Sunday Morning Hot Links

It's the last day of the regular season, and then the fun starts on Friday. The Astros and Verlander dominated the second half of the game to win their 106th game of the season, and go into one more Gerrit Cole start looking for 107 wins on the year.

Scoreboard Watching:
Los Angeles beat San Francisco, he Rays lost to Toronto, Oakland beat Seattle. This clears up a couple of things:

-Houston has Home Field Advantage throughout the playoffs.
-Oakland will host the AL Wild Card game against Tampa, and Houston will host the winner of Friday for ALDS G1.

*Hinch:
When 3,000 was getting close, he found ways to get a lot of strikeouts. When 300 got close for the season, he beared down even more. Big night for him. Great night for our team.

*G161 had a lot of potential for stupid. Verlander needed six strikeouts to get to 3000 for his career and 12 to get 300 for the season. Verlander struck out Kole Calhoun to get the 3000th strikeout of his career, but Robinson Chirinos dropped the ball and Calhoun reached first, and Andrelton Simmons hit a home run in the next AB to give Anaheim a 3-0 lead. Later in the 6th Inning, Verlander struck out Kole Calhoun for his 300th strikeout of the season. Thank you, Kole Calhoun. I hate you, Kole Calhoun. Verlander:
Three thousand was something I wanted to accomplish this season. I honestly wrote off 300. I thought it was going to be a lot to ask for since these guys don't strike out much. I got 3,000 and then to look up after five innings and have 11 strikeouts. Talking to AJ, I knew we were only going to go six innings. I had more emotion for 300 than 3,000 because I didn't expect to get there in this game. Very thankful to get both accomplishments. It hasn't set in yet.

The Angels had struck out 12+ times in a game 13 times going into last night. The Astros did it to them three times prior. So Verlander finishes the 2019 regular season with exactly 300 strikeouts, breaking his previous career-high set in 2018 of 290.

Verlander's K:BB ratio, Detroit: 3.10
Verlander's K:BB ratio, Houston: 7.14

More Hinch:
He figured a few things out with his grip and a little bit with his mechanics. He was doing a lot of different things to try to get his best stuff toward home plate. And then adapting to their gameplan a little bit. I think he had to pitch to a couple different areas of the strike zone just based on their aggressiveness early.

*It was Verlander's 28th start of 3ER or less. He did not allow more than 4ER in a start in 2019. It's his 6th 12+ strikeout game of the season, and his 13th double-digit strikeout game of the season. Verlander has 21 wins, the most since he posted 24 wins in his 2011 Cy Young/MVP season.

Verlander, 2011: 251IP, 2.40 ERA / 0.92 WHIP, 250K:57BB, 6.2 hits/9, 9.0 K/9, 2.0 BB/9
Verlander, 2019: 223IP, 2.58 ERA / 0.80 WHIP, 300K:53BB, 5.5 hits/9, 12.1 K/9, 1.7 BB/9

*Verlander is the second pitcher in MLB history to get his 300th strikeout of the season and 3000th strikeout of his career in the same game. Randy Johnson got his on September 10, 2000 at Florida.

Verlander, 2019: 223IP, 2.58 ERA / 0.80 WHIP, 300K:42BB
Johnson, 2000: 248.2IP, 2.64 ERA / 1.12 WHIP, 347K:76BB

*Verlander ends the 2019 regular season with a 0.803 WHIP, 2nd-best since 1962 among qualified pitchers.

Pedro, 1999: 217IP, 1.74 ERA / 0.74 WHIP, 284K:32BB, .166 average-against, 11.8 K/9
Verlander, 2019: 223IP, 2.58 ERA / 0.80 WHIP, 300K:42BB, .171 average-against, 12.1 K/9
Maddux, 1995: 209.2IP, 1.63 ERA / 0.81 WHIP, 181K:23BB, .194 average-against, 7.8 K/9.

*Verlander's number of pitches, last three starts: 87, 92, 80.

*Verlander's 1st Strikeout victim: Travis Hafner
Verlander's 1000th Strikeout victim: A.J. Pierzynski
Verlander's 2000th Strikeout victim: Manny Machado
Verlander's 3000th Strikeout victim: Kole Calhoun

*Angels pitcher Jose Suarez shut the Astros down, which makes sense when you consider:

Suarez: July 30-September 27: 39IP, 56H/40ER, 23K:16BB, 9.23 ERA / 1.85 WHIP.
Suarez, last night: 5IP, 3H/2ER, 6K:1BB.

*Josh Reddick hit a massive three-run home run, his 14th of the season. Reddick, on who he wants to face in the ALDS:
There's not really a team (of the A's or Rays) I'd prefer to face, so to speak. We're going to be closely watching next week to see what happens. I think we'd all agree we have a really good chance of beating both of them. So we're ready with whoever wants to bring it on.

Please keep in mind that, while the Astros did lose six of their last eight to Oakland, here was the losing pitcher: Verlander, Josh James, Wade Miley, Rogelio Armenteros, Cy Sneed, Chris Devenski.

*Jose Altuve was 3x5 with 3RBI. Altuve's average is now at .298 with 148 hits in 497 ABs.

If Altuve goes:
0x4: .295
1x4: .297
2x4: .2994
3x4: .301
2x5: .2988
3x5: .3007

Astros are the first team in baseball history to win 100-plus games in a season and then improve on their win totals in each of the next two seasons.

— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) September 28, 2019

*Daily Correa Update:

-Correa feels good!
I should be good to go for the playoffs. I woke up today feeling really good. Today is a great day. A positive day. It gives me a lot of confidence moving forward.

*

You play to win the game. pic.twitter.com/1VGDF3QVwA

— Alex Bregman (@ABREG_1) September 28, 2019

*McTaggart has your postseason FAQ.

*Richard Justice ranks the Astros as the #1 postseason lineup.

*What to watch for today:
-Can Altuve get back to .300?
-Yordan needs 3HR to get to 30
-Gerrit Cole's 20th win
-Will Brad Ausmus cry?
-The Cardinals are 90-71, the Brewers are 89-72.

*An offhand thought: You ever think it's weird that we never hear from bench coach Joe Espada or Don Kelly or Gary Pettis? I can't tell you right at this moment who the Astros' hitting coach is. Strom is a legend, and gets a few words in print every few months. I don't know how much other teams' media asks questions of the coaching staff, but it's weird that none of them actually exist post-game, right?

*Crazy story in The Athletic about how the Phillies tried to change their pitching culture and got it exactly wrong, and it involves Chris Young - who was once an advance scout with the Astros. Today I think I learned that Chris Young was once an advance scout for the Astros.

*Missed this from a couple of weeks ago about Danny Duffy and his battle with anxiety and panic.

*Outside: She was nearly murdered thru-hiking, but that didn't stop her. It would 100% stop me.

*A Musical Selection:

Monday Morning Hot Links

The Astros did not play yesterday. I know it seems weird, given that today is an off-day as well. A random Sunday off after the All-Star Break. Schedule is weird this year. The Astros are 66-36. Seattle won so the lead is at 5.0 games. The Astros are now 34-15 on the road.

*The Angels are 50-50. 25-25 at home and 25-25 on the road. They're perfectly mediocre.

*Just for gits and shiggles, if the Astros go 30-30 to finish up the season (/eyes roll out of head), Seattle would have to go 38-24 to pass them for the division lead. If the Astros go 35-25, Seattle would have to go 43-19. And so on.

*The seven runs the Angels scored in the 7th are the 2nd-most allowed in an inning by the Astros this season. Houston allowed four home runs for the fourth time in 2018. When Astros pitchers allow 3+ home runs they're 2-10.

*The 14 runs allowed are a season-high. The nine-run loss is the highest margin of loss of the season and the biggest margin since September 9, 2017, an 11-1 loss at Oakland. The Astros haven't allowed 14 runs in a game since July 29, 2016.

*Man Lance got lit up: 4.1IP, 6H/5ER, 3K:5BB, WP. McCullers has allowed 52ER this season. 26 of those came in four starts, including yesterday. The other 26 came in the other 16 starts. In his last two starts, McCullers has thrown 8.1IP, 10H:11ER, 4K:10BB. That's, uh, not ideal. His last two starts have recorded a 26 and a 29 Game Score. He's the first Astros pitcher to walk 5+ batters in consecutive starts since Erik Bedard did it in 2013. McCullers:
When you get put behind pretty much because of my inability to execute pitches and big swings of the bat, it puts us in a tough spot early. It put me in a tough spot early, and from that point I was kind of grinding and wasn't going to be able to get in a groove. I was kind of in survival mode. 

*Will Harris and Chris Devenski combined to face ten batters and got three of them out, allowing 6H/7ER, 1K:2BB. Devenski allowed two home runs. Pretty impressive considering that Devenski had allowed 18 home runs in his previous 227.2IP. He had previously never given two home runs in an outing.

*Never change, Luis Valbuena. You bat-flipped a pop out:

Come for the weird base running mistake by Kinsler, stay for the bat flip from Luis Valbuena on a harmless liner. 😂#Astros #Angels pic.twitter.com/OA6QBxznAi

— Robert Flores (@RoFlo) July 22, 2018

*POSITION PLAYER PITCHING ALERT: J.D. Davis got the 8th and allowed a solo home run to Former Ramgers Great Ian Kinsler. He struck out catcher Jose Briceno, who maybe needs to go back to the drawing board. It's the 1st time this season a position player has pitched for the Astros. Davis is the 17th different pitcher for Houston this season.

*The Angels' eight walks are not a season-high. Get this: On May 12 Anaheim drew 12 walks, got seven hits, only GIDP'd once, and lost 5-3. Trash-ass team. Thank God Jerry Dipoto can do to the Mariners what he did to the Angels.

*Kole Freaking Calhoun went 2x3 with two walks. It was the first time this season he had reached base four times in a game, and he raised his OPS 26 points yesterday, from .552 to .578. That's the most shameful thing about this game. I hate Kole Calhoun. Mainly because of how his parents spelled his name. Idiots.

*The Angels' Last Remaining Healthy Starting Pitcher Andrew Heaney, vs Houston, 2018:
14IP, 8H/2ER, 14K:3BB.

*Houston went 2x8 w/RISP. They were 6x28 w/RISP this series, a series in which they won.

*Bregman-Altuve-Gurriel (2-4 in the lineup) went 2x15.

*Bregman does have a 25-game on-base streak, though.

*Tim Federowicz went 1x4 and the Astros lost their first game in which T-Fed got a hit (4-1).

*Josh Reddick got emotional at the opening of Josh Reddick Stadium.

*One of Ralph Bowden's sources says that the Astros are "all-in" on Zach Britton.

*Buies Creek's Chuckie Robinson (21st Round - 2016) went 2x4 with a grand slam and a 3-run home run, finishing the day with seven RBI in a 10-7 win over the Rangers' Carolina League affiliate.

*The Mariners won 8-2 yesterday, giving them a +1 run differential for a 60-40 team. They have the lowest run differential of any team to win 60 of their first 100 games.

*Check this Buster Olney column on Tony Clark and the need for a different strategy for the MLBPA.

*Former Royals star Billy Butler is straight up dominating the Idaho Falls Rec Softball League.

Tuesday Morning Hot Links

The Astros sure are tipping their cap to an awful lot of mediocre pitchers this season. The Astros drop another one to the Angels to open the series, 2-1, because they have collectively forgotten how to hit the ball and then make stupid plays on the base path. For example, last night I couldn't watch the game because of an Event, but Bregman's "flies into a double play in foul territory" makes absolutely no sense. Houston is 26-17.

*Record in series-opening games: 8-5. The Astros are 1-3 against Anaheim.

*Lance threw well enough to win, but is still looking for his curve:
That's how it's been so far this year - haven't hit my strike and been grinding. It's frustrating to feel like my other two pitches are so good and the pitch I need and rely on a lot of times is not there, but it started showing up towards the end of the game.

*Jake Kaplan wrote up the silver lining to McCullers' missing curveball.

*The Astros scattered six hits across nine innings, went 1x5 w/RISP, and grounded into two double plays. Top of the 9th:

Springer singled, Bregman flied out to right field foul territory and Springer got aggressive and was thrown out (on a pretty good throw by Kole Calhoun, who is rising at an impressive pace on my most-hated current player list), Altuve singled, then made it to 2nd on a passed ball. Correa was intentionally walked to get to Gurriel, who grounded out to end the game.

Hinch, on Calhoun's throw:
It's not just a good play by Calhoun, it's a great play. He's diving into the stands or at least leaning into the stands, and he was able to clear himself from the fence enough to make a full throw, which is probably why he leads the league in assists in the outfield. He had to make a perfect throw to get him out, and he did.

*Angels starter Andrew Heaney threw a career-high 8IP, 4H/1ER, career-high 10K:1BB. Heaney:
It's good to get a win to start a series against a divisional team, and a team that we think we're going to be fighting tooth and nail with to the end...I think we want to establish that it's not a (surprise) we just won that game. It's (saying) we can beat those guys. We're just as good, if not better than these guys.

"Just as good, if not better than these guys."

*Houston is 4-8 in 1-run games, 0-4 in their last four 1-run games.

*The Astros are still trying to figure out how to pitch to Shohei Ohtani, and will have Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander work on it. Hinch:
He's dangerous for a couple of reasons: One, he can leave the ballpark in any direction and he also has speed. How he's going to handle velocity or how he's going to handle all areas of the strike zone where our guys go will be determined, I guess, over the next couple days.

*Gerrit Cole goes tonight against rookie Jaime Barria, and we'll just see how the Astros have to tip their cap to him later on tonight.

*Rather than holding their draft operations at Union Station, the Astros are moving the War Room to West Palm Beach.

*My computer is being stupid and I gotta get The Heiress' lunch ready, so I'll just tip my cap to the internet and get ready for tomorrow.