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.

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