a very impressive stab to his right and throw to first in the 10th.
• Situational hitting – It could’ve been better, but it could’ve been a lot worse.  They loaded the bases with no outs in the 3rd and plated two runs, one on a White sac fly and another on a Gattis RBI single.  As mentioned earlier, Correa and Rasmus came through in the clutch in the 9th.
• Bullpen pitchers not named Ken Giles – Once again the bullpen turned in a hell of a night through the 11th inning.  Devenski, Neshek, Sipp, and Gregerson combined for 6.2 innings of shutout ball, keeping the Sox at bay and giving the bats a non-zero chance to climb back into it.  Devenski in particular threw 3.1 innings and worked out of Feldman’s 2-on 1-out jam in the 5th; Neshek got out of Devenski’s jam with runners at the corners in the 8th; Gregerson made quick work of the 10th and 11th innings.

THE BAD:

• Scott Feldman – Feldman dug a 3-0 hole early in the 1st, gave up another 2-spot in the 3rd, and didn’t make it out of the 5th.  The Sox had constant traffic on him.  The trend of short outings by the starters needs to stop pretty damn soon or the Astros may not have anything to play for when the bullpen runs out of gas again in August/September.
• Altuve’s defense – In Feldman’s defense, he didn’t get much help from Altuve, who booted a couple of plays in both the 1st and 3rd innings and contributed to the Sox rallies in those innings.
• Carlos Gomez at the plate – Dude is in a serious rut right now; was 0x5 with three K’s before finally reaching base with a single in the 12th.
• Situational hitting, 12th inning – Gattis and Marwin would probably like to have their ABs back.  With two runners on, Gattis struck out on three pitches; Marwin worked a full count while fouling off pitches in the other batter’s box, then watched strike three at the knees to end the game.

THE KEN GILES:

• Ugly – I don’t know if he’s hurt, pressing, stuff-distrusting, or what, but he’s a bonafide gas can right now and instant rally material for any opposing team.  He missed his spots early on and the Sox scalded the ball off him to start the inning, and it was painful to watch him walk Ryan Hanigan on a 13-pitch at-bat to load the bases.  An RBI single and a forceout later, the bases were still loaded when Giles let fly with a pitch that would have been headed for the Diamond Club if not for the net behind home plate.  Ugly.

April 23, 2016

Astros 8, Red Sox 3

W – Fiers (2-1)
L – Buchholz (0-2)

Box Score

GameZone thread

Losing streak: over.

Colby:

Jacked.

Saturday’s game could have had a very different feel to it if the team’s struggles had continued, but the bats came through in the clutch and the pitching held up for the most part.  The Astros pulled out of their four-game skid and topped the Red Sox 8-3.

Mike Fiers pitched a pretty effective game through his first five innings.  After some trouble in the 1st (including his own error on a pickoff attempt, which ultimately helped the Sox push a run across), he settled down nicely and had retired 15 of 16 batters going into the 6th.  This is where he seemingly ran into a wall, unable to get hitters to bit on pitches out of the zone.  When the Sox loaded the bases with one out, Fiers got the thumb.  Will Harris came in and limited the damage to just a sac fly.

Prior to that, the Astros had tied the game in the 2nd when Jason Castro provided an RBI groundout with runners at 2nd and 3rd.  The real fireworks came in the bottom of the 5th inning when a Valbuena walk, Springer single, and Correa HBP loaded the bases with two outs.  After working a 2-0 count, Rasmus whiffed on the first two breaking pitches he saw and was sitting fastball.  Just so happened that a 2-2 fastball was exactly what Buchholz had dialed up.  A few seconds later the ball was in the seats behind the Astros dugout in right-center and Houston had a commanding lead in the game.  The slam was Rasmus’s 6th dinger on the year which leads the club and ties him for the AL lead.

The Red Sox were able to scratch out a run on Ken Giles in the 8th, but the Astros added three just-because runs on three RBI doubles (one by Rasmus) in the bottom of the same inning.

The continuing wear and tear on the bullpen is still cause for concern, and at some point the starters are going to have to start going deeper into games.  Tonight, we’ll just be happy with a win.

April 22, 2016

Red Sox 6, Astros 2

W – Wright (1-2)
L – McHugh (1-3)
S – Kimbrel (5)

Box Score

GameZone thread

The Astros have lost four in a row.

Let’s get right down to it: it’s Friday night, I don’t really want to write this recap, and you don’t really want to read it.  I’m going to boil the game down to just a handful of bullet points:

• McHugh sucked again: 4 IP, 5 ER, 10 hits
• Astro bats lifeless: Stephen Wright had a 2-hit shutout through six
• Sox catcher Ryan Hanigan’s Hank Conger impersonation had as much to do with the Astros’ first run as the Astros did
• Other details could be expanded upon, but they don’t really matter unless you like snuff films

Let’s hope for better fortune in tomorrow’s matinee.

April 21, 2016

Rangers 7, Astros 4

W: Griffin (2-0) L: Keuchel (2-2) S: Tolleson (6)

HR: Rasmus 2, Desmond, Beltre

Box score

Game Zone

Win Probability

I never meant to cause you any sorrow
I never meant to cause you any pain

This is not how this season was supposed to go.

When your defending Cy Young winner faces a #5 starter, you’re not supposed to be out of the game in the second inning.

When your team is hitting .238/.310/.443, that shouldn’t plummet to   .174/.229/.348 when runners are in scoring position.

For two batters, it went how it was supposed to go: Altuve gets on, Springer doubles him home.

For two batters in the bottom of the first, it went how it was supposed to go: then Keuchel gave up two soft singles and a home run.  Boom, 3-1 bad guys.

Honey, I know, I know
I know times are changing
It’s time we all reach out
For something new, that means you too

The rest of the game was a predictable pattern of getting scattered single runs and giving up more, never once threatening to take a lead.

We know something has to give… but a lot of things need to change.  What will be Luhnow’s first move?

You say you want a leader
But you can’t seem to make up your mind

Which player will step up to get things on the right track? Who is the leader of this team?

I’ll worry about that tomorrow.  For now, I’ll choose to concentrate on a genius gone too soon.

I think you better close it
And let me guide you to the purple rain