ASTROS REPORT
Astros bounce back from recent troubles with 4-2 week including series win in World Series rematch
Aug 6, 2018, 6:23 am
Justin Verlander turned in another spectacular start. Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images
After a horrible week prior, the Astros needed a big boost to turn things around and keep them on the right track. Here's how they responded to the adversity this week:
Monday, July 30th: 67-40 Astros (Gerrit Cole) vs. 62-43 Mariners (James Paxton)
In the first of three games against AL West foe Seattle, both the Astros and Mariners received strong performances from their starting pitching. The pitching duel resulted in a scoreless game through five innings, with Gerrit Cole actually getting through those first five without allowing a hit (thanks to a little help from the defense behind him). Cole's no-hit bid ended in the sixth, however, allowing back-to-back singles before an RBI double gave the Mariners a 2-0 advantage. Cole would still get through six and two-thirds innings, allowing just those two runs on four hits with eight strikeouts. He was followed by Ryan Pressley who pitched the final out of the seventh then the eighth inning. With no run support for Cole or Pressley who followed him, the Astros would get shut out in the loss and extend their losing streak to five and allow the Mariners to get a game closer in the standings.
Final Score: Astros 0, Mariners 2
Tuesday, July 31st: 67-41 Astros (Charlie Morton) vs. 63-43 Mariners (Mike Leake)
Things continued to look grim for the Astros on Tuesday night, going down 1-0 after the Mariners got a solo homer off of Charlie Morton in the fourth inning while Houston's offense continued to be held scoreless in the series. They would finally get on the board in the top of the fifth, a game-tying RBI single from Josh Reddick to breathe life into the lineup, which scored two more runs on a two-run homer by Evan Gattis in the next inning to take their first lead at 3-1. Charlie Morton would allow the Mariners to cut the lead in half with a run in the sixth but would keep them held there to finish six innings with two runs and eight strikeouts. The bullpen had a strong performance, getting a combined inning from Joe Smith and Tony Sipp and an inning from Colin McHugh to send the 3-2 game to the ninth. In the ninth, Josh Reddick would strike again, giving Houston some insurance runs with a two-run homer to make it 5-2. Hector Rondon would take the mound for the ninth to notch another save and put a long-awaited end to the Astros' losing streak.
Final Score: Astros 5, Mariners 2
Wednesday, August 1st: 68-41 Astros (Dallas Keuchel) vs. 63-44 Mariners (Wade LeBlanc)
In the series rubber match on Wednesday afternoon, the Astros kept their momentum going to take a lead with a three-run second inning on a solo homer by Marwin Gonzalez and a two-run shot by Jake Marisnick. Seattle would answer right back, though, getting two runs back off of Dallas Keuchel in the bottom of the inning to make it 3-2. The tide went back Houston's way across the fourth and fifth innings as they would get another solo home run by Gonzalez, an RBI single from Josh Reddick, then three-run bomb by Max Stassi to extend their lead to 8-2. After the two early runs, Keuchel settled in and other than allowing a solo home run by Nelson Cruz to make it 8-3 in the sixth, had a good start going seven innings with three runs on eight hits. After Keuchel, Brad Peacock pitched a scoreless eighth with Will Harris throwing a scoreless ninth to seal up the series win and help keep the Astros on top of the AL West.
Final Score: Astros 8, Mariners 3
Friday, August 3rd: 69-41 Astros (Justin Verlander) vs. 61-49 Dodgers (Alex Wood)
In the first game of the World Series rematch series over the weekend, the Dodgers struck first with a solo home run off of Verlander to get an early 1-0 lead. George Springer came through in the second inning, hitting a ball to the outfield which paired with an error resulted in a two-run play that put the Astros on top 2-1. After that, it was all about Justin Verlander, who after allowing the homer to the leadoff batter absolutely dominated the rest of his start, going seven and two-thirds innings with only four hits and racking up fourteen strikeouts, matching a career high. The Dodgers received six innings from their starter, Alex Wood, then had their bullpen throw three scoreless innings, leaving it up to Hector Rondon who came in for the final out of the eighth then started the ninth with the one-run advantage. Rondon would come through with the four-out save, giving the Astros a win in a game that had a playoff feel to it in Dodgers stadium where less than a year ago they won their first World Series.
Final Score: Astros 2, Dodgers 1
Saturday, August 4th: 70-41 Astros (Lance McCullers Jr.) vs. 61-50 Dodgers (Kenta Maeda)
In another World Series flashback, Marwin Gonzalez gave Houston an early 1-0 lead with a solo homer in the top of the second on Saturday night. Lance McCullers, after throwing four shutout innings of baseball to start the game, left the game before the fifth with discomfort in his right elbow. Yuli Gurriel hit a patented laser down the third base line to drive in two runs in the top of the sixth to make it a 3-0 game, sparking a four-run inning with an RBI from Tyler White and a sac fly from Martin Maldonado to give Houston a 5-0 lead in the top of the sixth. The Astros loaded the bases in the top of the eighth with a single and two walks, setting up Maldonado for his first hit in a Houston uniform, a blooper that bounced into the stands for a two-RBI double to make it 7-0 Astros. After a hit-by-pitch, Evan Gattis hit a pinch-hit sac fly to make it 8-0 before an RBI single by George Springer made it 9-0. Josh Reddick was next up and launched a three-run homer to right field to make it 12-0 and cap off a seven-run inning. Even Jake Marisnick was able to get in on the action, hitting a two-run homer of his own in the ninth to make it 14-0. After McCullers left the game early, the bullpen combined for five innings and completed the shutout of the Dodgers with two innings from Brad Peacock (who earned the win), Collin McHugh and Tony Sipp combining for an inning, and an inning each from Joe Smith and Cionel Perez to close out the bludgeoning.
Final Score: Astros 14, Dodgers 0
Sunday, August 5th: 71-41 Astros (Gerrit Cole) vs. 61-51 Dodgers (Walker Buehler)
George Springer helped the Astros pick up right where they left off the night before, launching the first pitch of the game over the center field wall for a 1-0 lead. However, the Dodgers would answer by getting their first runs in 17 innings going back to the first inning of Friday night, a two-RBI double from new Dodger Brian Dozier to give the Dodgers the lead at 2-1. To make matters worse, the Astros would lose George Springer for the rest of the afternoon after injuring his thumb sliding into second on a steal attempt to end the top of the third inning. Los Angeles would get another RBI double in the bottom of the third, extending their lead to 3-1 while they continued to rack up Cole's pitch count early in the game. Tony Kemp was able to trim the lead to 3-2 with a solo home run that sneaked over the right-field wall in the top of the fifth, but the Dodgers bullpen would keep the Astros from getting any closer. Houston's bullpen also did well, backing up Cole who was only able to complete five innings. Will Harris pitched a scoreless inning then Ryan Pressley had a quick seventh before pitching the eighth as well for two strong innings. Unfortunately, they'd be unneeded for the bottom of the ninth after Kenley Jansen nailed down the save for the Dodgers.
Final Score: Astros 2, Dodgers 3
Summary
Houston turned the page on an awful stretch, rolling through to a 4-2 week and winning both series even with two of their best players out of the lineup. Justin Verlander had a playoff-caliber game on Friday night in what felt like a World Series type of game in Los Angeles, showing that with this pitching staff, the Astros can afford to let guys take their time to recover from injuries if it means they are a full-go and can be there come September. That being said, the injury bug is biting down on Houston hard right now, with Altuve having a possible setback to his knee injury and George Springer injuring his thumb on Sunday which could land him on the DL, along with Lance McCullers just from this week. The good news is Correa is doing well in his rehab assignment and could be back with the team shortly which will be a good boost and solidify the defense in the infield. In the division, the Astros help send the Mariners into a recent bad streak, but that has not allowed them much breathing room because now the A's are starting to nip at Houston's heels. The Astros will need to take advantage of some winnable games this week, even with their injuries, to make sure Oakland doesn't get too close.
MVP of the Week - Josh Reddick
The Woo-birds had plenty to cheer about this week, with Josh Reddick coming through to boost the Astros in some big spots with some key players out. Reddick had two homers this week along with five other hits resulted in a solid 7-RBI week. As mentioned in my breakdown of Tuesday's game, it can easily be argued his RBI single to tie that game is one of the major shifts in momentum that got the Astros out of their rut. So for that, with the homers and RBIs, he's my MVP of the week.
This Week
- Mon-Tue: (71-42) Astros @ (57-56) Giants
- Thu-Sun: (64-48) Mariners @ (71-42) Astros
The Astros will stay on the West Coast to start the week, playing the Giants in San Francisco for two games to wrap up their four-game season series and also end Houston's current road trip. The Astros won both games against the Giants at home in Houston back in May. After a day off on Wednesday, the Astros will host the Mariners for a four-game series starting on Thursday. The two games against the Giants are highly winnable, with the matchup against the Mariners being dependent on who is back in the lineup for Houston, and if the Mariners continue their recent tailspin. Houston will need a winning week to keep things rolling while guys get healthy.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or nine games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after a 4-8 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez (though not Breggy Bad). A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.