ASTROS FALL TO INDIANS
Astros daily report presented by APG&E: Indians 6, Astros 3
Apr 26, 2019, 10:37 pm
ASTROS FALL TO INDIANS
Final Score: Indians 6 , Astros 3
Record: 15-11, second in the AL West.
Winning pitcher: Adam Cimber ( 2-1, 3.86 ERA)
Losing pitcher: Hector Rondon ( 2-1, 2.79 ERA)
1.) Offense Unable To Seize The Opportunity
Corey Kluber has had some shaky starts this season, three of the five ending prior to the 7th inning. Tonight's start for Kluber was looking really bad really early. The Astros had the chance to knock out Kluber in the second inning. The Indians bullpen began warming up in the bottom of the 2nd as Kluber started getting himself into trouble. Back to back walks loaded the bases and scored a run. Brantley, who entered the game with a .909 OPS, looked prime to blow this game open. Instead, he grounded to first to end the inning. Kluber's night turned out to not be stelar after all(5 innings, 7 hits, 3 earned runs), but the Astros failed to capitalize on a big moment. In the 7th, Brantley singled off the Crawford Boxes. Correa followed that with a single to right that got Brantley to third. Reddick, with the tying run at third, popped up to center to end the inning, leaving two stranded. The 8th was not much different. Yuli Gurriel singled to right, but nothing came of it, as Writtgren retired White, Chirinos, and Springer to end the inning.
2.) McHugh's Fight With The Long Ball
McHugh was entered the game off his worst start of the season after giving up nine earned runs in Arlington. Though the bases were not nearly as busy tonight, McHugh gave up three home runs in the first five innings, not allowing the Astros to sustain the leads they had established early in the game. McHugh left the game after 5 2/3 innings clearly upset with his performance.
3.) The Bullpen Could Not Keep Them In The Game
Hector Rondon entered the game in the 7th giving up a single to Perez. Naquin followed that with an RBI double to give the Indians the lead. Chris Devenski kept his composure as he struck out Greg Allen to end the 8th leaving two stranded for the Indians and leaving the Astros with a chance to fight back. Josh James got the nod in the 9th and proceeded to give up a two run HR to Francisco Lindor. James would get through the ninth striking out three of the six batters he faced.
Up Next: The series will continue on Saturday afternoon, 3:05 PM start time. Houston will send the one and only Brad Peacock (2-1, 4.29 ERA) to the mound. The Indians will counter with Shane Bieber ( 2-1, 3.47 ERA).
The Astros daily report is presented by APG&E.
When you hit rock bottom the only direction to go is up. Actually that's not true, you can continue to be a bottom feeder. Things are not nearly so dire for the Astros, despite them enduring one of the more pathetic weeks in franchise history. The Astros nearly had a perfect game pitched against them by a guy who had zero big league wins and a 6.70 earned run average. After managing to eke out a win the following game, they were shutout three games in a row. In the game after that Framber Valdez gave up six runs in the first inning, essentially ending the game right then and there. But hey, the Astros scored two runs in Wednesday's 7-2 loss, snapping an embarrassing run of 31 consecutive scoreless times at bat. Yet somehow over that stretch of gross, the Astros increased their American League West lead! The somehow being the Seattle Mariners saying "hold my beer" and losing five days in a row.
Reminder to those wanting to have the fat lady start warming in the bullpen thinking the Astros are done: the 162-game regular season lends itself to sometimes extreme peaks and valleys. The Astros limped out of Detroit with a record of 14-23 in their last 37 games. Over that time span only the Tampa Bay Rays and San Francisco Giants have worse records. Immediately before this lengthy garbage stretch of performance, the Astros went a blistering 29-10. Bi-polarity is part of the baseball season. The Tigers flat destroyed the Astros three days in a row to run the Motowners' recent spurt to 16 wins in 23 games. Immediately before going 16-7, the Tigers lost 12 out of 13! The longest winning streak in the American League this season is the 13-gamer put up by the Minnesota Twins. The rest of their season was so bad the Twins dealt away nearly half their roster before the trade deadline. The Red Sox had a 10-game losing streak earlier this season. The Yankees endured a miserable stretch of 6-16. Of most direct import to the Astros, the Mariners big dumped seven out of eight games directly after their eight-game winning streak had wiped out what remained of the Astros' one-time seven game American League West division lead. It's the full 162 games that tell the tale. The Astros absolutely could collapse out of the playoffs entirely. But that such is inevitable is ridiculous. In part because….
Yordan Alvarez should actually play in a game that counts this coming Tuesday. Why wait that long? He had two hits and a walk (and a stolen base...why Yordan, why!) in his first game in the minors Tuesday. If the long-injured and recovering hand is okay, having him play in the minors through the weekend is a waste of time. If Alvarez's timing isn't up to speed, so what? The mere threat Yordan represents is better than the dreck populating much of Joe Espada's batting order these days. The back-to-back games he's playing in the minors Thursday and Friday should have been in Baltimore in an Astros' uniform.
Any game Alvarez is the designated hitter removes deployment in the DH role of José Altuve. That's okay, Altuve is needed in left field because the ludicrously lousy offense from the other Astros' outfielders might not be good enough to win this week's Little League World Series. Hyperbole, but you get the point. Cam Smith has been brutally inept at the plate for almost a month and a half, arriving in Baltimore with a .137 batting average over his last 102 at bats and not a single homer in his last 149 ABs. While Smith's future can still be very bright, his present is pitch dark. Jacob Melton has been almost completely overmatched at the plate, batting .170 with an absurd 23 strikeouts in his first 54 at bats. Jesus Sanchez has stunk since coming in trade from the Marlins. Chas McCormick is a better comic reliever than he has been a hitter for more than a year and a half. Taylor Trammell's career big league batting average is .177. No one confuses Mauricio Dubon or Ramon Urias with Craig Biggio, but either guy in the lineup at second base with Altuve in left is better than Altuve at second and any of those outfielders playing.
While the Astros strive to garner at least a split of their four-game set with the Orioles this weekend, the Mariners are home for three vs. the Athletics. Since the All-Star break, the A's have the best record among the five AL West clubs. The Astros have the worst. As this column has covered, wild swings of results can happen at any time, but the Tigers crushing the Astros basically ends plausible Astros' hopes of winding up with the best record in the AL. The Tigers shoved the Astros six games behind them, and clinched the season series tiebreaker. The Astros still could run down Toronto for the second-best AL mark and bye past the best-of-three Wild Card round that comes with it. Along with playing vastly better ball period, the Astros quite likely would have to win their series over the Blue Jays in Canada next month.
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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