Gerrit Cole is expected to miss only, "one start" which means he'll be available for the playoffs. In all seriousness, I like the approach the Astros have taken with injuries. The Astros have a significant lead in the division. There is no rush to get Cole or any other player that feels discomfort back into the starting lineup. I've already planned to take a week off for the day games the Astros will play in the division series.
Rogelio Armenteros will start Saturday's contest against the A's. He'll make one start and be sent back down. Martin Maldonado is expected to catch.
Hinch on Armenteros:
“He’s thrown very well. Righties [perform] better than lefties against [the A's] lineup, and we think he’s the right option for us.”
Armenteros has allowed 8 ER in 14.1 innings since being sent down. Six of those came in his July 28th start, in which he only lasted 2 innings. In the last two games he's allowed 2 ER over 12.1 innings.
While putting this post together the below poll was thrown up on the broadcast. I'll take Jose Altuve all day. ALL DAY!
Altuve's similar batters through age 28 include five Hall of Famers:
Ryne Sandberg
Billy Herman
Roberto Alomar
Frankie Frisch
Bobby Doerr
Stay tuned.
For those curious about the other guys Hall of Famer similarity batter scores through similar age:
George Springer - 0
Carlos Correa - 3
Alex Bregman - 2
"The Astros represent the promise land, the big rock candy mountain of baseball," according to the New York Times and Asher Wojciechowski. Wade Miley, A-a-ron Sanchez, and Zach Greinke weigh in on the Astros revolution.
Here's a money quote from Miley, “I checked the data and it was spinning faster and it had more break on it. It’s amazing.”
During the broadcast Todd Kalas mentioned that Justin Verlander needed 73 strikeouts to get 3000 strikeouts this year (he had four strikeouts into the game at this point). With eight more starts he has a chance.
He finished the night with strikeouts. Prior to tonight, Verlander has a 2.65 ERA and 84 strikeouts at The Coliseum.
More stats from last night's game (Geoff Blum and Todd Kalas are great!).
Altuve and Correa being healthy helps this team go deep into the playoffs. The fact that Correa is hitting 6th is crazy!
The dude that lit up the radar game and signed with the A's, struck out the side in his organizational debut.
Man, I'm ready for Flick to get back. The Astros made one worse pitch than Oakland did, and lost 7-6. I'm told the game was Weird. I could not stay awake for the whole thing. The Astros are 78-44, 8.5 up on Oakland. They have lost three in a row, and four of five. But they won eight straight before that. It happens.
*I'm having a hard time this morning with only complaining about home runs when the other team hits them.
*There were eleven extra-base hits in last night's game. Ten of them left the yard. Hinch: They hit the most important one at the right time. We hit some big ones. It was a little bit of 2019 home run derby with the ball flying out of the ballpark everywhere.
*Astros pitchers have allowed 7+ runs in three of their last five games.
*Aaron Sanchez threw 5.1IP, 7H/6ER, 3K:2BB, 4HR. It's the first time this season an Astros starting pitcher has allowed 4HR, and the second time in his career Sanchez has done it (June 12, 2016).
*It's the 6th time in franchise history the Astros have hit five home runs and lost. It's the 2nd time that's happened this season.
*Five of the Astros' seven hits were home runs. As a team in August the Astros are hitting .310/.385/.610. They're 9-4 in August, with a team .995 OPS.
*Michael Brantley was 3x4 with two home runs and a double. Brantley's last nine games dating back to August 3: .500/.537/868. It was the 7th 2HR game of his career.
*Carlos Correa got two jacks himself and became the youngest Astro to hit 100 career home runs, and it's not even close. He's 24 years and 328 days old. Alex Rodriguez and Cal Ripken, Jr. are the only other shortstops in MLB history to hit 100 home runs before turning 25. Correa: I called my dad and told him, and he was crying. Obviously, it was a lot of work put in to get where we are right now. It was an emotional moment. It's very special.
Astros' all-time home run leaders, by shortstops:
Correa: 100
Marwin: 76
Adam Everett: 35
Dickie Thon: 33
Craig Reynolds: 32
Correa is hitting .290/.366/.579 for a currently-career high OPS of .945. Shut up about Correa. He needs six more home runs to set a career-high, at 25.
*Alex Bregman hit his 29th home run of the season. In August he's hitting .439/.521/.902
*Yordan Alvarez has one hit in his last 18 Plate Appearances. Brett Wallace lookin ass boiiiiiiii.
*On May 19 Josh Reddick went 2x2 with two doubles and 2BB to put his OPS at .860. In the 69 games since, he's hitting .229/.259/.339. Reddick last hit a home run on June 28 - a span of 30 starts. He went 44 games without a home run in 2018, let's see if he can break that streak. Chandler Rome understatedly writes that Reddick is having some trouble shaking off his slump. Hinch: Reddick has obviously gone through a very slow time. There's a lot of issues that come with that. There's reasons beyond pitch selection, how hard he swings, swing path, all that stuff. There's not one thing that you can pinpoint exactly what's going on. Otherwise, we would have corrected it quite a few at-bats ago.
Dude just looks lost.
*George Springer snapped a 7-game hitting streak with an 0x3, BB night.
*Oakland's Matt Chapman has two straight 2HR games. Chapman: That was pretty cool. I've never seen the ball carry like that here. It was like we were playing on a normal park. That was a rarity. I've never seen this park play like that. Usually it's pretty cold here and the ball doesn't travel, but that was nice.
More Chapman: It feels like that kind of game, a playoff game. That's a really good team we respect and want to beat. This is the Astros' division until somebody knocks them off. To take the first game of the series like that is huge.
Manfred must have made sure that the Coliseum got the extra-jumpy balls for this division matchup.
*Ralph Bowden reports that Gerrit Cole "should be good to go" next week. And the Astros are confident that Cole will only miss this weekend's start. Hinch: He's going to rest for the next couple of days. He may do a little throwing while we're here in Oakland and then gear towards a bullpen eventually. A lot of therapy, a lot of conversation, a lot of making sure that he doesn't do anything to irritate his hammy, and get him back on the hill eventually.
*The Astros could start Armenteros or Framber on Saturday. Or they could have another bullpen game, since that worked out so well on Tuesday. It just kind of depends.
*Remember that Colorado game where Bregman couldn't come up with a Daniel Murphy liner, and it was ruled a hit? Yesterday it was changed back to an error, so Greinke's line is now officially 6IP, 6H/5R (2ER). Greinke has now given up 4ER in 12IP as an Astro.
*Andrew Simon asks: Is Yordan is having the best start to a career ever?
*The Astros are trying to become the first team in baseball history to not intentionally walk a batter. The previous low for intentional walks by a team in a season was four, set by the...2018 Astros.
*Baseball America published their 2019 Best Tools winners. Click to see where Justin Verlander, Justin Verlander, and Justin Verlander rank on the overall winners, and where Alex Bregman, Michael Brantley, Gerrit Cole, Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, Ryan Pressly, and A.J. Hinch fall.
*Some Minor League transactions:
-A.J. Lee (2019 - 34th Round) and C.J. Stubbs (2019 - 10th Round) went from Tri-City to Quad Cities after Lupe Chavez went on the IL and catcher Orlando Marquez was released.
*Hakai Magazine: A tiny Alaskan island faces a threat as deadly as an oil spill - rats.
*How two superstars, four words, and 15 seconds of TV influenced a decade of pop culture.
*The Ringer: Welcome to the world of competitive wiffle ball.
This was a cursed game. The Astros lead 2-0, were down 4-2, tied 4-4, down 6-4, down 7-4, down 7-5, down 8-5, down 8-7, down 9-7, tied 9-9, and finally lost 13-9 on a James McCann grand slam off Ryan Pressly with two strikes and two outs. Freaking stupid. The Astros are 78-43. The lead is 9.5 games on Oakland, who is one game worse than the Astros in their last ten games.
*The Astros lost back-to-back games for the first time since July 15/16 at Anaheim. They've lost three of their last four games, but are 19-6 since that July 16 game.
*The Astros needed Miley after abruptly throwing a bullpen game last night, and he responded with 3.1IP, 9H/7R (3ER), 1K:1BB. But Wade Miley only allowed 3ER! you may say. And that's true. But he committed an error that led to three of the four earned runs. It was a bad day to have a bad day. The bullpen has thrown 15.2 of the last 25 innings.
Miley has been good all year, do not think I'm slandering him. It was his shortest outing in a start since September 29, 2018. Miley's seven runs allowed last night equal the number of runs he had allowed in his previous five starts combined (30IP). The nine hits allowed are a season-high, eclipsing the 8H he allowed in his season debut on March 31. Miley on his Scoop-And-Let-The-Other-Team-Score: That was stupid. It was the second inning of a baseball game. With our offense, just take the out and move on, tie the game up.
*Collin McHugh threw 2.1IP, 1H/1ER, 3K:1BB, pitching on back-to-back days for the first time since July 14/15. This season, in the second game of a back-to-back: 8.0IP, 7H/4R (3ER), 6K:2BB.
*Will Harris gave up his first run since July 26. The Astros are 4-3 when Harris gives up a run.
*Ryan Pressly gave up the dagger grand slam to James McCann. It's the 6th home run Pressly has allowed this season. It's the first grand slam he has given up in his career. It's the 7th home run he has allowed as an Astro, and the first five were solo home runs. The last two he has allowed have brought in seven runs. Pressly: I left the pitch in the middle of the plate and he capitalized on a mistake. Tip your hat to him.
Hinch: We were pretty sloppy today early in the game and made some bad decisions on defense. We just couldn't keep them from scoring. They scored [in?] six of their eight at-bats. They put runs on the board. They did a really good job of continuing to attack us offensively, but the big swing with the bases loaded...
It's McCann's first home run with a runner on base since June 28.
Former Astros County Great Not Hank Aaron:
James McCann on an 0-2 count this season prior to that at bat.
Again, a bad day to have a bad day. McCann: We very easily could have folded and given into them with the talent they have over there, we kept fighting and kept pushing and never gave in. I was just trying to get something up and elevated. I hit it pretty good and was thankful that it went.
*The Astros committed three errors. Eat at Arby's. Hinch: At the end of the day, we got outplayed on both sides of the ball. They were swinging the bats pretty well. They didn't miss a mistake. All in all, not a great day.
*It's a shame, because the offense did everything they could do to win the game. It's the 29th time this season Houston has scored 9+ runs. They're now 27-2 in those games.
It's the 8th time they've collected 15+ hits. They're now 7-1 in those games. The last time the Astros got 15 hits in a game and lost was July 19, 2013 in a 10-7 loss to Seattle.
The Astros hit three home runs. They're now 26-4 in those games.
It's the 19th time the Astros have gotten 7+ extra-base hits. They're now 17-2 in those games.
*Michael Brantley was 4x5 with two doubles. It's his 3rd 4-hit game of the season, the 15th 4-hit game of his career.
*Jose Altuve was 3x5 with a two-run homer and three runs scored. Altuve is hitting .354/.397/.626 since returning from the IL.
*Yuli Gurriel hit two more home runs, so that's:
June 11, 2019 - August 14, 2019: 21 home runs
September 23, 2017 - June 10, 2019: 21 home runs (postseasons included)
It's the 4th 2HR game of his career. You have to go all the way back to August 6 to find the last one.
*Yordan Alvarez was intentionally walked for the 3rd time this season, tying Michael Brantley for the team lead. Springer/Altuve/Correa/Bregman intentional walks, 2019 combined: 2.
*8-9-1 in the lineup (Chirinos/Diaz/Maldonado - Marisnick - Springer) went a combined 3x16 with 6K:0BB.
*The one good piece of news of the day: Gerrit Cole and the Astros seem to have dodged a bullet. Cole: It's not super-serious, so we'll just take it day by day right now and kind of see how it responds to some treatment and some rest and get back out there as soon as we can.
*It's a common refrain among baseball writers whenever the ineptitude of a particular team is on display as they commit fully into rebuilding their organization: let's just do Relegation, like in soccer!
*Remember the Taco Truck Throwdown in Fresno? Well...a guy died doing the taco eating challenge on Tuesday night.
Well nothing about Game 2 was ideal. After the Astros took Game 1, the wheels fell off after Gerrit Cole was a late scratch and it turned into a bullpen game. Astros split the day with the trash White Sox. They're 78-42 with a 10.5-game lead on Oakland and 42 regular season games left.
*I'm not about to recap two games, what with having to shower and be out the door in less than an hour. So let's just get to the news.
*We'll start with the Big One: Gerrit Cole's late scratch. Hinch: Right before the game, as he was warming up, [bullpen coach] Josh Miller called down and told the dugout [Cole's] hammy wasn't feeling very good, and he didn't feel like he could continue. Devenski was on his way out to the 'pen. He's usually the first reliever out there anyway, so we raced him to get ready.
The Astros are hopeful that it's a minimal issue. Cole got treatment during the game. More Hinch: We'll get him tested even further and see where this takes us. He doesn't think it's that serious. I'm glad he told us, and we hope that it's mild. It was literally a couple of minutes before the game. Houston can afford to give Cole some rest. Houston has 42 regular season games left, Oakland has 43. Let's just say the Astros go 21-21 down the stretch (which should absolutely not happen). Here's what has to happen in order for the other AL West teams to win the division outright: Oakland: 33-10
Arlington: 41-1
Anaheim: 41-0, but would tie the Astros at 99 wins.
Seattle: 42-0, but would still be seven games behind the Astros.
Joe Biagini threw 3IP, the most he's thrown in an outing since August 19, 2018. Biagini was optioned to Round Rock following the game in order to bring up more fresh arms. Roberto Osuna was the only pitcher who didn't pitch in either game. Hinch: A doubleheader will do that to you in general, and then you lose your starter five minutes before the game. Biagini picked us up, Devo started and got a couple of innings in. We didn't play particularly well in the second game, but we used a lot of pitching.
Chandler Rome writes that Rogelio Armenteros could be on his way, but Cy Sneed is the freshest viable arm at Round Rock.
Only three pitchers have thrown a complete game against the Astros this season: Mike Leake, Lucas Giolito, and Ivan Nova. Giolito and Nova are obviously on the White Sox, and obviously they need to be erased from the league.
*Shoutout to this British Astros fan, who flew to Chicago to see his first Astros game in person, and caught Jose Altuve's home run ball:
*White Sox catcher Beef Wellington Castillo - who couldn't catch a ball to save his literal wretched life - absolutely trucked Robinson Chirinos. I'm sure that MLB will take this very seriously and issue Castillo a two-game suspension while Brad Ausmus calls down the thunder.
*In Tags' Notebook, we learn a few things:
-Brad Peacock will need one or two more rehab outings at Round Rock before he can be activated.
-The aforementioned Armenteros or Framber Valdez, fresh off a 13K game, are candidates to start on Saturday.
*Josh James threw 20 pitches off the mound in West Palm Beach, and felt good.
The Astros got rained out yesterday. Now they get to play 14 games in 13 days. First pitch today is at 3:40pm Central, and the second game is...sometime after that. The White Sox get to face Zack Greinke and Gerrit Cole on the same day. Houston has a 10-game lead on Oakland.
Kind of a slow news day, which is perfectly fine since I'm running behind this morning.
*Speaking of Greinke, today is August 13. The Astros acquired him on July 31. This will be Greinke's second start as an Astro.
*A new poll, voted on by 43 reporters at MLB.com, I guess, now has Yordan Alvarez at the top of the AL Rookie of the Year ballot. He received 40 of the 42 first-place votes. Baltimore pitcher John Means got two first place votes. Cleveland right fielder Oscar Mercado got one first place vote. I am not making any of that up.
*Keep an eye on Verlander's strikeout totals. He needs 77 to get to 3,000 career strikeouts, all with the Astros. Crazy but I looked it up. Gerrit Cole is within reach of setting the all-time K% rate in a single season.
*Start making those vacation plans, the Astros' 2020 schedule is out. I'm not a huge schedule guy, but there are some fun road trips you could make, if you were so inclined. Notable dates:
March 26, 2020: Opening Day. Angels at Minute Maid Park.
April 10-12: Houston's first trip to Mimic Maid Park in Upper Oak Cliff.
May 22-24: At Boston. Nice time of year to get up to Boston.
July 3-5: At Washington.
Inter-League is against the NL East next year. The Astros will play seven home games and ten away games in NL parks. Not a huge fan of that.
The Astros come out of the 2020 All-Star Break with a 7-game road trip (at Oakland and West Longview) and finish the season with a 7-game road trip (at New York and Atlanta).
*Fun night for Round Rock. Framber Valdez struck out a career- and franchise-high 13 batters in 6.2IP as Round Rock beat Albuquerque 11-6. Kyle Tucker hit his 31st and 32nd home runs of the season. Express hitting coach Ben Rosenthal: When he squares it up, it is loud. He's got power to all fields. He always had the power. He's just got to get a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it. When he does that, good things happen.
*Some Former Astros Greats news:
-Josh Rojas (Greinke trade) got called up to Arizona and went 2x4 with an RBI in his MLB debut. The Astros didn't get any hits last night wtf is LOSEnow doing?
-David Paulino (Osuna trade) cleared waivers and was released.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...
*ESPN: "Oh my God, how can we do this?" An oral history of the 1994 Strike. If you're a subscriber to The Athletic, you can read this oral history of the 1994 Strike.
*Actual Moron Alex Rodriguez had $500,000 worth of stuff [blinks rapidly] in his rental car stolen during Sunday Night's game in San Francisco.
Well that was less than ideal. The Astros took an improbable lead into the middle of the 9th and then Roberto Osuna gave it right back. More on him in a minute. The Astros' eight-game winning streak has been snapped. The Away Runs mean that Houston advances to play Chicago tomorrow, on aggregate. Houston is 77-41. There are 44 regular season games left. Oakland, Anaheim, and East Thurber all won. Houston's lead is an even ten games. They have won 18 of their last 22 games.
The Astros looked flat, which I guess can happen about 14 hours after you put 23 on a team.
Former Astros Greats did the damage on Sunday:
-Asher Wojciechowski: 6IP, 4H/3ER, 5K:3BB
-Jonathan Villar: 3x4 with a walk and a run scored.
-Rio Ruiz: 2x5, 2-run walkoff homer.
Good for all those guys, to be honest. It's been a hard year for Baltimore, and they had success the afternoon after getting absolutely trounced. If it gives them and their fans some happiness, then so be it. How many times from 2011-2013 did the Astros win a game they might not have been expected to win, and it just made us a little nicer to those around us?
*Hinch: That was a winnable game. We didn't put probably enough pressure on them in enough innings. The big innings that we did have kind of put us in position to win the game.
The strikeouts were there and should absolutely be acknowledged. He has 217 strikeouts this season, nine behind Gerrit Cole. The nine hits Verlander gave up are the most he has given up in a game since July 28, 2018 in a cursed loss to the Ramgers. Verlander: When you're playing great baseball it seems like the losses even hurt that much more. We put ourselves in a position to win; our guys did a fantastic job battling back. Just one pitch early in the game, a couple pitches that I made that were mistakes. But I think sometimes you've got to look at the bigger picture and understand that we're playing good baseball. Don't let this be too much of a Debbie Downer. Verlander also has 10+ strikeouts in five straight starts, setting a career-high (he had a streak of four in 2018). He joins Randy Johnson (Aug 28-Sept 18, 1998) and J.R. Richard (Sept 16, 1979-Apr 10, 1980) as the only Astros pitchers to strike out ten or more batters in five straight games. They each had 63K in their five starts. Verlander comes in at a scrub-level 57K in his five-start streak.
*Roberto Osuna. Hm. 0.2IP, 2H/3ER, 1K, 1HBP. The HBP to Chance Sisco (his 2nd HBP of the game, by the by. The Astros have hit the same guy twice in a game only one other time this season - Tampa's Joey Wendle, in the season opener).
Anyway, Osuna's HBP was the game-tying run, followed by Rio Ruiz who trotted across the plate after the walk-off, his 2nd home run in as many days against the Astros.
Maybe Osuna was protecting Bregman, who got drilled in the top of the back earlier in the game. But Osuna's had a rough go of it lately.
Osuna, beginning of season to May 24: 22.1IP, 8H/2ER, 21K:2BB, 0.81 ERA / 0.44 WHIP.
Osuna, May 25 - right this minute: 25IP, 27H/14ER, 28K:6BB, 5.04 ERA / 1.32 WHIP.
Osuna, since the All-Star Break: 10IP, 12H/8ER, 10K:2BB, 7.20 ERA / 1.40 WHIP.
Maybe it's regression, maybe his finger is off by a hot millimeter in his delivery. Intentional, or not, that HBP to Sisco was freaking stupid. It was more stupid than allowing the home run to Ruiz. Chance Sisco is the #7 hitter on a team 39 games under .500. He has a .734 OPS. There is no reason to try to be too fine with your pitch. There is no reason to hit him, even if it is to send a message. You won't see the Orioles again until 2020, so what message are you actually trying to send? Don't put an Astro on base? I think the rest of the league knows that. FOH, Osuna. Figure your crap out. Hinch even said: why would [they] hit someone in a 2-run game?
For what it's worth, Osuna said the HBP wasn't intentional: Absolutely not. Like I said, I didn't have the stuff. I was wild. I missed a lot of pitches. Most of them were (not) in the location I wanted...It was one of those days.
-Jace Peterson hit a 1st-pitch double.
-Richie Martin got a 1-1 ground out in which Osuna's 1st pitch was a ball
-Chance Sisco took the 1-0 HBP
-Chris Davis hit a 1-0 sac fly
-Rio Ruiz started off 2-0, Osuna got him back to 2-2 before Ruiz fouled off two pitches and deposited the 7th pitch onto Eutaw Street.
Officially, Osuna threw a 1st-pitch strike to exactly zero of the five batters he faced. Osuna: The guys did a great job coming back and get the lead and expected me to get the job done. Not being able to do that, it's a bad day.
Chirinos: I'd say we went too many changeups there. That could be my fault. I thought we were going to get swing and miss against the changeup. Last one, it was more like middle in, and [Ruiz] put a good swing.
*Will Harris threw a perfect inning, and hasn't allowed a hit since July 26, 4.1IP, 0H/0ER, 5K:1BB. His ERA is 1.64. 136 relievers have thrown at least 40IP in MLB this season. Harris' ERA is the 4th-lowest of them all. Pressly's 1.99 ERA is 9th.
*Astros pitchers struck out 16 Orioles. It's the 64th game in which the pitching staff has gotten 10+ Ks. It's the 8th with 16+. This is insane.
*George Springer went 3x5 - his first 3-hit game since August 2. He had four hits in his previous five games combined.
*Carlos Correa hit another home run. It's the first time he's hit home runs in consecutive games since May 5-6. He has six home runs since returning from the IL.
*Alex Bregman was 0x2, but with 0K:2BB. He has struck out once in his last 43 PAs, going 30 PAs without a strikeout. His last strikeout was on August 2.
*The Astros are not ruling out Forrest Whitley's 2019 Houston debut. Luhnow: He would have to prove to us in August that he could help us, which is a high bar (because) he's not currently on the (40-man) roster. But I'm not going to rule it out, that's for sure.
Whitley, Saturday night: 3.2IP, 2H/3ER, 5K:5BB, 2HBP, 42 of 82 pitches for strikes.
*Baseball America: How do scouts evaluate Triple-A raw power given the bunny ball that is getting thrown there?
*Mental Floss: Whatever happened to the eight things that terrified us in the 1990s?
*Drew Magary: You're not sticking to sports when you Stick To Sports.
The Astros curb-stomped the Orioles. It was fun at first. Then I felt badly about the damage done to those 25 Orioles, to the actual structure of Camden Yards. This game was so one-sided that I wanted it to just end. Do what my alma mater did to A&M in 2003 (I was there) and just bunt for the last five innings. It was depressing. But the Astros were in the same position from 2011-2013. Still, I take no pleasure in announcing that the 77-40 Astros did, in fact, do it again. They beat Baltimore 23-2. Every other AL West team lost. Houston is 11 games up on Oakland. There are 45 regular season games remaining.
The win gives the Astros the best record in baseball by percentage points (.658 to the Dodgers' .655). They have a one-game lead on New York for the best record in the AL.
The Astros won their 34th away game of the season. The Orioles have half as many home wins (17, if you want to check my math).
Houston has won eight in a row, 11 of their last 12, and 18 of their last 21 games.
Houston runs vs. Baltimore in four games before last night: 12 (3-1)
Houston runs vs. Baltimore last night: 23
Hinch: It was obviously a pretty explosive night from the beginning. From top to bottom just incredible at-bats, productive at-bats, explosive at-bats and ultimately a comfortable win.
Altuve: It's really hard to explain what happened today.
*The Astros have scored 20+ runs in a single solitary game only once before in franchise history: October 2, 2015 against Arizona.
It was the first 20-run margin game in franchise history. The previous high for margin of victory was 18 runs, in a 19-1 win over Toronto on July 9, 2017.
The 25 hits tie a franchise record, set twice in 1976 (May 30 and July 2). It's the 24th time in franchise history they've recorded 20+ hits.
*On September 9, 2000 the Astros recorded 11 extra-base hits (four doubles, seven homers) in a 14-4 win against the Cubs. Last night the Astros set a franchise record with 13 extra-base hits (seven doubles, six home runs).
*It's the 6th time in Orioles history they've allowed 20+ runs, and the most since West Forney beat them 30-3 on August 22, 2007.
*17 of the Astros runs came with two outs.
*Yordan hit three home runs, his 15th-17th home runs of the year. He's the first Astro to hit three home runs in a game since Carlos Lee did it on April 13, 2007. Yordan joins Astros lore as one of ten Astros to hit 3HR in a game. He joins Carlos Lee, Morgan Ensberg, Richard Hidalgo, Lance Berkman, Vinny Castilla, Jeff Bagwell (three times), Glenn Davis (twice), Lee May, and Jimmy Wynn.
Yordan has an OPS of 1.175. It's the 3rd time this season an MLB player has had 3HR/7RBI in the same game (Josh Bell, Christian Yelich). He has now caught Brandon Lowe and Mike Tauchman on the AL Rookie fWAR leaderboard. All three have posted 2.5 fWAR.
Games played:
Yordan: 45
Tauchman: 64
Lowe: 76
Yordan has already posted the 10th-highest fWAR by an Astros rookie in franchise history, joining Luke Scott for 10th. Again, Yordan has played in 45 games. The record is 4.9 fWAR, set by Joe Morgan and Bill Doran.
Yordan just became the quickest player in MLB history to post 50 RBI, beating Joe Freaking DiMaggio by one game. Joe DiMaggio. Yordan has 51 RBI in his first 45 games, breaking Ted Williams' 1939 record for most RBI in his first 45 games (Williams had 47).
Aaron Sanchez, on Yordan: Yordan is special, watching from afar. And now I get to see him every night...To follow this guy's career is going to be something special, for sure.
Yordan: When something goes well for one of us, it goes well for all of us.
The Astros came into last Wednesday having had six instances of a player recording 7+ RBI in franchise history. Between Yuli and Yordan, they've gotten two more in the last four days.
*Altuve hit his 20th home run. It's his third season with 20+ HR, and his previous career high was 24, set in 2016 and 2017.
*Gurriel got the 4th 4-hit game of his career. Since June 9, Gurriel: .359/.395/.733.
*Bregman's heating up. After going hitless in four straight games from July 22-26, Bregman is hitting .439/.511/.829 in his last eleven games, including a six-game hitting streak in which he has 12 hits.
*Aaron Sanchez pitched well, though you may have forgotten the Orioles even held a bat. 5IP, 3H/1ER, 6K:3BB. Sanchez's last four starts: 21.2IP, 14H/6ER, 28K:5BB, 2.49 ERA / 0.88 WHIP.
*Check this MLB.com story on how Hinch manages a lefty-less bullpen. Hinch, on Will Harris: I trust him as much as I trust anybody in my managerial career so far. He's been really good for us over the last five years or so.
Harris, 2012-2014: 99.1IP, 104H/47ER, 107K:30BB, 4.26 ERA / 1.35 WHIP.
Harris, 2015-2019: 280IP, 215H/76ER, 292K:69BB, 2.44 ERA / 1.01 WHIP.
*Gerrit Cole, on his impending free agency: If I'm just being honest with you, we hold each other accountable so well here to stay focused on what we've got to do. When we get a guy like Greinke, my mind goes to being better equipped to win the World Series. I kind of leave the financial stuff for another day. We'll see how free agency plays out and see how it goes.
*The Astros plan to continue to develop Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez at 1B. Luhnow: We'd like that to be options for next year. It would be helpful if both of those guys were playable at first base, it gives A.J. some more options and gives us several more options in trying to form the team next year. On Tucker, specifically: I'm impressed by how he has just continued to go out there, compete, and played well. He hasn't had his agent call me, ask 'When am I getting called up?' He knows our situation our situation. He knows this team is playing well and we have a full outfield. He also knows September is right around the corner.
Tucker was 1x4 with a strikeout and played 1B in a 13-3 loss to Albuquerque last night. Abraham Toro was 2x4 and has a 1.144 OPS in his first eight games at Round Rock.
*Jeff Luhnow commented on Reymin Guduan's season-long suspension in that it ends when the minor-league season ended. Guduan was suspended for violating team policy and it broke early last week. I don't know what Guduan did (the couple of Sources I have weren't talking) but I can't imagine that getting suspended for the final month of the season and it not being PED-related or domestic violence-related is the result of a good thing. I also can't imagine that Guduan would be brought up for mop-up innings in September in Houston when they won't let him get mop-up innings in August in Round Rock.
*The Astros released Akeem Bostick yesterday. Brought over from Aren'tlington in the 2015 Carlos Corporan trade, Bostick has a career 4.62 ERA / 1.40 WHIP in seven minor-league seasons. He got two seasons at Triple-A (one in Fresno - granted, for only 5IP - and one in Round Rock) and in 85.1IP allowed 103H/69ER, 81K:44BB, for a 7.28 ERA / 1.72 WHIP. Guess RamgerFan69 won that trade.
*I don't know what's crazier: that Mike Trout just turned 28 or that, with a home run at Fenway last night, he has now homered in every single AL ballpark, or that it took him 22 career games at Fenway to hit a home run.
Related, the number of AL ballparks in which the Astros have hit a home run:
Springer: 15. Haha Springer > Trout.
Altuve: 15. Haha Springer and Altuve > Trout.
Bregman: 15. Haha Springer and Altuve and Bregman > Trout.
Correa: 15. Haha-
Reddick: 15. Hah-
Brantley: 13
Gurriel: 10
Yordan: 4
*NY Post: Brodie Van Wagenen's trade for J.D. Davis is looking like a winner. In 100 games for New York, Davis is hitting .308/.373/.525.
Apropos of nothing: Tyler White is 1x21 with the Dodgers, hitting .048/.200/.048. Since the Astros traded White on July 25 Houston is hitting .310/.380/.589 as a team.
