ASTROS REPORT
Astros take care of business against solid foes, going 4-2 for the week
May 21, 2018, 6:00 am
Justin Verlander continues to dominate. Elsa/Getty Images
The Astros had two much tougher opponents this week than the week prior, giving them a test to see if they are still the team to beat this year. Here's how they did:
Monday, May 14th: 26-16 Astros (McCullers Jr.) vs. 24-16 Angels (Andrew Heaney)
The week got off to a slow start for the Astros on Monday night in Los Angeles. After seemingly reviving the offense last week, the Astros were only able to get one across in this game which came on an RBI single by Max Stassi in the top of the third. That tied the game 1-1 at the time after an RBI from former-Astro Luis Valbuena in the bottom of the second for Los Angeles off Lance McCullers Jr. McCullers had a decent night, but allowed two runs, the first to Valbuena then the other to Justin Upton in the bottom of the sixth. The second run would be the difference maker with Houston's offense unable to crack Andrew Heaney who went 8 strong innings only allowing one run before Justin Anderson shut the door with a save in the ninth for the Angels. The win put the Angels in the lead of the AL West via win percentage.
Final Score: Astros 1, Angels 2
Tuesday, May 15th: 26-17 Astros (Gerrit Cole) vs. 25-16 Angels (Jaime Barria)
The Angels looked to be getting the better of the Astros again well into Tuesday's game, including getting the better of Gerrit Cole. Cole had a rough start by his standards, which started in the bottom of the first after he walked Mike Trout to set up Justin Upton for a two-run home run to put the Angels up 2-0 early. Los Angeles locked up with Cole for a lot of longer at-bats, driving his pitch count up early before Rene Rivera hit the second home run of the night for the Angels in the fifth inning. Cole would finish the inning, but with his pitch count at 98 already ended his night there. He left with a 3-1 deficit, the one Houston run coming on an RBI single from Brian McCann in the top of the fourth. Jaime Barria had a very strong game, making it two straight nights the Astros were unable to mount much offense against an Angels starters. Things shifted in the top of the eighth once Los Angeles went to their bullpen with the Astros able to load the bases to bring up Jose Altuve. Altuve was due for something big after going hitless in the Rangers series the last weekend, and he came through with a bases-clearing double to give the Astros a 4-3 lead and get Cole off the hook. Houston added another insurance run in the top of the ninth on an error by the Angels and was able to hold on to their lead thanks to another solid night of bullpen work including two strong innings from Collin McHugh, a good eighth inning from Will Harris, and another strong save from Ken Giles.
Final Score: Astros 5, Angels 3
Wed., May 16th: 27-17 Astros (Verlander) vs. 25-17 Angels (Garrett Richards)
Wednesday night's game was a masterful showcase of Justin Verlander's dominance as a starter. Verlander not only threw a complete game shutout, he did so with 118 pitches, giving up just five hits and only one walk, which came in the ninth inning. He struck out seven, surpassing the 2,500 strikeout milestone for his career. Though he cruised for much of the game, completing it wasn't easy, including having to get out of a jam in the eighth when the Angels had runners on second and third with just one out, followed by runners on first and second in the ninth. Like he does best, he hunkered down and got through both innings, securing his fifth win of the season. Though not as special of a night, Garrett Richards for the Angels had a strong performance as well, going seven innings in the start for Los Angeles. His biggest mistake came when Evan Gattis continued his recent hot streak by hitting a two-run homer in the top of the second, giving Houston the 2-0 lead they'd take all the way to the end.
Final Score: Astros 2, Angels 0
Friday, May 18th: 21-21 Indians (Mike Clevinger) vs. 28-17 Astros (Charlie Morton)
Charlie Morton followed up his 14 strikeout performance in his last start with another strong start on Friday night against Cleveland. Though he only struck out eight batters this time, he still went seven strong innings. Morton allowed just one hit through the first six innings before allowing a solo home run to Edwin Encarnacion in the seventh for his one and only run. That home run tied the game 1-1 at the time after George Springer hit a solo home run of his own in the bottom of the third off Mike Clevinger who was also having a strong night. Clevinger struggled in the bottom of the seventh, though, issuing back-to-back walks to leadoff the inning before an RBI ground-rule double to Tony Kemp, who had just been called up in place of Jake Marisnick, broke the tie and gave the Astros a 2-1 advantage. Houston added one more before that inning was over, then extended the lead to 4-1 with a sac fly from Evan Gattis in the bottom of the ninth. They'd hold on to that 4-1 lead after a tough eighth inning from Chris Devenski then the save by Ken Giles.
Final Score: Indians 1, Astros 4
Saturday, May 19th: 21-22 Indians (Corey Kluber) vs. 29-17 Astros (Dallas Keuchel)
After looking to be back in control of his game, Dallas Keuchel had a rough game against the Indians on Saturday night. Most of the damage he allowed came right off the bat in the top of the first inning with Cleveland getting a quick three runs on a solo home run by Michael Brantley then two RBI doubles. Keuchel did settle in after the rough first inning, getting through the next few innings without trouble, but would end up letting a leadoff walk in the top of the fifth result in the fourth run for the Indians after a couple of groundouts moved the runner to third before scoring on an infield single. Keuchel's night was done after a short five-inning start and Joe Smith was first out of the bullpen for Houston, but he too would have trouble, allowing a solo home run to Yan Gomes to extend Cleveland's lead to 5-0. After holding Houston's offense in check for most of the game, Carlos Correa was finally able to do some damage against Corey Kluber in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run homer to trim the lead to three runs. Alex Bregman would follow with a solo home run in the eighth, then Marwin Gonzalez with a solo shot of his own in the ninth, but Houston would come up one run short in the failed comeback.
Final Score: Indians 5, Astros 4
Sunday, May 20th: 22-22 Indians (Carlos Carrasco) vs. 29-18 Astros (McCullers Jr.)
It was a pitcher's duel early in the rubber game in the primetime slot Sunday night. Lance McCullers Jr. looked dominant, keeping the Indians without a baserunner until the sixth inning when he allowed his first hit. McCullers went on to finish seven strong innings allowing just one hit, two walks and striking out eight. Although the run support for him was missing most of the night, Brian McCann finally came through for the Astros in the bottom of the seventh with a two-run home run to put the first runs on the board. With McCullers' night done, Will Harris came in to start the eighth, getting two outs before Chris Devenski finished the inning. Josh Reddick extended Houston's lead to 3-0 with an RBI ground-rule double in the bottom of the eighth, sending the game to the top of the ninth. Devenski started the ninth, but after a double and long flyout was pulled in favor of Ken Giles who came was able to get the save despite conceding a run on a groundout.
Final Score: Indians 1, Astros 3
Summary: The Astros put together a strong 4-2 week and won both series against challenging opponents in the Angels and Indians. They did so by continuing to have dominating starts from their rotation, timely hits and run support, and solid bullpen work from their key guys. There is still some shifting around that will happen as the season progresses, as evidenced by Tony Kemp taking Jake Marisnick's place on the roster and Derek Fisher going on the DL allowing J.D. Davis to come back up after crushing it in triple-A. I still think the offense has some work to do, I don't think we've seen them truly get into their groove and feed off of each other quite like we saw last year, but I think that's just a matter of time. All in all, I think this team can scathe by just fine with what they have and how they are performing now, but will likely need to step up in a few areas if they expect to beat the likes of Boston, New York, or even Cleveland in the playoffs. Like we've all said and heard though, anything is possible with this starting rotation being as dominant as they are.
MVP of the Week - Justin Verlander
I'd be remiss if I didn't recognize the brilliance we saw from Justin Verlander on Wednesday night. Verlander did what he has done best since putting on the Astros uniform: he went out and pitched like an ace. With the complete game shutout, Verlander lowered his ERA to an unreal 1.05 which is best in the league, paired with a 0.71 WHIP. Verlander is looking like the dominant pitcher that won the MVP and Cy Young in 2011, and he may be on his way to more accolades like that if he can keep this dominant pace.
This Week:
- Tue-Wed: (24-24) Giants @ (30-18) Astros
- Thu-Sun: (30-18) Astros @ (22-23) Indians)
The Astros have a bit of a weirdly scheduled week, getting Monday off before a two-game interleague series with the Giants here in Houston. Then, the Astros will head to Cleveland for four more games with the Indians who they just faced this past weekend, ending their seven-game regular season matchups. The Giants have been pretty much what their record says, a .500 team, and have a 10-14 record on the road. With Cole and Verlander starting those two games, they should both be winnable games. Like we saw this weekend with Cleveland, they're much better than their record indicates, meaning the four-game series this weekend could be tough. Look for the Astros to keep the train moving and work through a winning week.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or nine games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after a 4-8 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez (though not Breggy Bad). A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.