Thursday, August 30, 2018

Thursday Morning Hot Links

I don't want to place too high an importance on one game just yet, but yesterday's Tyler White one-out walk-off home run sure did feel like something that we'll remember here about seven weeks from now (hopefully). The Astros are 82-51, 2.5 games up with 29 games to play.

*Houston was one clutch hit and a not-great Roberto Osuna outing away from sweeping Oakland, whose regular season series is now done. Oakland has to make up ground on the Astros without the benefit of head-to-head matchups. Oakland's remaining regular season schedule:
vs Seattle (4), vs New York (3), vs Arlington (3), at Baltimore (3), at Tampa (3), vs Anaheim (3), vs Minnesota (3), at Seattle (3), at Anaheim (3).

That's 13 remaining games against teams currently with a winning record. 16 of their 28 games are at home. Oakland is 30-28 in 2018 against teams left on their schedule.

Houston's remaining regular season schedule:
vs Anaheim (4), vs Minnesota (3), at Boston (3), at Detroit (3), vs Arizona (3), vs Seattle (3), vs Anaheim (3), at Toronto (3), at Baltimore (4).

That's nine games currently with a winning record. 16 of Houston's 29 games are at home. The Astros are 27-20 against teams left on their schedule.

Hinch:
We have a lot of games to play, a lot of games to win. This one feels like a big one obviously to send them out of town a little beat up from the losses. But, also their bullpen is a little beat up, ours is, too. It felt like kind of a heavyweight battle. 

*The story of the day up until the 9th inning was how many chances the Astros' offense wasted:
-2x7 w/RISP
-Eleven men left on base
-Bases loaded for Altuve and Correa with one out in the 4th - no runs
-Bases loaded for Marwin with two outs in the 7th - no runs
-Bregman on 2nd for Altuve with two outs in the 8th - no runs

*Yuli Gurriel was 0x2 with 2BB and a GIDP. Gurriel drew two walks for just the third time this season. He had drawn two walks in his last 17 games and four walks in 32 appearances since the All-Star Break combined.

Gurriel's GIDP put him into a three-way tie with Miguel Rojas and Yangervis Solarte for the league lead in GIDPs, with 21.

*Carlos Correa was 0x4 with a sac fly. He's hitting .249/.330/.432.
Correa, Opening Day - May 14 (41 games): .295/.383/.521, a .902 OPS with 19 XBH.
Correa, May 15 - present (49 games): .214/.286/.364, a .650 OPS with 13 XBH

OR

Correa, Opening Day - June 25 (placed on DL): .268/.352/.480, .832 OPS, 30 XBH, 77K:37BB
Correa, August 10 - August 29 (return from DL):  .172/.233/.234, .467 OPS, 2XBH, 17K:6BB

*George Springer stayed off the DL last weekend because of his success against Oakland this season. In the three game series, Springer went 4x10, 2RBI, 3K:4BB.

*Jose Altuve was 1x5 with a career-high four strikeouts. In his career, out of 1094 games, Altuve has the following number of strikeouts in a game:

4K: 1
3K: 6
2K: 62
1K: 368
0K: 657

He strikes out 3+ times in a game 0.6% of the time.

*Tyler White since his call-up on July 29: .345/.400/.713. He has three home runs in his last six games. Houston is 7-2 when Tyler White hits a home run. I'm buying him pizza this year. White:
Just looking to put something in play, really. (Familia) is really good, and he's been doing it for a long time and you're looking for something to hit, for him to make a mistake, and that's what happened. I just put a good swing on it.

Little League, high school, college, minors, pros? This was White's first ever walk-off home run.

Check Tony Kemp with the major save of Justin Verlander's noggin during the celebration.

The hit probability of White's 44-degree, 332-foot long walk-off? 1%.

From a couple of days ago via Jake Kaplan: How Tyler White swung his way back into the lineup.

*Oakland's bullpen had held the Astros to 2H/0ER, 6K:4BB in 5IP before Familia gave up the White Ding-Dong. It was the first home run Jeurys Familia had allowed since May 13.

*Dallas Keuchel threw 6IP, 8H/3ER, 5K:1BB. Keuchel, July-August:
11 starts, 71.1IP, 65H/21ER, 50K:16BB. 2.65 ERA/1.14 WHIP. Houston is 8-3 in Keuchel's starts since the beginning of July.

*Brad Peacock had a bad game, walking three and hitting one of the five batters he faced. Peacock's 3BB are a season-high.

*While Chris Devenski was activated, Charlie Morton was placed on the DL with right shoulder discomfort. Morton:
This is not a phantom thing. My shoulder is a little irritated and tired. I think we were hoping to buy a little time, and it just so happened to fall on a few days here we could get somebody in, so unfortunately, I've got to go on the DL. 

The 10-Day DL stint will run up to the beginning of the Boston series.

*Here's an interesting story from USA Today's Bob Nightengale on Roberto Osuna. Osuna:
No one knows what happened but obviously me (Ed. Note: I might put The Girlfriend on the list of people who know what happened, but let's move on for now) Everybody is quick to judge me and say all kinds of things about it. I'm just waiting for everything to come out so people can really wait to see what happened. I would really like the fans, and everybody else, to learn what the media says is not true. 

Stay for the comment by Jim Crane who, as far as I can tell, spoke publicly about the acquisition for the first time, as well as for comments by Verlander, McCullers, Keuchel, and Bregman.

*The Astros will apparently announce a contract extension for A.J. Hinch today. At 353 regular season wins, Hinch is 5th on the all-time franchise list for manager wins, two behind Harry Walker. His .570 Win% is best in franchise history (unless you count Salty Parker's 1-0 career record, set in 1972). Hinch's managerial record with the Astros is 87 games over .500, exactly tied with Larry Dierker for highest games over .500.


Jenny Dial Creech: Hinch belongs in Houston.

*Justin Verlander gets the start tonight against Anaheim. With the Astros, the Angels are hitting .150/.199/.238 against Verlander. Albert Pujols will likely miss the rest of the season.

*Maybe J.D. Martinez thought the meme was from Timothy Hitler, not-racist genocidal philosopher.