Sunday Morning Brunch Links

The Houston Hot Damn Astros beat Cleveland 6-4 yesterday, improving to 38-27. They remain five games back of Lewisville. The Astros wrap up a 17-games-in-17-days stretch today, during which they've gone 10-6. 

*Houston scored 6+ runs for the third time in their last six games. 

*The Astros have outscored their opponents 52-41 in the month of June, going 5-5 in those games. 

*With 15 hits on Friday, and 10 yesterday, the Astros have recorded back-to-back double-digit hit games for the 6th time this season.

*The Astros stole six bases yesterday (Dubon and Julks had two each, Altuve and Meyers added one each). They had stolen six bases in their previous 14 games combined, and are 9-for-10 in stealing bases in the two games against Cleveland. The six stolen bases were the most in a game for the Astros since Houston stole six bases and beat Boston 2-0 on August 5, 2013 to improve to 37-74.

*Jose Abreu was 2x5 with a homer and 3RBI. Abreu has a hit in eight of his last nine games, and has gone 4x12 with 2HR/6RBI in the two games against Cleveland. In nine June games, Abreu is hitting .290/.300/.474.

*Mauricio Dubon was 2x5 with an RBI. He has a seven-game hitting streak, and a four-game multi-hit streak. Since May 29, after he got a couple of days off, Dubon is hitting .366/.372/.512 with two stolen bases.

*Jose Altuve also collected two hits and a walk. He's 4x11 in this series, after a 2x23 stretch from May 29-June 8.

*Alex Bregman has an RBI in three straight games. He has three hits in his last 20 PAs. 

*Kyle Tucker was 0x3 with 2BB. In his last 20 games he's hitting .257/.329/.405, and is 5x28 in his last seven games.

*J.P. France: 6.2IP, 7H/3ER, 6K:6BB. I don't know that you'd call it a Quality Start, but it was effective nonetheless. His three induced GIDPs brought his season total to four. France had walked nine of the previous 141 batters he had faced in the Majors, and six of the 30 he faced yesterday. Yesterday was the 4th time in seven starts that France recorded at least 18 outs.

*Matt Gage was called up to replace Ryne Stanek, who was placed on the Bereavement List yesterday.

*Check out McTaggart's new newsletter, in which he talks about Dana Brown's plans to upgrade the offense, as well as the MLB Draft, which begins on July 9. 

*Oakland has now won a season-high four games in a row! It's time to go back to the 1916 A's watch!

1916 A's: 17-48-1

2023 A's: 16-50

They're closing in!

*RIP Edward Stack, who started working for my former employer in 1961 until he resigned as President in 2000.

*Conor McGregor put the Miami Heat mascot in the ER.

*BBC: The big numbers behind Manchester City's treble.

*One of my longest-standing hobbies (longer than this cursed bolg!) is HSX.com. Get in on it.

*A Musical Selection:

Saturday Morning Hot Links

In what has to be one of the dumbest games in recent memory, the Astros coughed up a lead five times against Cleveland and lost 10-9 in 14 innings. At 4 hours and 3 minutes, it was the longest game of the season. Houston is 36-28, having lost a season-high four straight games and five of their last six. They've played a game in each of the last 15 days. 

*The Astros are now 5-1 when they score 9+ runs in 2023. They're now 54-1 since the beginning of the 2021 season when they score 9+ runs. It's the first time they've scored 9+ runs and lost the game since September 5, 2020, when they lost 10-9 on an Anaheim walkoff.

*Dusty:

That was like a 15-round fight, but we only went 14. We would score, then they would score. My guys battled hard, they battled hard. That's a tough one to lose. 

Houston is now 6-7 in one-run games. Cleveland is now 13-17 in one-run games. It's only the 4th time this season Cleveland has put up double-digit runs.

*Houston went 6x28 with runners in scoring position. Surprisingly, for the year, Houston is hitting .273/.349/.454 w/RISP, good enough for a 124 tOPS+ (that's above average for the league). 

*Jose Abreu was 2x7 with a 3-run home run. The Astros are now 1-1 in games where Jose Abreu homers.

*Jeremy Pena was hitting 7th in the lineup and went 4x6 with two doubles, but only scored one run. It's his 18th multi-hit game of the season, and the second 4-hit game of his career (July 3, 2022 vs Anaheim). Since May 27 (13 games), Pena is hitting .289/.373/.500.

*Astros pitchers struck out seven Guardians, and walked eight. It's the second time this season they've walked more batters than they struck out. Over this four-game losing streak, Astros pitchers have struck out 29 batters and walked 24. The Astros are 2-3 when they walk 6+ batters.

Astros pitchers, first 60 games: 3.39 K:BB ratio.

Astros pitchers, last 4 games: 1.21 K:BB ratio.

*Yordan Alvarez was placed on the 10-Day IL with a strained right oblique. McTaggart: How can the Astros replace Yordan's production? Bourbon sounds like a plan, for me. 

*FanGraphs: Houston's Top 38 Prospects. The Top 10:

1. Hunter Brown (Houston)

2. Yainer Diaz (Houston)

3. Drew Gilbert (Corpus)

4. Korey Lee (Sugar Land)

5. Ryan Clifford (Asheville)

6. Luis Baez (Florida Complex League)

7. Camilo Diaz (Dominican Summer League)

8. Joey Loperfido (Corpus)

9. Trey Dombroski (Fayetteville)

10. Kenedy Corona (Corpus)

*Check out Friend of Astros County David Coleman's new Substack: Three Astros Things.

*ESPN: How the Rangers went from rebuild to contenders, in one offseason. (Hint: It's probably the $775 million they spent on Semien, Seager, Gray, Eovaldi, Gray, and de Grom.)

Updated Playoff Odds, via FanGraphs:

NW Cleburne: 49.4% to win the AL West

Houston: 37.4%

Anaheim: 9.4%

Seattle: 3.8%

Oakland: LOL%

*Oral Roberts was up 8-0 on Oregon...and lost.

*Texas Monthly: 100-degree days are coming next week. How does that compare to the past? On the subject of "teh weather," make sure you've bookmarked The Eyewall - a new joint from Matt Lanza and Eric Berger in which they use the same no-spin approach from SpaceCityWx on potential storms in the Atlantic.

*Vice: The Psychic, the Sheik, and the $90 Million Diamond Heist.

*From the dudes that brought you "Drive To Survive," I watched "Tour de France: Unchained" in two days. 

*Leeds United's relegation to the Championship cost Andrea Radrizzani probably $250 million. Good. Now the financial arm of the San Francisco 49ers own Leeds United. 

*The Champions League final - between Manchester City and Inter Milan - is today at 2pm Central. Watch and see if City can be the first English team to win the Treble (domestic league, domestic cup, international cup) since 1999.

*A Musical Selection: