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
Astros drop the middle game to Cleveland
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).
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.
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.
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.