Astros complete four-game sweep with extra-inning win over Indians
Jul 4, 2021, 3:31 pm
Houston had excellent play on both sides of the ball in extra innings to finish a four-game sweep on Sunday. Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images.
Houston had excellent play on both sides of the ball in extra innings to finish a four-game sweep on Sunday.
With wins in the first three games under their belt, the Astros tried to finish this series and head into a day off owners of a four-game sweep. Although Cleveland would force extra innings, Houston held on to win thanks to excellent play on both sides of the ball in the tenth inning.
Final Score (10 innings): Astros 4, Indians 3
Astros' Record: 52-33, first in the AL West
Winning Pitcher: Blake Taylor (1-2)
Losing Pitcher: Emmanuel Clase (3-3)
McCormick keeps coming through for Houston
Ladies and gentlemen, Chas McCormick.#ForTheH pic.twitter.com/AxxpOYy6Hl
— Houston Astros (@astros) July 4, 2021
After three scoreless innings on both sides, Houston started the scoring for the afternoon in the top of the fourth on a Chas McCormick RBI single to grab the 1-0 lead. After the Indians tied it with a run in the bottom of the fifth off of Zack Greinke, the Astros regained the lead after a leadoff single by Carlos Correa in the top of the sixth set up two more RBI for McCormick, this time a two-run go-ahead homer.
Late homer costs Greinke's chance at a win
Zack Greinke cruised early in this start, allowing just one baserunner through the first four innings on a first-inning single. Cleveland got on the board against him in the fifth, getting a run on a hit, walk, and a couple of sacrifices, at the time tying the game. He allowed a solo homer in the sixth but finished that inning along with a scoreless seventh.
He tried to hang on in line for the win in the bottom of the eighth, but a one-out solo homer tied the game before he would get one more out as Dusty Baker would bring in Blake Taylor, who notched the final out. That put an end to Greinke's stat line: 7.2 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 2 HR, 100 P.
Astros complete the four-game sweep in extras
Taylor remained on the mound for the bottom of the ninth, still tied, to try and force extra innings. He got it done, retiring the Indians 1-2-3 to send the game to the tenth. Myles Straw started on second base in the top half, but after moving to third on a strikeout wild pitch, got caught between there and home on a groundball.
Another defensive miscue by Cleveland on the next play proved costly, as a potential double-play turned error allowed Yuli Gurriel to score to put Houston back in front 4-3. Brooks Raley entered to try and close things out, and after a tremendous defensive play by him on the mound where he caught a bunt and fired it to second for a double play, he finished the four-game sweep for Houston.
Up Next: After a day off on Monday, the Astros will pick up their final week of games before the All-Star break on Tuesday as they welcome in the A's for a three-game set in Houston. In the opener, Framber Valdez (5-1, 2.18 ERA) is expected to go opposite Chris Bassitt (9-2, 3.04 ERA) for Oakland.
It’s been an excellent weeklong stretch of games for the Astros tempered by the news of yet another season-ending injury to a starting pitcher. To get the bad news out of the way, it comes as no surprise that Ronel Blanco needs Tommy John surgery and is done until at least the middle of next season. While Blanco had not been nearly as good through nine 2025 starts as he was last season, he was still taking his regular return and on average getting into the sixth inning. Blanco turns 32 years old at the end of August. He’s not even salary arbitration-eligible until 2027. That last fact may be good news for him. The Astros will likely keep Blanco next year in hopes he can contribute in the second half of the season, since they will pay him barely the Major League minimum salary ($780,000 next year) That’s in contrast to Jose Urquidy, who in the midst of his salary arbitration years would have cost about three and a half million dollars to keep, so the Astros non-tendered him.
With Blanco joining Hayden Wesneski in the “See you next year! Hopefully.” club, it struck me as interesting that the Astros let Lance McCullers throw 102 pitches in his Wednesday outing vs. the Athletics. That’s eleven more than he had thrown in any of his prior four starts. McCullers holding up physically would be a huge boost, but the new essentials in the Astros’ rotation are Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown. Framber has settled in to the tune of a 1.93 earned run average over his last four starts. Brown’s season ERA is 2.00. Brown has had five days of rest before all eleven of his starts this season. This Sunday is Brown’s presently next scheduled outing. He would work on four days of rest if on the mound Sunday against the Rays.
Taking the last two games from the Mariners was huge (for the second half of May anyway). Keeping the good times rolling by sweeping the two-game miniseries from the A’s was less significant but still nice. Maybe not quite nice enough to have Frank “The Tank” from the movie Old School belting out “We’re going streaking!!!” but it did give the Astros their first four game winning streak of the season. They still have not lost more than three straight.
On a heater!
Speaking of streaking, time for annual mention of one of my all-time favorite baseball factoids. The 1916 New York Giants hold the MLB record for the longest win streak with an incredible 26 in a row. Earlier in the season the Giants ripped off 17 in a row. Combine the two streaks and that’s 43-0! The 1916 New York Giants finished in fourth place. In all their other games the Giants went 43-66. The American League’s longest ever winning streak is of fairly recent vintage. The 2007 Cleveland Indians won 22 straight. There have been only two other winning streaks since 1900 of at least 20 games. The 1935 Chicago Cubs won 21 straight. The Art Howe-managed 2002 Oakland A’s won 20 in a row, and were the inspiration for the movie Moneyball. The Astros have three 12 game winning streaks as the longest in their history.
Expect the unexpected
Tuesday’s win over the A’s brought the Astros to the one-third completed point of the regular season. Isaac Paredes was definitely their best offensive player to that milepost. His “on pace for” numbers were the best on the ballclub 33 home runs and 93 runs batted in. Paredes also led in runs scored with 29. The last Astro to lead the team in all three of those categories was Alex Bregman who did it in both 2018 and 2019. That Bregman was clearly a better player than this Paredes, but Isaac healthy and making “only” 6.625 million dollars this season is a heck of a lot better value than Bregman at 40 mil for the Red Sox, especially given that while Bregman was off to a sensational start for Boston, he’s now out for at least a month with a quad injury.
Hunter Brown is on pace to win 20 games. The last Astro to get there was Gerrit Cole on the last day of the 2019 regular season. The day before that Justin Verlander won his 21st game.
The Cleveland Guardians’ bullpen was awesome last season, by far the best in the league with four relievers who each pitched in at least 74 games posting ERAs of 1.92 or lower, headlined by closer Emmanuel Clase’s microscopic 0.61. One-third of the way through this season for the Astros: Bryan Abreu sat at 1.90, Steven Okert 1.82, Josh Hader 1.57, Bryan King 1.52.
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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