Hooraya for Correa!

Posted on June 22, 2016 by MusicMan in Game Recaps

June 21, 2016

Astros 3, Angels 2

W: Gregerson (1-1) L: Street (2-1)

Let’s start with a nod to Colin McHugh, whose night looked like a disaster when he allowed the first three men to reach on an infield single, HBP, and a laser single by Trout. But he buckled down and struck out the next two, followed by a tapper to the mound, and limited the damage to a single run.

The Angels would get a solo homer by Cron in the 4th, and that would e it.

Meanwhile, Carlos Correa started getting some results for all his hard hit balls. First, a solo shot in the 5th cut the lead in half. The Astros’ leadoff hitters would reach base in the 6th, 7th, and 8th with no runs to show for it.

Come the 9th, Springer walked and stole second, followed by a walk of Marwin. An infield single by ALTUVE! loaded the pond for Correa, who rose to the occasion. Carlos drilled a 3-2 sinker into center field to plate 2 runs and bring the club back to .500.

This was Correa’s 4th walk-off hit of his career; for comparison, Derek Jeter had 7 in his entire career.

A Wednesday matinee will see the team finally try to climb above .500.

Astros tore up the Angels

Posted on June 21, 2016 by BudGirl in Featured, Game Recaps

Angels 7, Astros 10
W: Fister, L: Chacin,
box score

What a fun evening it was at Minute Maid Park on Monday night. The Astros bats found the ball and the ball found spots where the Angels weren’t. I do think Calhoun for the Angels had a bit of a rough night in RF and Trout could see the ball going over his head. It truly was a great night at the ballpark for Astros fans.

Doug Fister did a great job again. He went 7 innings giving up 2 runs. I think one of those runs should have been an out, but Gomez was not able to catch the ball.

You are also probably looking at the score thinking BudGirl that game wasn’t close the Astros only won by 3 runs. Well, it was close until Tony Sipp entered the game. He proceeded to load the bases, strike one out, then give up a grand slam (by former Astros Gregoria Petite) in the top of the 9th. Take away his third of an inning pitching performance and it was a great pitching effort by Houston.

So, here’s to the Astros making a strong run to .500 tomorrow and hopefully going straight to .507 on Wednesday!

Angels @ Astros – Striving for .500

Posted on June 20, 2016 by Waldo in Series Previews

SERIES PREVIEW

Angels @ Astros

June 20-22, 2016

Things that have happened since the last series preview was posted:

The fucking Rangers wasted no time in messing up my prediction that the Astros would not lose another series to them this year, and now they are running away with the goddamn league.
The Astros are still in the thick of things for a postseason berth… along with eleven other teams.
Will Harris’s ERA nearly doubled in one day. Nobody cared.
Dallas Keuchel still looks like he needs to be turned off and back on.
Viewers got an extended reprieve from Alan Ashby in the TV booth and the results were predictably enjoyable. Never in however many years of seeing Kevin Eschenfelder on TV have I ever thought that he should get a shot at the PBP job, but after his solid work in Arlington, hell, why not?

I honestly haven’t been able to see much of the Astros the last couple weeks. Having two small children and a stir crazy wife makes for some busy summer weekends, and a couple of projects at work have hampered my ability to write previews. Yes, kids, if you play your cards right, you can grow up to work at a job that doesn’t care if you spend two mornings a week writing about baseball on company time.

Not going to lie, either: the four-game series in Arlington took some wind out of my sails and, truly for the first time this year, caused me to temper my postseason expectations. The West still seemed winnable on June 6; now, not so much. At this point I’ll be happy with the team playing .500 ball at the break.

Monday, June 20 – 7:10pm CDT
Jhoulys Chacin (3-4, 5.00) vs. Doug Fister (7-3, 3.26)

Jhoulys Chacin breaks autocorrect more than Kim Kardashian breaks the Internet, and with less butt cleavage. Chacin was acquired from the Bad News Braves in early May but did not face the Astros when they traveled to Anaheim at the end of the month. In fact, Chacin tossed a complete game against the Tigers the day after the Astros series concluded, but he has struggled in the three starts since, unable to make it past the 6th inning. Aside from a good showing against a scrubtastic 2013 Astros team, Chacin has no sizeable experience against Houston.

None of the Astros pitchers in this series have faced the Angels yet this year. Fister is the first of those and continues to be pretty damn good, and rehashing that fact gets old after a while so I’ll try not to. He has not faced the Angels since 2013 but he has faced their hitters quite a bit: in 114 AB against Fister, Angels hitters are .219/.282/.325 with just eight extra base hits against him.

Tuesday, June 21 – 7:10pm CDT
Hector Santiago (4-4, 5.30) vs. Collin McHugh (5-5, 4.89)

Like with Chacin, Houston has not yet seen Santiago this year and now might be as good a time as any. After finishing April with a 3.34 ERA, he’s had a 6.86 ERA in nine starts since. He turned in six innings of one-run ball against the lowly Twins last week, so there’s that. Santiago gave Astro hitters fits last year with a 1.85 ERA and .143 opposing average in four starts.

Despite not factoring into the decision, McHugh held his own for the better part of 6.2 innings against Adam Wainwright and the Turds last week. In three starts against them in 2015 McHugh was 2-0 with a 3.98 ERA.

Wednesday, June 22 – 1:10pm CDT
Matt Shoemaker (3-7, 4.50) vs. Lance McCullers (3-2, 4.24)

Shoemaker has a big problem with run support: he has been routinely pitching deep into games, not giving up many runs, and still taking a loss or no-decision. He had a streak of five games where he pitched through the 7th or later, only allowing more than two runs once, and he went 1-2 over that stretch. That one win, by the way, was against the Astros in his longest outing of the season, leaving the game with one out in the 9th and a seven-run lead.

McCullers pitched 6.2 strong innings against the Reds on Friday and was let off the hook for a loss before the team eventually lost in extra innings. He did very well against the Angels last season, turning in a 2.52 ERA and 21 strikeouts in four starts.

DM Archives #7: Father’s Day

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Dark Star in Columnistas, Dark Matter, Featured

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there. I hope it is a good one for you.

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FATHER’S DAY, PART 2

With Father’s Day just past, there has been renewed emphasis on the subject of the special role baseball plays in the relationship between a boy and his dad. Major League Baseball’s recent television ads have been slanted this way, for sure. They know a winning concept when they see it. And, who can deny that baseball is often the secret formula that unlocks the doors existing between a man and his son, between a boy and his progenitor?Read More

Astros Sweep Cards in St. Louis

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Sphinx Drummond in Game Recaps

Springer 8th inning homer lifts Astros past the Cardinals.

WP: Sipp (1-2)

LP: Siegrist (4-2)

Save: Harris (5)

Box

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.

Astros 1, Ashby 0

Posted on June 15, 2016 by MusicMan in Game Recaps

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.

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