Wednesday Morning Hot Links

Oh man. Oh man oh man oh man oh man. Check out the Masked Marvel's recap of G127, or The Game That Luhnow Built, a 15-1 win over the Yankees in Yankee Stadium. It's the 2nd time this season the Yankees have allowed 15 runs (on May 23 the Yankees lost 15-4 at home to Texas), but the 14-run margin is the largest in a Yankees loss since April 19, 2014 when the Rays beat the Yankees 16-1. It's the largest run margin in a Yankees loss at home since Cleveland beat New York 22-4 on April 18, 2009. The Astros' win last night matches the 2014 season total for wins, at 70.

Anyhow, the Angels beat the Tigers, the Blue Jays scored two runs in the 9th to beat the Rangers, and the Mariners beat the A's. The Astros now have a 4.5 game lead on the Rangers who have a half-game lead on the Angels. FanGraphs gives the Astros an 84.2% chance of winning the division and a 94.7% chance of making the postseason, and both are season-highs. There are 35 games left in the season.

With an ever-present level of calm, reasoned perspective, NY media reacted appropriately and with zero exaggeration to the rout. Like NJ.com:
Take news footage of a 10-car pileup. Add it to an Internet montage of slips and falls. Throw on a laugh track. That doesn't equal the mess the Yankees called baseball Tuesday night.

Or Newsday:
If the Yankees are going to collapse between now and Oct. 4 and miss the playoffs, Tuesday night's 15-1 loss to the Astros is what it's going to look like. U-G-L-Y.

*Mark Teixeira, on Keuchel:
If he isn't the best pitcher in the American League he is in the top two or three.

*The New York Times' Billy Witz has the line of the night, on Keuchel who, in two games against the Yankees this season, has thrown 16IP, 9H/0ER, 21K:1BB:
The way the Yankees have hit Keuchel this season - finding crumbs in his thick beard might be easier than finding a way to score off him - the game was over about the time it began.

*The game had a little controversy, as Carlos Gomez was frustrated by an AB in which he flied out to center field, yelling at himself and flipping his bat with the Astros up 9-0. The Yankees' bench, and manager Joe Girardi, didn't like it:
I just told him to play the game right. They're kicking our rear ends, just show a little professionalism to the pitcher.

Gomez:
If they feel like I disrespect them when I throw my bat for frustration, they take it the wrong way, because I don't mean to do that. I'm a passion guy.

Mike Fiers:
He mishit the ball and he was pissed at himself, and said the guys were chirping at him from the other dugout. What's he supposed to do?

The Yankees' John Ryan Murphy said:
That's the way he plays, he's an energetic guy, everybody knows that, and we respect him as a baseball player. Just, there's a right and a wrong way to play the game...Just staring into the dugout, I don't think - none of that's called for.

Girardi:
(Gomez is) a kid that, he plays hard, but there have been a number of clubs that have taken exception to some of the things that he does on the field, and it just got a little heated.

I guess the main example of that is when Gomez hit a homer off Paul Maholm, jawed the entire way around the bases, and Baseball Sheriff Brian McCann, of the McCann Baseball Police Department, blocked Gomez's progress at home plate on the trot. Don't remember? It's pretty legendary:



McCann is now the Yankees' catcher, of course, and Gomez threw him out at home plate two nights ago.

Other Links

*If things progress as normal, Springer could return to the lineup next week.

*Expect Assistant GM David "Bear" Stearns to get some looks at GM openings in the future.

*Carlos Correa picked up his first major endorsement, a "seven-figure" exclusive deal with Topps.

*Carlos Gomez doesn't want to face the Mets in a possible World Series matchup:
It'd be unbelievable facing the Mets. We have a chance in the World Series. We'd like to face somebody else. The Mets have too good pitching.

In that link, he also talked about the almost-trade to New York:
When I heard I got traded to the Mets, I got really pumped and excited, because I know I have a lot of friends there...I got excited, but this is the job and this is the business. Now I'm in Houston, and I love Houston.

*Fresno clinched the PCL Pacific North division last night with a 79-51 record, 13.5 games better than 2nd place Sacramento. It's Fresno's first division title since 1998. Mark Appel threw 6IP, 4H/3ER, 5K:4BB for the win.