Astros pick up the series win
Astros daily report presented by APG&E: 3 hits from the 7-1 win
Apr 24, 2019, 9:39 pm
Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images
After ending their three-game skid on Tuesday night, the Astros were back in action on Wednesday night with Justin Verlander on the mound to try and win the rubber match with the Twins. Here are some quick facts from the game and three hits:
Final Score: Astros 7, Twins 1
Record: 15-9, first in the AL West.
Winning pitcher: Justin Verlander (4-0).
Losing pitcher: Kohl Stewart (0-1).
1) Verlander's dominant, efficient start
After four straight games of allowing runs to the opposing team, Justin Verlander was able to break the streak and get through a scoreless first. After three quick innings to start the game, the Twins did get a run off of Verlander via a solo home run in the top of the fourth, but he would settle right back in and pitch deep into the game, completing eight innings of one-run baseball including eight strikeouts.
2) Another big offensive night
Carlos Correa started the scoring with an opposite-field home run in the bottom of the second to put Houston ahead 1-0. Then, after a two-out double by Alex Bregman in the bottom of the third, Michael Brantley took advantage with a two-run homer of his own to extend the lead to 3-0. The Astros extended their lead to four runs in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI-double from Robinson Chirinos who would eventually score on a wild pitch to make it a 5-1 game. Josh Reddick added a couple of insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth, hitting a two-run homer to extend the lead further to 7-1.
3) Back in the series win column
After splitting the two-game series in Oakland then dropping the series to the Rangers last week, the win on Wednesday night gave Houston their fourth series win of 2019. The Astros will get four more games against these same Twins on the road in Minnesota next week, so taking care of business at home could provide momentum for the encore series.
Up Next: The Astros will stay in Houston and kickoff a four-game series with the Cleveland Indians tomorrow night. First pitch is at 7:10 PM and will feature former UCLA-teammates Gerrit Cole (1-3, 5.22 ERA) and Trevor Bauer (2-1, 2.20 ERA) going against each other.
The Astros daily report is presented by APG&E.
It’s been an excellent weeklong stretch of games for the Astros tempered by the news of yet another season-ending injury to a starting pitcher. To get the bad news out of the way, it comes as no surprise that Ronel Blanco needs Tommy John surgery and is done until at least the middle of next season. While Blanco had not been nearly as good through nine 2025 starts as he was last season, he was still taking his regular return and on average getting into the sixth inning. Blanco turns 32 years old at the end of August. He’s not even salary arbitration-eligible until 2027. That last fact may be good news for him. The Astros will likely keep Blanco next year in hopes he can contribute in the second half of the season, since they will pay him barely the Major League minimum salary ($780,000 next year) That’s in contrast to Jose Urquidy, who in the midst of his salary arbitration years would have cost about three and a half million dollars to keep, so the Astros non-tendered him.
With Blanco joining Hayden Wesneski in the “See you next year! Hopefully.” club, it struck me as interesting that the Astros let Lance McCullers throw 102 pitches in his Wednesday outing vs. the Athletics. That’s eleven more than he had thrown in any of his prior four starts. McCullers holding up physically would be a huge boost, but the new essentials in the Astros’ rotation are Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown. Framber has settled in to the tune of a 1.93 earned run average over his last four starts. Brown’s season ERA is 2.00. Brown has had five days of rest before all eleven of his starts this season. This Sunday is Brown’s presently next scheduled outing. He would work on four days of rest if on the mound Sunday against the Rays.
Taking the last two games from the Mariners was huge (for the second half of May anyway). Keeping the good times rolling by sweeping the two-game miniseries from the A’s was less significant but still nice. Maybe not quite nice enough to have Frank “The Tank” from the movie Old School belting out “We’re going streaking!!!” but it did give the Astros their first four game winning streak of the season. They still have not lost more than three straight.
On a heater!
Speaking of streaking, time for annual mention of one of my all-time favorite baseball factoids. The 1916 New York Giants hold the MLB record for the longest win streak with an incredible 26 in a row. Earlier in the season the Giants ripped off 17 in a row. Combine the two streaks and that’s 43-0! The 1916 New York Giants finished in fourth place. In all their other games the Giants went 43-66. The American League’s longest ever winning streak is of fairly recent vintage. The 2007 Cleveland Indians won 22 straight. There have been only two other winning streaks since 1900 of at least 20 games. The 1935 Chicago Cubs won 21 straight. The Art Howe-managed 2002 Oakland A’s won 20 in a row, and were the inspiration for the movie Moneyball. The Astros have three 12 game winning streaks as the longest in their history.
Expect the unexpected
Tuesday’s win over the A’s brought the Astros to the one-third completed point of the regular season. Isaac Paredes was definitely their best offensive player to that milepost. His “on pace for” numbers were the best on the ballclub 33 home runs and 93 runs batted in. Paredes also led in runs scored with 29. The last Astro to lead the team in all three of those categories was Alex Bregman who did it in both 2018 and 2019. That Bregman was clearly a better player than this Paredes, but Isaac healthy and making “only” 6.625 million dollars this season is a heck of a lot better value than Bregman at 40 mil for the Red Sox, especially given that while Bregman was off to a sensational start for Boston, he’s now out for at least a month with a quad injury.
Hunter Brown is on pace to win 20 games. The last Astro to get there was Gerrit Cole on the last day of the 2019 regular season. The day before that Justin Verlander won his 21st game.
The Cleveland Guardians’ bullpen was awesome last season, by far the best in the league with four relievers who each pitched in at least 74 games posting ERAs of 1.92 or lower, headlined by closer Emmanuel Clase’s microscopic 0.61. One-third of the way through this season for the Astros: Bryan Abreu sat at 1.90, Steven Okert 1.82, Josh Hader 1.57, Bryan King 1.52.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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