Sunday Morning Hot Links

I mean. The thing is. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's not a great weekend to have a bad weekend against literally one of the worst teams in the League who also happen to be something of a Rival, whose reprobate fan base many of us have to deal with on a day-to-day basis, whose faces will shine as though they were anointed by God Himself by taking two of the final three games of the season series at Minute Maid Park. I hope the Astros players feel an appropriate sense of shame for their "performance" over the past two games. Get Bryce Harper to Houston by 1st pitch.

*Houston is 67-39. The Mariners and A's lost. For the 5th time this season the Astros have lost three straight games. They haven't lost four in a row all year. Since the All-Star Break the Astros are 3-4 with a -8 run differential (which includes two 9-run losses). Four of their last twelve games have included losses of 4+ runs. The Astros endured four losses of 4+ runs in their previous 65 games.

*Over the last three games the Astros have recorded 12 hits and seven runs with 23K:9BB. Springer hit his 18th home run and Bregman his 22nd. When the Astros hit 2+ home runs they're now 35-6.

*Justin Verlander kinda didn't deserve the loss, though the Rangers wore him out with extended ABs. Over the last two games the Rangers have fouled off 57 pitches, including 17 against Verlander (22 against Keuchel). JV turned in 5IP, 9H/2ER, 7K:1BB. Verlander:
Obviously you're trying to go deep in games but first and foremost you're trying to limit runs. I don't care if I go six or seven, if I give up four or five I'm probably not going to win. My goal is just to keep grinding through innings and try not to let those guys, however they got on base, not let them score. 

In his 23 starts, last night was the 3rd in which Verlander did not record 18 outs. He needed 99 pitches to get through 5IP. That said, Verlander has faced 602 batters in 2018 and has struck out 190 of them, compared to 27 walks. That's a 7.04 K:BB ratio. Let's regard Verlander's regular season K:BB ratio, organized from highest-to-worst, in his future Hall of Fame career:

2018: 7.04
2016: 4.46
2011: 4.39
2009: 4.27
2012: 3.09
2015: 3.53
2010: 3.08
2017: 3.04 (7.04 with Houston; 2.63 with Detroit)
2013: 2.89
2007: 2.73
2014: 2.45
2006: 2.07
2008: 1.87
2005: 1.40

It's worth mentioning that Verlander's K:BB ratio is 7.28 with Houston, and was 3.10 with Detroit. Hinch:
He had to work pretty hard, especially in the last inning. This has been JV's calling card for a lot of his career - when the run support's not there, he has a very small margin for error, and he's trying to work a little bit extra to make some perfect pitches, and he gets his pitch count up. He really did battle. 

Verlander became the 26th pitcher in MLB history with 2600 career strikeouts.

Oh it's worth noting that the Astros committed three errors, so there's a lot of side-eyeing going on from Verlander to the rest of the room. Hinch:
We've had a couple of brutal games in a row, so whether it's errors or tough at-bats or just a lack of connected at-bats where we can do positive things a couple of guys in a row. When you lose a couple of games, especially with the way that we've lost them, you can point to a lot of things. 

*The Astros have given up nine runs in the 9th inning over the last two games, after having allowed a total of 35 9th inning runs in the previous, you know, 93 9th innings.

*Give it up for Will Harris, who has two consecutive clean outings (2IP, 0H/0ER, 4K:0BB) for the first time since June 13/16.

*Tony Sipp's last nine outings: 8IP, 6H/0ER, 11K:2BB. He allowed 2ER on April 19. Sipp has allowed 2ER in 22.2IP since.

*Hector Rondon gave up 3H/4ER including a 3-run home run. He had not allowed a home run since May 13 against, hey, Texas. He had not allowed three hits in an outing since May 13 against, hey, Texas. He had allowed four earned runs from April 19-July 24, a span of 32 outings combined.

*Human Piece of Crap Rougned Odor went 5x5 with a legit home run (welcome to Houston, Alex Ryan Presley Pressly) and an inside-the-park home run. It's the first inside-the-park home run the Rangers have hit since Former Astros Great Delino DeShields did it in 2016...against the Astros. It's the worst. Congratulations for not hitting someone on the base paths. He last hit two home runs in a game on July 30, 2017. His previous career-high for hits in a game was four, on May 24, 2014 - his 12th career game. So that's fun. On this night, anyway, Odor outplayed Altuve. Look for Ramger fans to bring this up every chance they get.

*George Springer hit his first home run at Minute Maid since June 20.

*Josh Reddick was 0x4, hitting 3rd. God I miss Altuve and Correa. Reddick is 4x23 since the All-Star Break, and 1-for-his-last-14. I don't know that he needs to be hitting 3rd, but I don't know an alternative other than Bryce Harper.

*Yuli Gurriel is 3x29 since the All-Star Break.

*3-9 in the lineup went a combined 2x24 with 4K:0BB.

*Oh this is fun. Altuve went on the DL retroactive to last Thursday, for the first time in his career. Altuve:
Basic things, like walking and (going) down the stairs, it feels good. I haven't done anything more than that. Like I said, the doctor came, checked on me, and he said it was better to get it done. If they thing it's better to go on the DL for the team and for me, in order to come back healthy and strong, we've got to go there and do it. 

Tyler White was scratched from Fresno's lineup.

*As of this very moment, with Altuve and Correa out, the offense sucks. It'll (probably) be okay when they get back. I love Marwin for his 2017 heroics, but it's pretty clear that was an outlier season. Wear that ring, Marwin. Hope you find that stroke.

*Ryan Pressly needs to begin to understand that being from Dallas is not the same as being from Texas.

*Forrest Whitley could get some innings in Houston in September.

*Here are your Astros' re-ranked Top 30 Prospects. It's not looking good for David Paulino.

*Baseball Prospectus looked at the return for Minnesota in the Ryan Pressly deal.

*Doug Glanville: How I knew it was time to retire

Saturday Morning Hot Links

The Astros never trailed against the Red Sox and cruised to a 7-3 victory. The Astros are 37-22 and improve to 18-11 at home. They've already won more games in June than they did in all of May. Houston is 8-1 in their last nine home games.

*George Springer was 3x4 with a walk and his 12th home run of the season. Correa hit his 10th home run of the season and Gattis hit his 8th home run of the season. So this was the 7th 3+ HR game of Houston's season. Hinch on Springer:
He's an energy provider for us.

*It was the 19th time the Astros scored at least seven runs. They're 16-3 in those games.

*Gerrit Cole: 7IP, 5H/3ER, 7K:2BB, 2HR. He has allowed a home run in four straight starts, but has allowed 3ER or less in all 12 of his starts this season. He had a similar streak in 13 starts from April 13-June 18, 2015. Hinch, on Cole:
He's really good at finishing his outing. I mean, 100 (mph) a couple of times in a row at the end of his game. When he knows he's about to be done and the game is close and he needs to dial it up, he's proven time and time again he can do it. He was very impressive.

Cole's 100.7mph pitch in the 7th was the fastest pitch he's thrown since May 16, 2015.

*Chris Devenski threw a scoreless 8th inning, dropping his ERA to 1.99.

*The Astros made Chris Sale throw 100 pitches in 6IP (6H/4ER, 6K:1BB). Sale's last two starts (Astros, Braves): 10.1IP, 11H/10ER, 14K:4BB. His 34 pitches in the 1st inning marked his first 30+ pitch inning of the season.

*The Astros were 3x8 w/RISP - both of Gurriel's hits came w/RISP.

*Correa and Gattis hit their home runs in the 8th off of Joe Kelly, who had not allowed a home run in his 25 outings before last night. Kelly's previous eight games: 7.2IP, 0H/0ER, 6K:2BB.

*On May 7 Evan Gattis was hitting .187/.260/.275. He had six extra-base hits: five doubles and a single home run. Since, however, he's hitting .316/.379/.737 with ten extra-base hits (three doubles and seven homers). Mike Foltynewicz threw a complete game, 2-hit shutout with 11Ks last night. So the trade is officially a draw.

*Jake Marisnick was 2x4 with 0 strikeouts, and has gone 7 PAs without a K.

*The Astros hit one million fans in their 29th home game. Baseball-Reference has Houston's attendance at 1,027,912. In 2013 their total attendance in 81 games was 1,651,883.

*Two good Jake Kaplan pieces for you to read:
a) A Q&A with Assistant GM Mike Elias on the upcoming draft 
b) A look at how the Astros overhauled their scouting department

One more from The Athletic: How two 23-year old first-year employees helped the Mariners pull off the Colome trade.

*So Josh Reddick's "mysterious leg infection" that was thought to be maybe a spider bite has actually turned out to be a staph infection. Hinch has already said Reddick won't play against the Red Sox, but Reddick:
If all this goes well, we can look at something next week. Hopefully with the two-game set coming in and some off days, we can work some stuff in to where I can come back and get a few breaks as well. It's not like we're just coming back and throwing me into the fire. 

*Alex Cora has brought Houston's playing style to Boston (see: Betts, Mookie hitting from the leadoff spot.) The Red Sox scare me more than the Yankees do.

*MinorLeagueBall has a really good look at what this Houston-Boston series actually means.

*Here are The Ringer's Two-Month Power Rankings. On the Astros at #2 (behind the Red Sox):
Marwin Gonzalez's struggles and a couple of noisy bullpen implosions feel like the Matrix correcting for an anomaly - if the Astros were really 42-15, we'd start to suspect our world was a simulation, so they needed to hit a couple of banana peels to dampen suspicion.

*Jon Heyman suggests the Astros trade David Paulino and J.D. Davis to the Royals for closer Kelvin Herrera and Jon Jay. The 28-year old Herrera has thrown 21.2IP, 16H/2ER, 18K:0BB for Kansas City this year. He has a 0.83 ERA, a 2.06 FIP, and a 3.33 xFIP.

*Derek Fisher hit for the cycle in a 5x5 night last night for Fresno. Grizzlies manager Rodney Linares:
Last night was the big test. He was scheduled to get five at-bats and in the ninth we were facing a lefty, and he said, 'I can hit lefties, you know.' And he saw some questionable pitches and ended up getting called out. But tonight, he ended up getting the cycle with a home run off a lefty and he hit the ball on the screws. He's strong as an ox.

*Oh hey whaddayaknow the Mariners won another 1-run game on a walkoff in extras. It's their 5th walkoff win of the season, and they're 17-9 in 1-run games (the Astros are 4-11). Seattle is 6-0 in extra inning games (the Astros are 1-4).

*

After suffering a brain hemorrhage just six weeks ago, Danny Farquhar returned to the mound tonight and threw out the ceremonial first pitch. pic.twitter.com/LYTEmwlnmz

— MLB (@MLB) June 2, 2018

*Out of 488 MLB hitters, Rougned Odor ranks 484th with -1.2 fWAR (Pujols is 488th) since the beginning of the 2017 season, "hitting" .206/.253/.385 with a 59 wRC+.

*OU (Boomer) QB Kyler Murray will have an interesting summer.

*Leeds United (my favorite soccer team) fired manager and so-typically-British-named Paul Heckingbottom. Argentina's former manager Marco Bielsa has been linked to the job. A list of Leeds United managers since the beginning of the 2014 season with the number of games they lasted:

Dave Hockaday (6)
Neil Redfearn (4)
Darko Milanic (6)
Neil Redfeard (33)
Uwe Rosler (12)
Steve Evans (38)
Garry Monk (53)
Thomas Christiansen (33)
Paul Heckingbottom (13)

*Top-10 Band Alert: Centro-Matic. Will Johnson is a buddy of mine, but I loved Centro-Matic before that happened. Start off listening to the Candidate Waltz, and this song:

Wednesday Morning Hot Links

*Despite a good outing on short rest, the Astros lost 4-2 to the South Denton Rangers thanks to another shaky bullpen and a lack of offense. Brad Peacock - starting on three days' rest - threw 4.2IP, allowing 2H/1ER, 10K:4BB. He's the first Astros pitcher to strike out 10 batters in fewer than 5IP.

Brad Peacock:
I felt great, to tell you the truth. I've got to find a way to get through the fifth inning. They got to me in the fifth. Hats off to them. 

The 5th inning saw Peacock allow singles to Lucroy and Odor, a fielder's choice to Correa that didn't get anybody out loaded the bases before Peacock walked in the Rangers' 1st run of the game with two outs.

Hinch:
Peacock was exceptional. I thought he got a little unlucky at the end when a couple of calls didn't go his way. All-in-all, he had really good put-away pitches and did a really good job of getting to the middle part of the game.

*Unlucky at the end? You tell me:

If I'm the Astros, I'm furious about it. pic.twitter.com/Opz5hSVSxU

— Levi Weaver (@ThreeTwoEephus) June 14, 2017

Related: I hate CB Bucknor.

*And Rougned Odor hit home runs accounting for three runs in consecutive innings: 7-8. In his career against Houston (221 ABs) Odor is hitting .299/.345/.611 with 15 home runs. In 166 ABs versus Houston's RHPs he's hitting .355/.386/.729 (just .127/.226/.255 in 55 ABs vs Houston LHPs. So maybe let a lefty throw against Odor?) Since the beginning of the 2015 season, Odor leads the Majors in SLG vs. Houston (.640).

*Odor's first home run, a solo shot to tie the game in the 7th, came off Chris Devenski. Devenski has now allowed an earned run in consecutive outings for the first time this season.

*Pause, in order to remind you that the Astros are 44-22, have won 2/3 of their games, and still have an 11-game lead in the division. And are 6-3 against the Rangers.

*Odor's 2nd home run, an inning later, came off of Luke Gregerson. After allowing 5ER in the early May series against the Rangers, Gregerson had rattled off 13 appearances (13.1IP) with 10H/2ER, 18K:5BB. Lefties are hitting .283/.340/.652 - five home runs allowed in 50 Plate Appearances. Also worth noting that while Gregerson has allowed a .554 OPS on the road, he's allowing a .333/.394/.667 slash line at Minute Maid Park. Gregerson is having a hard time getting the bottom of the order out (with obvious small sample and BABIP alerts): the 8-spot has a 1.255 OPS while the 9-spot has a 1.181. Matter of fact, five spots in the batting order have an OPS of 1.000+ against Gregerson so far this season. In five games versus the Rangers (21 PAs), they are hitting .444/.524/1.056.

So just to recap: don't throw Gregerson at home, against lefties, or the Rangers. Gregerson:
I just tried to get a pitch in on him, and it just kind of ran across the plate, stayed up, he got me in the Crawford Boxes. It's probably not [out] in most other parks, but unfortunately, it is here. 

*The bullpen has thrown 46.1IP in June, 2nd-most in the AL.

*The Astros got solo home runs from George Springer (his 18th), and Carlos Correa (his 12th). Springer is the 1st player since Brady Anderson (1996) to have seven leadoff homers through June 13.

*The Astros are 5-11 when collecting seven or fewer hits.

*Hinch, on Rangers starting pitcher Nick Martinez:
We couldn't find enough hits against Martinez. He did a really good job of moving his pitches around. Movement in his ball was moving down...It was not our night against him.

It hasn't been the Astros night a fair amount, lately.

*Josh Reddick is still going through concussion protocol. Hinch:
The reason we're not putting him on (the DL) right now is because there's a decent chance he'll be back in a few days as opposed to having to have him be out a week.

Related: Jeff Luhnow said Derek Fisher is ready for the Majors. Fisher is hitting .335/.401/.608 for Fresno this season. Now, to just find a spot for him...

WAIT. KHOU's Jason Bristol is saying the Astros will call up Fisher today.

*The Astros are being "very conservative" with Dallas Keuchel.

*Lance McCullers said his lower back is tight and stiff, and the DL is to help that and his arm.

*Corpus was swept by Midland and are eliminated from 1st Half title contention.

*Buies Creek put four players on the Carolina League All-Star roster: pitchers Franklin Perez, Nick Hernandez, Yoanys Quiala, and outfielder Myles Straw.

Draft Updates

*2nd Round pick Corbin Martin is pumped about getting drafted, but is focused on the College World Series and won't start negotiations until A&M's run is over. But:
I was more excited about the Astros picking me than where I got picked in the draft. 

*75th overall pick JJ Matijevic, on getting drafted:
Just pure happiness. When it was called, everybody just went crazy...Tears. It was pretty awesome.

He'll sign, but it will come down to money:
I'm ready to go. They know I'm ready to go. We've just got to come to terms.

*The Astros are pretty excited about 6th Round pick Jake Adams' power. Mike Elias:
We think he's for real. If you dig up his junior college numbers, he hit a ton of home runs at that level, too. Our scouts liked him, and we're going to see if his power plays in professional baseball.

Great quote from Adams:
They have me at 6'2" 250, and they think I'm slow, but I'm actually 230 and can run pretty good.

*Adams will sign. His dad:
You know this is probably the best case scenario - you got to take, take the leap of faith and go.

*Check our quick write-ups on the draftees from yesterday:
3rd Round: Tyler Ivey
4th Round: Peter Solomon
5th Round: Nate Perry
6th Round: Jake Adams
7th Round: Parker Mushinski
8th Round: Corey Julks
9th Round: Mike Papierski
10th Round: Kyle Serrano

*Stay on top of the draft pick signings over here.

Sunday Morning Hot Links

*Hold the phone: the Astros won a 1-run game...on the road...against the Rangers? Unreal. Tense as it was, the Astros held on to a 6-5 win to improve to 40-16. Matt Young tells us that eight other teams in the last 50 years have won 40 of their first 56 games, and seven of them went to the World Series.

*The 2016 Chicago Cubs' record after 56 games: 40-16. Prior to that, the 2001 Mariners (who went 116-46) were actually 44-12 after 56 games and wouldn't lose their 16th game until June 18 to put their record at 52-16.

*The Astros' 40-16 record is the best in baseball, five games better than the 2nd-place Nationals, 6.5 games better than the Yankees, who have the 2nd-best record in the AL.

*Just some perspective, there are 106 games left. If the Astros go 53-53, they'll finish the season 93-69. 60-46 (a .566 win%) would give them a 100-win season.

*A.J. Hinch:
None of these are easy. It may look easy when we score double-digit runs, but we're going to have to win games like this. 

*The Astros are 14 games up on the Rangers, with 13 games left to play against the Witches of West Forney.

*The Astros have 111 hits in their nine-game win streak.

*Rougned Odor didn't want to talk about the game. Andrew Cashner:
That's a tough team, a tough lineup. But we have a great lineup over here, too. It just comes down o making pitches for us. I think the biggest thing for us right now is we need that big hit with runners in scoring position.

Rangers' LOBsters by inning, thanks to the bullpen:
5th: 2
6th: 1
7th: 2
8th: 0
9th: 1

*Lance McCullers allowed four earned runs in all of May combined (36.1IP). He got hit around a little bit last night with 4.1IP, 6H/4R (3ER), with 8K:2BB. McCullers didn't make it out of the 5th for just the second time in his 12 starts. Hinch, on McCullers:
His command was fading. He got into the game a little rough with his command, then he settled in nicely, and as he got a little tired and a little bit deeper into the fifth inning, it was time for him to go.

*Altuve and Beltran were each 3x5 with a home run; Beltran's opened the scoring, and Altuve's closed it out as the eventual go-ahead homer. Altuve has had 110 3-hit games since his debut in 2011.

*Luke Gregerson balked - for the first time in his career - sending Elvis Andrus to 2nd. Will Harris came in after Gregerson walked Adrian Beltre and got two strikeouts to end the 7th. Gregerson's night: three batters faced: single, strikeout (balk), walk.

*Ken Giles has allowed a run in back-to-back appearances for the first time since allowing runs in three straight appearances from April 6-15.

*George Springer is not your stereotypical leadoff hitter.

*The Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Mac Engel says Nolan Ryan's move back to Houston hurt the Rangers more than it helped the Astros. And then he throws this smoke bomb:
Not even a team from Houston, where choking is a celebrated way of life because of the humidity and sports teams, could blow a division lead this big. The Astros are not going to maintain a plus-.700 winning percentage, but the AL West now goes through Houston.

By all means, get riled up. I'll always encourage getting rowdy against a DFW writer, but click the link and you'll get some measured analysis about the direction the Rangers are trending.

*Ah, the old "You have a problem" headline, but flipped on the Rangers.

*Brian T. Smith says that this team begins and ends with Dallas Keuchel.

*Lance McCullers: "For me, it's look good, feel good, play good."

*FanRag Sports: Should the Astros regret signing Yulieski Gurriel?

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/mac-engel/article154251319.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/mac-engel/article154251319.html#storylink=cpy

*A.J. Hinch said that Derek Fisher is probably ready to come to Houston, but he won't be called up to sit the bench:
He's got many tools that can be weapons up here. He's still in the development stage and he's made quite an impression. 

*In an article about Hooks starter Kyle Smith, who threw five perfect innings last night, manager Rodney Linares talked about how the progress made in the analytics department has impacted his managing.

*Bob Grossman's slash line since debuting for the Twins in May 2016: .280/.394/.449.

*Former Astro Luis Gonzales helped a woman out of a burning car after a wreck.

*Adult baby Brandon Phillips thinks the Reds should have retired his number by now.

*Before you go:

I wonder if Houston Astro's starting pitcher & 3x Gold Glove Award winner Dallas Keuchel knows that he is a fake beard model in New Zealand? pic.twitter.com/0z1YtkSpw5

— Paul Williams (@PaulWilliams_12) June 3, 2017

Thursday Morning Hot Links

Jexas has your game recap for last night's win - the first road series win of the season. It's only the third time all season the Astros have won back-to-back games, and the first time that they've won back-to-back road games. The Astros are now 7-14 on the road with a -18 run differential. They have 10+ hits in five of their last seven games.

*Jason Castro was hitting .114/.250/.205 in the first Seattle series, where he said he simplified his swing. Since then he's hitting .314/.470/.588 with 17K:15BB and eight extra-base hits.

*Tony Kemp recorded an outfield assist and two hits in his first career Major League start.
It almost feels like you're playing a video game out there, and it didn't really feel real until they poured Gatorade on me. 

*I mean, there *was* that Triple Play thing, though.

*Mat Latos, on his start:
Some days you feel really good and you have a line like you have today, and other days you feel like crap and have a really good line. It sucks and I'm really over it and tired of giving up runs. But you just have to hang with 'em and keep going.

*Ken Giles is feeling more comfortable as the season progresses. Hinch:
I think he's exhaled a little bit...and I also think success has a funny way of making you feel a little bit better about yourself and feeling a little bit more at ease. Guys that get to this level - if they don't feel like they're contributing, it can be pretty miserable.

*The way things line up for the Orioles series means that Chris Devenski is headed back to the bullpen. Hinch:
His velocity was a little higher out of the pen. There's a lot of reasons why he makes our staff stronger and I think he'll start more games as we move forward, but for the purposes of planning for the rest of this series and the Texas series, I let him know what his role would be.

*National Treasure Colby Rasmus hosted an 8-year old fan/patient from Shriner's Hospital in Chicago.

*Alex Bregman was 2x4 yesterday with his 9th home run. Bregman is hitting .330/.435/.691 with 9K:15BB in 26 games for Corpus.

*These dudes walked 22 miles to get to a Dodgers game.

*Yahoo's Tim Brown on what to take away from the Rangers/Blue Jays fight. Fantastic read, and especially for this spot-on description of Rougned Odor:
Rougned Odor, the Texas Rangers' chippy second baseman whose interpretation of middle-of-the-diamond engagements pivots upon whether he's doing the breaking up or is the one being broken up...

*When the Department of Homeland Security went on a panty raid in Kansas City in 2014.

*When Run-DMC met Aerosmith and changed music.

*Before You Go:

Late-night Tidbit: Kemp & Moran are 1st Astros to make 1st Major League start in same game since Taveras and Luke Scott on April 5, 2005.

— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) May 19, 2016

Monday Morning Hot Links

*Well the Astros are really Astrosing this season up right nice. Yet another dumb loss to the Red Sox, turning what should have been taking 3 of 4 at Fenway into dropping 3 of 4. 2016: The Season of Missed Opportunities.

*Eight of the Astros' 14 road losses have come by a margin of one or two runs. They also have four losses in games in which they were leading in the beginning of the 7th inning.

*Mookie Betts admitted that the Boston wind and periodic bouts of sunlight made things harder.
It was tough, man. The wind blowing, that made it pretty tough. But then you have the sun there, it made it that much more tough. The ball goes in the sun, but where you think it's going to come out, it comes out somewhere different.

*Carlos Gomez managed to wring sympathy out of my slowly-dying hands with his postgame quotes regarding Ryan Hanigan's 7th inning fly ball that Gomez called for, and then watched drop:
I called it and I didn't catch it. That's it. It's my fault. We lost the game because of me today. 

Feldman:
It's just been a tough stretch. I think that everybody's going to stay positive and upbeat, but it gets to the point where talking about it gets old and we actually have to go out there and start winning some series. 

*McTaggart got video of Devenski, Feldman, and Gomez reacting to the second consecutive crushing loss at Fenway.

*Amazing what a stupid 10-9 loss will do to your "plans." Before the game, Hinch told McTaggart that he was just monitoring Fresno for possible moves, but nothing was imminent. But that doesn't mean the Astros aren't making changes! Erik Kratz is gone and Gattis is on his way back from Corpus to likely serve as DH/C2. Preston Tucker has been optioned to Triple-A Fresno and a corresponding move will be made today. Could that be Tony Kemp's music? Hinch:
Kemp gets on base. He's a tough out. He keeps the ball on the line quite a bit. He's quick. He's just versatile enough...He didn't have a great camp for us but he's had a successful track record in the minor leagues. So we'll see if he becomes a factor moving forward. 

Kemp was 1x4 with a walk yesterday at Nashville (Kemp's hometown). In 34 games for Fresno, the 24-year old Kemp is hitting .298/.410/.405 with 22K:21BB in 121 ABs.

*But hey, 5RBI from Valbuena?

*Peter Gammons continued his Hawt Takez on the Astros after yesterday's debacle (tweets combined): The Astros were two breaks from winning 3 of 4 to a team constructed for a tough park to visit. Man, they play hard, man, they have 3 great players, they have the right manager, the techs upstairs need to respect pitching. Since Bobby Heck left, they haven't drafted P.

All in favor of referring to the front office as The Techs Upstairs say "Aye."

*The rotation continues to be sort of a mess. Because Fiers threw yesterday, McHugh will get the start on Thursday, Devenski on Friday, and Fiers on Saturday.

*Brian T. Smith decided to play the quotes by the book and wrote up a profile on appreciating Jose Altuve.

*Well and of course Evan Grant is tweaking his nipples after the Odor/Bautista brawl yesterday. (My takes: (a) Toronto/Texas is a fun rivalry. (B) I will hate Odor unless he becomes an Astro, then I will love him. (C) Odor's right hook was gorgeous. (D) Screw the Rangers.)

*Dan Haren talked about his decision to retire.

*Let's close out with a couple of screencaps of Rougned Odor sliding hard into 2B with no object other than to take out the second baseman:

CC: @extrabaggs pic.twitter.com/25OXlSLz7A

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) May 16, 2016

Hard slide. pic.twitter.com/pIaz4fTPXn

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) September 16, 2015

Sunday Morning Hot Links

Oh Jeez. It's happening, the collapse is happening. In the two weeks since July 4, the Astros' odds of winning the division have fallen from 62.3% to 29.4% and their postseason odds have taken a nosedive from 80.5% to 55.4% (all via FanGraphs). We're all going to suffer and die. OR you could look at it like it's now a 70-ish game season and the Astros are 1.5 games back behind a streaking team that is 15-5 in their last 20 games. On to them Hot Links...

*Scroll down a post and you can read the Masked Marvel's very good recap of last night's dumb 7-6 loss. A.J. Hinch said:
We had a chance to win the series tonight and we didn't do it...We didn't use our outs well enough early in the game and we ran out of outs. If you wonder if games in July matter, tonight is proof positive. 

Rangers manager Hacksaw Jeff Banister, likely holding an American flag and a 2x4:
Our guys are not going to be pushed around

Feldman, on Rougned Odor:
I don't really know that Odor guy much, but he's got some good veterans he can learn the game from over there...He doesn't need to act like that.

Conger:
Whatever was exchanged between me and (Odor) is between me and him, but at the same time I wasn't too pleased about him taking his time getting into the box.

*What with Carter's ankle injury (which doesn't seem to merit a DL stint), Luis Valbuena and Hank Conger took grounders at 1B before last night's game.

*The Astros and Padres have held preliminary talks regarding a trade for starting pitching, presumably for Andrew Cashner and/or Tyson Ross, according to sources of the San Diego Union-Tribune, but "there are no indications of anything imminent."

Cashner, a Conroe native, won't be a free agent until 2017. Ross won't be a free agent until 2018.

*Buster Olney tweeted that the Phillies are engaged with multiple teams on trading Hamels, and are pushing to get a Papelbon deal finished.

*Dayn Perry wrote about Carlos Correa's power.
Is Correa already the American League's top shortstop? After six weeks or so of Correa, yes, that question can be asked plausibly. Of a 20-year old.

*A.J. Reed hit his first Double-A homer last night.

*Here's a fantastic article on Astros 40th Round pick Steve Naemark.

*What the Heck Bobby, has a cool look at former Astros players in Independent Ball

*A week ahead of Craig Biggio's Induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame, we wrote about why Nolan Ryan is wearing a Rangers cap on his plaque.