I had this dream last night that the Astros somehow got walked off 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th after nearly throwing a no-hitter with only 1 out left… Wait, nevermind. I got the teams mixed up. What wasn’t a dream though, was a very real 11-0 stomping of the Rangers.
It was arguably the most complete win of the season for the Astros. They now look to secure a 2-1 series victory today over Texas and left hander Patrick Corbin.(7-9, 4.36 ERA, 119 SO) Standing as his opposite would surprisingly be fellow
southpaw Framber Valdez.(12-9, 3.42 ERA, 171 SO)
The surprise being that Luis Garcia was replaced in the pitching order for this game. Reports say that he’s fine though, so Houstonians can exhale. Although, with the last few days that Framber and the team have had post BeanYourOwnCatcherGate, exhaling may or may not even be an option today.
After scoring so much last night, what would be the follow up performance? They wouldn’t necessarily need to score double digits again to satisfy sceptics. But, they definitely need to show that they are turning a corner and beginning to look more like their early season selves.
The only consistent thing about this team has been its inconsistency. Maybe they break that trend today and look effective two games in a row.
First Pitch: 1:38 CDT
Bottom of the 2nd Inning:
The Rangers got on the board first with a throwing error by Yainer Diaz. With Dylan Moore already at 2nd base after a single and stolen base, Jonah Heim then struck out swinging.
The problem was that the ball got away from Yainer at the plate. He then launched the ball into the back of Heim as he ran down the 1st base line, which led to a wild throw and score by Dylan Moore. 1-0 Rangers
Top of the 6th Inning:
Mauricio Dubón and Jeremy Peña teamed up to tie the game at 1-1.
Mauricio lined a double to center field, and Jeremy singled to left to score the run.
Bottom of the 6th Inning:
The Rangers then responded with three runs of their own to make it 4-1.
This started with a Cody Freeman single to left field. It continued with Josh Jung’s RBI-double to center. Finally, it was exacerbated by a Jake Burger 2-run homer to right center.
Top of the 7th Inning:
Christian Walker would double and then be scored via a Yainer Diaz RBI-ground out to make the game closer at 4-2.
Top of the 9th:
Alas, that would be as close as the Astros would get. The Rangers would hold them scoreless for the final two innings and win the game on a Jake Meyers ground out.
Final score: 4-2 Rangers. Series lost.
With the loss, the Astros dropped to 78-66 and Framber received his 9th loss of his season. And don’t look now, but the Mariners now only have a 2.5 division lead deficit to make up after dismantling the Atlanta Braves earlier in the day. That also means having only a 4.0 game lead over the Rangers as of today.
With 18 games left, this team looks as healthy as it’s going to get. Even still, there are still holes all over the batting order that should leave even the staunchest defenders of the current product a bit perturbed.
Jose Altuve looks to have fallen off of a cliff as of late. And the inability to score runners from 2nd base and onward has crippled them. Even though it wasn’t the worst of performances, they still went 1-6 with RISP and 4 LOB. That’s just not going to cut it.
The AL West looks like the worst division in the sport. Unfortunately, someone has to win it.
Luis Garcia finally gets his start tomorrow on the road against the AL’s best in the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. They face familiar foe, TBD. (Meaning, Toronto has yet to declare a pitcher)
