Houston ends their losing streak
Astros daily report presented by APG&E: 2 hits from the 4-1 win
Aug 18, 2019, 5:57 pm
Houston ends their losing streak
With their string of bad luck and unexpectedly bad baseball continuing throughout the week and adding up to a five-game losing streak, the Astros were likely desperate to right the ship and avoid a four-game series sweep with a win on Sunday. Here is a quick recap of the finale with the A's:
Final Score: Astros 4, A's 1.
Record: 79-46, first in the AL West.
Winning pitcher: Zack Greinke (13-4, 2.84 ERA).
Losing pitcher: Brett Anderson (10-9, 4.06 ERA).
Zack Greinke got out to a hot start on Sunday afternoon, getting through the first three innings perfectly by retiring all nine batters in order and doing so with a very low pitch count. The A's struck first though, getting their first hit with a leadoff solo home run to start the bottom of the fourth inning and go up 1-0.
Greinke struggled a little more in that inning, allowing a walk and a single to give Oakland a chance to extend their lead, but he was able to strand them and get out of the inning. He would go on to hold Oakland scoreless over the next three innings, completing seven innings while allowing just one run en route to another win.
His final line: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 1 HR. The win was number 200 for Greinke's career, moving him up another spot in the all-time win leaders list.
After wasting multiple chances early in the game, resulting in five stranded runners through the first four innings, the Astros were able to finally break through in the fifth. Back-to-back singles to start the inning gave Houston a couple of baserunners, with a groundout for the first out moving Josh Reddick to third.
Instead of tying the game on a sacrifice fly, the second out was a ball to shallow to allow Reddick to tag home. That brought Alex Bregman to the plate, and he was able to get Houston their first runs of the day with a two-out three-run home run to put the Astros in front 3-1.
Don't let @ABREG_1 get hot. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/3zrGJBc6SN
— MLB (@MLB) August 18, 2019
After a leadoff walk by Carlos Correa in the top of the sixth, Yuli Gurriel would extend Houston's lead to 4-1 with an RBI-double into the left-field corner. With Greinke's day done after seven terrific innings, Houston went to their bullpen starting in the eighth with Ryan Pressly who kept the three-run lead by tossing a scoreless inning. Roberto Osuna took over in the ninth and earned the save by finishing off the win to end Houston's losing streak.
Up Next: The Astros will be flying back to Houston on Sunday before kicking off a ten-game homestand with a four-game series with the Tigers starting on Monday night. The opening pitching matchup is expected to be Wade Miley (11-4, 3.11 ERA) for Houston going against Edwin Jackson (3-5, 8.62 ERA) for Detroit.
The Astros daily report is presented by APG&E.
The Houston Astros announced on Monday that additional imaging has revealed that Jeremy Peña is dealing with a small fracture in one of his ribs.
Peña left Friday's game after being hit by a pitch in the ribs. The club originally believed they had avoided any fractures or breaks, but new information has informed them otherwise.
Update on Jeremy Peña: pic.twitter.com/jfCsCUKWFx
— Houston Astros (@astros) June 30, 2025
Peña is heading to the 10-day injured list retroactive to June 28. This news comes at an unfortunate time, with Jeremy posting the best regular season numbers of his career. He's currently slashing .322, .378, .489 with an .867 OPS.
Peña will miss the Rockies and Dodgers series at a minimum.
Story on Peña headed to the IL with quotes from Dana Brown.
“This isn’t one of those things where you have to be sidelined the whole time. Once the inflammation goes down, he might feel good enough to swing a bat.” https://t.co/ih2G09Jpcf
— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) June 30, 2025
Let's hope the team doesn't rush him back too soon and create an even bigger problem. These quotes above from Dana Brown have me concerned. Playing through injuries can create bad habits, and Jeremy has clearly found his swing this season.