Game 1: McCullers
v Perdomo
Game one of the “Things That Make You Go Hmmm…” series, the
Astros scored 1 run off of 4 hits against the Padres. Luis Perdomo would be the
only pitcher the Astros would get anything out of as the bullpen completely
kept the Astros off of the bases, save for a walk issued to Marwin Gonzalez
from Brad Hand. Lance McCullers struggled with the command on his breaking ball
but still managed to strikeout seven through five innings. The first inning a
throwing error during a pickoff attempt led to Jose Pirela making his way to
third and then to home plate after a pitch from McCullers to catcher Brian
McCann went right past him to the backstop. Carlos Correa answered that run
with a sac fly in the 3rd, sending George Springer to the plate but
that would be all the answer the Padres would get from the home team. McCullers
would allow two more runs in the 5th which would be his final inning.
Tony Sipp, Colin McHugh and Ken Giles took over from there. Giles would allow
one more run making the final score 4-1, giving the Astros their second loss of
the season.
Game 2: Cole v Mitchell
Gerrit Cole struck out 11 batters for the 2nd
time in as many starts. Allowing no runs off of 5 hits, Cole has a 0.64 ERA
after his first two starts of the season. Not bad at all. Outside of that,
pretty much nothing else happened. At one point I wondered “What am I even
gonna write about for game2?” Then came the 10th inning. After Brian
McCann got on base, Derek Fisher came in to pinch run and stole 2nd
base. Then Alex Bregman comes to the plate. 10th inning. 2 outs.
Fisher on 2nd. I know what you’re thinking: “Line drive to left
field, Fisher comes home, Astros win”. Not quite. On what should have been a
standard pop out, three infielders, including Eric Hosmer, converged to the
right of home plate to catch what would be the final out of the inning, only to
have the ball land behind Hosmer right before Fisher scores the winning run.
The Astros win and everyone asks, “What just happened”? Oh and because baseball
is weird, Devenski comes away with the W.
Game 3: Morton v
Ross
If you were impressed by Gerrit Cole’s ERA, guess whose ERA
is even lower after 2 starts. Charlie Morton with a 0.00 ERA. Small sample
sizes, so you can’t make too much out of anything yet, but it’s still pretty
cool. Morton allowed only 4 hits and one unearned run. Remember how this guy is
fifth in the Astros rotation? When the fifth inning came around it looked like
it was gonna be another game of a whole lot of nothing offensively. Josh
Reddick & Marwin Gonzalez managed to get on base before Max Stassi sent a three
run bomb to the Crawford Boxes for Stassi’s first HR of the season. In the 6th
inning, Reddick got his third home run of the season making the score 4-1 which
is where it would stay the rest of the game, sealing the win for the Astros.
Like I said above, this was a weird series and I am glad it’s
over. I’m even more glad this makes the 3rd series win in as many
series’ for the Astros. Next up, the Astros will be traveling to the North Pole
aka Minneapolis, Minnesota to face the Twins for a three game series. Forecasted
game time temp for Monday: 36°F.
Series W-L: 3-0
