Astros drop the middle game to Cleveland
Astros daily report presented by APG&E: 2 hits from the 10-4 loss
Jul 31, 2019, 9:20 pm
Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images
With a huge trade deadline in the books which came to a peak when it was announced that the Astros had traded for Zack Greinke, Houston got back to work on Wednesday night for the middle game of the series against the Indians. Here is a recap of the game:
Final Score: Indians 10, Astros 4.
Record: 69-40, first in the AL West.
Winning pitcher: Zach Plesac (6-3, 3.41 ERA).
Losing pitcher: Jose Urquidy (1-1, 5.87 ERA).
1) Urquidy takes a step back
After back-to-back quality starts from Jose Urquidy, he was on the mound to make it three straight against a tough Indians lineup on Wednesday night. Instead, he would lose the battle and regress from his recent success. He allowed a lot of traffic on the bases, recording no 1-2-3 innings in the start.
Putting baserunners on resulted in big blows two times in the start for Urquidy, who would allow three-run home runs in the second and fifth innings, erasing one-run leads that Houston had accumulated both times.
Houston would remove him before recording an out in the fifth, making it a short and disappointing night. His final line: 4 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 2 HR. Chris Devenski was brought in to complete the fifth inning.
2) Houston's offense unable to dig out of the hole
As mentioned, Houston had worked their way to leads twice in the game with Urquidy on the mound. First, they moved to a 1-0 lead after a solo home run by Carlos Correa in the top of the second. Then, after loading the bases in the third, Yuli Gurriel put an exclamation point on his terrific month with a bases-clearing double to make it 4-3 at the time.
They threatened in the top of the sixth, loading the bases with two outs but would come away empty. Meanwhile, the Indians tacked on to their lead to put things out of reach by getting four more runs on two homers against Collin McHugh in the bottom half of the inning, extending their lead to 10-4.
While Houston would get scoreless innings from Cy Sneed in the seventh and Bryan Abreu, making his MLB debut, in the eighth, the Astros would be unable to mount a comeback, dropping the middle game of the series.
Up Next: The series finale and rubber match between Houston and Cleveland will be tomorrow night with another 6:10 PM start. Houston will send Gerrit Cole (12-5, 2.94 ERA) to the mound to try and extend his recent hot streak and win the series, while Cleveland is expected to start Danny Salazar who will be making his first start since 2017 after undergoing shoulder surgery.
The Astros daily report is presented by APG&E.
Most Popular
SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome
Listen Live
Why hot starts for Rockets, Cavs, and Magic shouldn't be that surprising
Dec 10, 2024, 11:01 am
Over the weekend, the big domino finally fell with Juan Soto agreeing to a 15-year, $765 million megadeal with the New York Mets. Which means Alex Bregman and the other top free agents on the market should soon follow in short order.
In fact, we're already seeing reports from Rob Bradford of WEEI and USA Today’s Bob Nightengale claiming that the Red Sox and Yankees are “expected” to make a run at Bregman.
Soto heading to the National League certainly feels like a win for Astros fans, but that could change if missing out on Soto causes the Yankees to pry Breggy away from Houston.
We'll have to wait and see how this plays out before we get too excited. However, one thing is for sure, all the free agents on the market have to be thrilled about the size of Soto's deal. Not to mention Willy Adames' 7-year, $182 million deal with the Giants that could help Bregman's chances of receiving a more lucrative deal than the Astros reportedly offered him, 6- years, $154 million.
What's really eye-opening about Soto's contract is how it could impact Framber Valdez and Kyle Tucker, specifically Tucker. It's hard to imagine Tucker won't get an offer of at least $300 million, and at this point $400 million wouldn't surprise us.
Historically, the Astros don't trade their big name free agents before their contracts expire, but perhaps they should rethink that approach with King Tuck. If they won't even entertain a deal approaching $300 million, it might be worth taking a step back this year to replenish the farm system and focus on the team long-term.
Speaking of trades, the Astros are reportedly calling anyone who will listen about the availability of Ryan Pressly.
Don't miss the video above as we react to the Soto deal, share our thoughts on how it could impact the Astros championship window, and much more!