This One Goes to 12

Posted on June 3, 2016 by Waldo in Game Recaps

June 3, 2016

Astros 12, Athletics 2

W – Fister (5-3)
L – Hahn (2-3)

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.

Athletics @ Astros – Unclogging the AL West’s Sewer

Posted on June 3, 2016 by Waldo in Series Previews

SERIES PREVIEW

Percentage-Point Lead @ Get the Hell Outta Our Way

June 3-5, 2016

I like math. I know the thought of complex math makes people want to rinse their eyes out with a household cleaner of some sort, but before you reach for the bleach (as an aside, “Reach for the Bleach” would be a good name for a fundraising 5K benefiting cosmetic procedures for adult film stars) just say with me here.

Before graduating high school I decided I would major in math in college. This decision was driven by three primary forces:

I was not accepted for my first-choice major
I did well in calculus and was reasonably interested in math
I was hopelessly smitten by a girl much smarter than me and I was desperate to impress her

In the span of a few months I immersed myself in math. I watched the movie Pi, unaware that I was about to see a guy lobotomize himself so that he couldn’t . To give you an idea of how bad it got, I even read a book called “Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea”. (There is no truth to the rumor that it is a novelization of Seinfeld. Anyone? Anyone?) Yeah, I had it bad.

The history of zero was somewhat interesting, but one of the book’s appendices outlined the kind of mayhem that can result from dividing by zero. (Zero division breaks the rules of arithmetic but is necessary in some situations in advanced math.) Using a simple algebraic equation, the author proved that 1=0, and from there proved that Winston Churchill was a carrot (it’s a long story). Once you establish 1=0 then you can multiply both sides of the equation by any number and prove that that number equals zero as well.

So if I want to believe that the Astros didn’t actually lose 3-0 to Zack Greinke but instead won 4-3, 7-3, or 169234-3, just let me have my zero division, dammit.

I’m not sure this preview really went where I intended it to go, but whatever.

Also, the girl broke up with me two weeks into our freshman years, and after three semesters I realized I wasn’t nearly as good at math as I thought I was. Ha ha, sports fans.

Friday, June 3 – 7:10pm CDT
Jesse Hahn (2-2, 4.15) vs. Doug Fister (4-3, 3.86)

Things didn’t exactly go well for the Astros when they faced Hahn in April. Hahn held them scoreless on only three hits through 6.2 innings. He hasn’t come close to the same level of performance since, having allowed 3-4 earned runs in all four of his May starts. He also allowed six home runs over that span, so if the recent Houston team shows up instead of April’s Houston team, they could have better success against him.

Fister picked up the only Astros W in Oakland last time these two teams met, turning in arguably his best start of the season: only one run allowed in 6.2 innings. He has been a quality start machine since then and most recently took a no-decision in the 13th inning game against the Angels, giving up three runs (one earned) in six innings.

Saturday, June 4 – 3:10pm CDT
Rich Hill (8-3, 2.25) vs. Collin McHugh (5-4, 4.82)

The Astros scratched out just enough hits and runs – two of each – against Hill to hang an L on him when he opposed Fister in Oakland. He’s been on a tear since then: in his subsequent five starts he is 5-0 with a 1.97 ERA and no dingers given up. Not bad for a 36-year-old who is seeing his most significant starting work since 2009.

McHugh’s complete game in Arizona is further evidence that, although he still has flashes of inconsistency, he is not the liability we thought he was going to be in mid-April. He did not face the A’s in their first series this season but was 3-1 with a 3.24 ERA, .221 opposing average, and 32 K’s in 25 innings in four starts against them in 2015.

Sunday, June 5 – 1:10pm CDT
Kendall Graveman (2-6, 5.09) vs. Lance McCullers (2-1, 4.79)

Of the three games in this series, Sunday’s game has the most potential to see a lot of bullpen action as both starters have had trouble working deep into games.

Graveman had three good starts to open the season, then went through a five-game stretch in which he was 0-5 with a 7.92 ERA and a whopping 2.00 WHIP. He has improved since then, giving up just two runs in each of his last three starts, but he is still letting lots of guys on base and does not get through the 6th inning very often (just four times this year). In two 2015 appearances against Houston he was 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA. One of those was a shutout in early April before the Astros found their footing; the other was in late April after the Astros started playing well, and if you’re halfway decent at math you can probably get an idea of how that one went without seeing the actual numbers.

Some of the same things can be said of McCullers, who has a tendency to get cute with the strike zone and is already averaging four walks a game. However, he doesn’t allow as many hits as Graveman and has way better strikeout numbers. Lance struggled to make it five innings against the Snakes in Arizona but struck out seven and picked up the win. He only faced the A’s once in 2015, when he held them to one run in 4.2 innings in his MLB debut.

DM Archives #5: Sally Can’t Dance

Posted on June 3, 2016 by Dark Star in Columnistas, Dark Matter, Featured

She was the first girl in the neighborhood
To wear tied-dyed pants, like she should
She was the first girl that I’ve ever seen
That had flowers painted on her jeans

Time for another excavation from the archives, this time a story about a girl who got away. She is never coming back.

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No sweep for you!

Posted on June 2, 2016 by MusicMan in Game Recaps

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.

Astros Handle the Snakes

Posted on June 2, 2016 by Sphinx Drummond in Game Recaps

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

Any way you want it, that’s the way you need it.

Posted on June 1, 2016 by MusicMan in Game Recaps

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.

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