Thursday Morning Hot Links

Welp! The Astros scored six runs in the 8th/9th to beat the Cubs on a walk-off Kyle Tucker single 7-6 to complete a rather unlikely (for 2023, anyway) comeback. Houston is 24-19 overall and 11-11 at home. The Rangers lost so that's a 2-game deficit for the Astros in the standings. That's seven wins in the Astros' last eight games. 

*The Cubs' Win Expectancy was 98.5% when David Hensley struck out to end the 7th Inning. 287 batters in MLB have at least 80 PAs this season. David Hensley's .130/.221/.182 slash line ranks 287th. 

*It's the Astros' first walk-off win of the season. The Astros are now 1-11 when allowing 6+ runs in a game. Michael Schwab noted that the Astros were 0-17 when trailing at the beginning of the 9th Inning. Dusty:

That was the win of the year.

Dusty also gave a shoutout to all the fans who stayed.

*Alex Bregman have yourself a day! Bregman was a [wink] triple shy of the cycle, going 3x4 with a walk and an RBI. It's the 9th time in his career he's recorded a double, homer, and walk in the same game - the first since June 9, 2021. It's his first 3-hit game since August 23, 2022. Bregman now has seven hits in his last five games. 

*Kyle Tucker also got hisself three hits, one of them a double, one of them the walk-off two-run single. He now has hits in six of his last seven games. 

*Jeremy Pena was 2x5 with his third career triple, and first of 2023. It was the Astros' third triple of 2023. 

*The Astros are 3-0 when Jake Meyers homers. Last night's 9th inning shot was his first home run since April 30.

*Yordan Alvarez's On-Base Streak to Start The Season (OBStSTS, for short) ended last night as he went 0x5. It was the 9th time in his career that Yordan has recorded at least five plate appearances and not gotten a hit. The Astros record when Yordan doesn't get on base in a game with at least 5PA? Uhhhhh 6-3. 

[please note that I'm getting a little hamstrung by Baseball-Reference's site update, which is apparently happening RIGHT THIS MINUTE]

*Houston's bullpen: 5.1IP, 4H/0ER, 7K:5BB.

  Chicago's bullpen: 2.1IP, 9H/6ER, 4K:2BB.

*Hector Neris, since April 3: 15IP, 4H/1ER, 18K:7BB. 

*Bryan Abreu recorded his second Win of the season. He has allowed 0 Earned Runs in 18 of the 21 appearances he has made in 2023.

*Neris and Abreu were behind 1-0 in the count to eight of the ten batters they faced. 

*Chandler Rome: How this "Jose Altuve" fella could help the Astros, if they call him up straight from Corpus. Altuve could possibly be activated in time for tomorrow's game against Oakland.

*Michael Brantley says he's pain-free, though no one - not even God - knows when he might start resuming baseball activities. 

*David Coleman, formerly of The Crawfish Boxes, remembered some guys from 2004.

*ESPN: The Complex Task of Rebuilding Hinchcliffe.

*NY Times: Did 500-year old Viking city Jomsborg actually exist?

*Winning the Champions League would put 2022-23 Manchester City in Legend status.

*Brentford's Ivan Toney has been suspended from the Premier League for eight months for sports betting.

*A Musical Selection:

Monday Morning Hot Links

The Houston Astros beat the Chicago White Sox 4-3 yesterday afternoon to improve to 21-19, four games back of the Rangers for the division lead. The Astros have won four of their last five games after winning three of their previous ten games. Mercurial sons of bitches. At 2 hours and 33 minutes, it was the shortest of the three-game set and the 12th-quickest game of the season.

*The Astros went 5-4 on a nine-game road trip with stops in Seattle, Anaheim, and Chicago. Now they return home to face the Cubs and A's. Thirteen of their next 19 games are at home, where they [squints] enjoy an 8-11 record.

*Houston is 17-6 when allowing three or fewer runs, and 19-5 when scoring four or more runs. 

*FanGraphs has the Astros at 41.9% to win the AL West, just ahead of the Rangers, who are at 39.3%.

One thing to note about the Rangers is their Strength of Schedule. Baseball-Reference has them tied with the Mets as having the easiest schedule in the Majors to this point, while the Astros have had the 7th-toughest schedule in the Majors. 13 of the Rangers' 40 games have come against the Royals and A's. 

*Hunter Brown tied a career-high with eight strikeouts, and yesterday he pitched into the 6th Inning for the first time since April 26. After recording 21 outs in three of his first five starts, Brown has yet to record 18 outs in his last three outings. But! After walking five of the 20 batters he faced against the Giants on May 2, Brown has walked two of the last 47 batters that briefly stepped in. 

*The Astros statistically have the third-best rotation in the Majors in 2023, which is insane to think about.

*Bullpen, yesterday: 3.1IP, 0H/0ER, 5K:1BB.

*Yesterday was Ryan Pressly's 18th appearance of the season. He hasn't allowed a hit in 12 of them, and hasn't walked a batter since April 21. Since taking the L on April 11 against the Pirates, he has thrown 12IP, 8H/2ER, 10K:1BB - a 1.50 ERA / 0.75 WHIP.

*After getting at least one hit in six of his first eight games of the season, David Hensley since April 11 (51 PAs - 16 appearances, 13 starts): .067/.177/.156, 18K:6BB, 2XBH.

*Alex Bregman went 4x8 on May 8-9 at Anaheim, and since then has gone 2x16. In May, Bregman has "hit" .170/.235/.277, which is not exactly what you're looking for in the 2-hole. 

*Yordan Alvarez has an 11-game hit streak, breaking his previous record of 10 games which he set from September 9-19, 2022. 

*In 1270 games with the White Sox, Jose Abreu hit .292/.354/.507. A hit yesterday brought Abreu's line up to .214/.262/.253. Game of Abreu's first homer of the season:

2014: 8

2015: 1

2016: 4

2017: 21

2018: 1

2019: 2

2020: 5

2021: 2

2022: 8

2023: ?

*Congratulations to Yainer Diaz, who hit his first career home run yesterday, and then got the silent treatment. Danielle Lerner wrote about the Yainer Diaz Predicament. 

*Jose Altuve got his first hit of 2023 for Sugar Land yesterday.

*Michael Brantley says his shoulder is "very frustrating" and doesn't know how long this latest shut-down will last. 

*AT&T SportsNet will broadcast 15 Astros games in Spanish, the first one coming next Sunday.

*After a three-game stretch in which Forrest Whitley threw 13IP, 13H/13ER, 11K:7BB, Whitley went 4IP, 2H/1ER, 4K:1BB on Saturday against El Paso.

*Sugar Land's J.J. Matisyahu Matijevic, 2023: .299/.354/.573. Grae Kessinger: .317/.436/.472. 

*In 19 games for Corpus, Joey Loperfido (2021 - 7th Round) is hitting .308/.452/.554. Corpus' Rhett Kouba (2021 - 12th Round) has a 35:4 K:BB ratio in 29.2IP. 

*2022 12th Round pick Zach Dezenzo is hitting .388/.455/.600 in 24 games for Asheville.

*Former Astros Great Zack Greinke became just the 5th pitcher to strike out 1,000 different batters.

*The Athletic: The Brent Venables way, and his vision for the future of Oklahoma football.

*BBC: The surprising power of horror stories.

*My beloved Leeds United are currently at 67% to get relegated to the Championship (2nd division) of English football, with Southampton already clinching relegation. Leicester City are the only team with worse odds (70%) than Leeds. Leeds absolutely have to win at West Ham this weekend, and then hope that Spurs simply want to hurry up and get to Ibiza, in order to stay up. 

*ESPN: Doyle Brunson passed away at the age of 89.

*Are Hot Links back? I'm not sure. Are they back this morning? Yeah buddy.

*A musical selection: