The Astros beat Oakland 5-2 to take a 2-0 lead in the Best-of-Five series. They've won four straight playoff games on the road. The 2019 Astros won five straight road games from September 13-25, and three straight playoff games at Dodger Stadium. Oakland leads the season series 7-5 now. I would be perfectly fine with this season series ending 7-6 in Oakland's favor. It's the second time the Astros have won four straight postseason games - the last time being the sweep of the 2018 Cleveland Indians and Game 1 of the 2018 ALCS against Boston. Houston needs to go 1-2 to go to their 4th straight ALCS. Game 3 is today at 3:30pm Central.
As McTaggart notes, teams that go up 2-0 in a Best-of-Five seal the deal 88% of the time. FiveThirtyEight has it 91-9 Astros in the series, and 58-42 Astros in Game 3. I made a mistake yesterday, and since my body is all, "Get up, punk" at 4:30am now, I checked FanGraphs before they had updated their Playoff Odds. FanGraphs currently has it 90-10 Astros in the series.
With every victory, the energy and the confidence grows. We're expecting good things to happen.
*Jesus Luzardo will pitch today for Oakland. It's going to be Game 4 Hero Jose Urquidy for the Astros, as Zack Greinke apparently has arm soreness, and recently saw a team doctor. Shoutout to the 2020 World Series Champion the Buies Creek Astros. Dusty:
Greinke is ailing some. He didn't say much about it, but it's been pretty evident the last three or four starts that he wasn't himself. Urquidy has been dealing, so it was kind of an easy choice.
Martin Maldonado said he found out about Greinke's arm soreness on Twitter after yesterday's game, so these events seem to be some sort of a surprise.
Luzardo pitched in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against the White Sox and allowed 6H/3ER, 5K:0BB, 2HR in 3.1IP.
*The Astros only needed 2IP from the bullpen. The A's needed 4.2IP from their bullpen.
It's my job to go out there and pitch, and I just didn't do that today. It sucks, but I know this team is going to figure this thing out and turn it around.
*Framber Valdez Frambushed the A's lineup: 7IP, 5H/2ER, 4K:1BB. He was nasty, and everyone knows it. He had a Gerrit Cole Special - the only two runs he allowed came on solo shots. The A's did not have a plate appearance with runners in scoring position all day. FanGraphs' Ben Clemens:
Valdez threw 103 pitches...and faced 24 batters. Exactly six of those batters hit a ball in the air, which I'll define here as a ball hit with a 10 degree or higher launch angle. Two were hit hard; those became home runs. He simply didn't give the A's many chances to leave the yard.
Here's something that should scare what remains of the postseason field: The Astros' offense looks locked in, and in Framber Valdez...the Astros have what appears to be the equivalent of a top-of-the-rotation starter.
*The funny thing is that Dusty said Enoli Paredes was unavailable. Then he handled the 8th on ten pitches.
Maldonado's solo shot in the fifth chased loser Sean Manaea in his first appearance of this postseason.
Just devastating.
It was George Springer's 2nd home run of the game and the 16th and 17th postseason home runs of his career. A full and complete list of MLB players with 17+ postseason home runs:
1. Manny Ramirez - 29
2. Bernie Williams - 22
3. Derek Jeter - 20
4. Albert Pujols - 19
5. Reggie Jackson / Mickey Mantle - 18
7. David Ortiz / Jim Thome / Nelson Cruz / George Springer - 17
Only Albert Pujols is an active player, and "active" is a generous qualifier. It was Springer's 2nd 2HR postseason game (2018 ALDS Game 3). Thanks to Stats by STATS, we find that the only other player to have a 4-hit game and a 2HR game in back-to-back postseason games was Mickey Mantle in the 1960 World Series (which the Yankees lost and I'm going to stop this sentence right n). He passed Babe Ruth and [squints] Jayson Werth on the all-time postseason HR list.
*Josh Reddick got his 2nd hit of the post-season! Truly the End Times are upon us. Now: Josh Reddick's last postseason extra-base hit was 2019 ALCS Game 3, a span of 38 PAs.
*Yuli Gurriel's 9th Inning GIDP was just the 2nd GIDP in his 187 career postseason PAs.
*Where's Mike Fiers? Not one of their four best starters, according to Susan Slusser - the A's beat writer.
*SI's Emma Baccellieri: Vindication or Nightmare: What to make of the Astros' postseason success.
*Yahoo's Tim Brown: Relegated to the shadows by scandal, the Astros are playing their way back into the spotlight.
*NY Times' David Waldstein: Ok, you despise the Astros, but you gotta love Dusty. There are a lot of great quotes and one including, for some reason, the Asterisk Tour guy.
He wants to get back. He wants to get back with the team. He says it almost every game. So we tell him, 'All right, show up.' It doesn't matter if you're injured, show up.
When does an apology fall short of satisfying the aggrieved party? I thought about this a lot today. There are a number of reasons why an apology is rejected or at least treated with skepticism:
1. The apologizing party was told to apologize. Someone told them they were to apologize - that it's something that they should do. They don't really want to do it, but did it, anyway.
2. The apologizing party is not actually sorry.
3. The apologizing party knows/thinks others were doing the same things for which they are currently apologizing, and thus the apology sounds insincere.
Regardless, the Astros held Apology Day yesterday in West Palm Beach.
Statements Bregman: I am really sorry about the choices that were made by my team, by the organization, and by me. I have learned from this and I hope to regain the trust of baseball fans. I would also like to thank the Astros fans for all of their support. We as a team are totally focused on moving forward to the 2020 season.
Springer: The amount of remorse, regret that's very, very obvious to us in this room...There's no real way to express how much regret we have. How much remorse we have.
Reddick was asked if the World Series was worth breaking the rules: I don't think so...It's something that we're gonna probably regret and feel bad for for the rest of our careers.
Carlos Correa had a lot to say, on Twitter and to the media. Correa entertained a question on Twitter from noted troll Incarcerated Bob (who is credibly accused of being behind the "Beltran's Niece" Twitter account) and said there was nothing going on in 2018 or 2019. Correa also confirmed Manfred's findings in the report, but rejected the idea that the Astros were wearing buzzers. Altuve: It was a fake Twitter account that started everything. It makes me upset that a fake Twitter account had that much credibility. Like I said, I feel bad for 2017, but I can say something I didn't do was the buzzer thing. No one on this team wore a buzzer.
A.J. Hinch tried to clarify that he was not aware of any buzzers. What reality is this, even. Hinch: There has been a significant reaction to my answer to the 'buzzer' question. To be clear, I have never seen any such device used in baseball. I am not aware of any such device existing or being utilized with the Astros, the players, or any other team.
Correa, On Beltran steamrolling everyone into buying into the trash can scheme: [Beltran] was the best teammate we've ever had...We all had a say in everything...When the anonymous source is saying we felt intimidated, we were too young to say something, that's straight up bullshit.
Verlander: It's been difficult, showing up in 2017. And once I spent some time there, understood what was happening. I didn't - I wish I had said more. Looking back, I can't go back. I can't reverse my decision. I wish I had said more, and I didn't, and for that I'm sorry.
McCullers: I think that's something none of us can go back and change. I think the important thing we've all come together here. We met (Wednesday) and we stand behind Alex and Altuve and are remorseful for what happened for what happened that season and look forward to moving on.
Dusty Baker: At the meeting [Wednesday] night the players showed tremendous remorse and sorrow and embarrassment for their families, the organization, the city of Houston and for baseball.
Jim Crane completely misread the situation: Our opinion is this didn't impact the game. We had a good team. We won the World Series and we'll leave it at that.
This is, of course, completely stupid. The Astros had a good team, they won the World Series. It impacted the game. Click that link to see the logical gymnastics Crane does. 10.0 from all judges, including the East German one. More Crane, on whether he should be punished by Rob Manfred, who is an employee of Jim Crane and 29 of his closest billionaire friends: Well, clearly, the report states that I didn't know about it. Had I known about it, certainly I would have done something about it. I did hire Jeff, and I think Jeff did a lot of great things for the organization over the years. You know, no, I don't think I should be held accountable.
"Our opinion is that this didn't impact the game." - Jim Crane
Billionaires never think they should be held accountable. Read more to see how Crane threw Hinch and Luhnow under the bus. Jim Crane wants to be the new White Knight who leads the Astros into the Garden of Nevermore or whatever dreamland Crane is the mayor of. Billionaire wants all of the credit and none of the blame.
Reactions *Ken Rosenthal: The Astros screwed up their news conference on live television Thursday as only they can.
*The San Antonio Express-News' Mike Finger: The Astros apologized, but for what, exactly? The Astros might have gone to unprecedented lengths to break the rules, putting careers and legacies in peril in the process, but they did not do this to affect the outcome of games. The players, who obviously would have won the World Series without any help, are profoundly sorry for taking part in the scheme, even though the whole thing was beyond their control. The owner, who was completely oblivious to what happened before, can absolutely guarantee everything will be above board from now on.
*A's pitcher Sean Manaea: I saw a couple of interviews and they all said pretty much the same thing - they skated by everything, they swept everything under the rug. They didn't own up to anything and they're trying to move on which is like - what are you guys trying to move on from? You haven't even said what it is you did. They're just now saying they're sorry, but what about this entire offseason? It was like: deny, deny, deny. When the time comes, you have to say what you're trying to move on from. It's crazy.
*Rays pitcher Chris Archer, on his August 1, 2017 start, in which he allowed 6H/4ER, 5K:0BB, 2HR in a 6-4 win against Houston the day after Dallas Keuchel said the Trade Deadline was "Disappointing to say the least." Archer: It's pretty messed up. The whole thing is messed up. It sucks when you dedicate your whole life to something, and somebody's out there doing some shady shit like that.
Mike Fiers was the opposing pitcher that game. He allowed 3ER in the first inning. Archer allowed four runs, all were driven in on homers from Beltran and Bregman and hits from...Beltran and Bregman. Archer: You heard some rumors but I don't think anybody expected it to be to that extent, especially when you know these dudes on a personal level. You've talked to them. You've gone to dinner with them. You've even been on the same team with some of them - Team USA and stuff [Archer played with Bregman in 2017 for the World Baseball Classic]. FaceTimed with them throughout the season and offseason. Texted with them. Whatever. And then to find out to find out I was a part of them being successful. It was definitely disheartening. It's bad for the game. They set out the punishments, and it is what it is at this point. I guess it's time for everybody to move on.
*Clean-shaven pretty boy Gerrit Cole: My feelings really haven't changed much. Nobody is getting a win out of this. It doesn't look very good. I guess I'm just fortunate to be able to be here and move past this and get to experience all the good things about coming to a new team and all that kind of stuff.
Hero, really. Enjoy Central Park and Serendipity and whatnot.
Other Notes *Pete Putila will retain his Assistant GM role. Tom Koch-Weser and Derek Vigoa will remain with the Astros...for now. James Click hedged a little: I think any new GM coming in would want to take a full view of the baseball operations staff and figure out how we take the awesome people that we have here and maximize them and put them in the right position to succeed. It's something definitely on the front-burner for me.
Ed. Note: I've flirted with actually typing this out for most of the offseason, but as Spring Training actually starts in earnest (for real! You can watch Forrest Whitley throw right here!) I want to get this out. There is a certain part of me that is defined by the Astros. I get mad when they lose a game they have no business losing, when they get shut down by a guy making his 2nd career start, when the bullpen blows a Quality Start, when they go 1x13 w/RISP, when they go 0-4 at home in the World Series. Obviously I've had an Astros blog for over 11 years. I've been on Twitter for almost 11 years and have not changed my banner photo once. The Astros are a part of me. Not anywhere close to all of me, but I do spend a lot of time thinking and writing about this particular organization because I was really homesick in Upstate New York in 2008.
Many of you know I'm a public high school history teacher. I also coach soccer. The 2016-17 school year was the absolute hardest year of my life. I taught US History and AP US History for the first time each, and I was in charge of my own team under a ridiculously demanding boss with whose personality I clashed on an atomic level. So I would get home from a road game and an almost-two-hour bus ride and have to then prepare for two different classes the next day.
I love - truly love - two sports teams: the Houston Astros, and Leeds United. I was at the game that sent Leeds to the Champions League quarterfinals WITHOUT Robbie Keane and Eirik Bakke and Rio Ferdinand and Olivier Dacourt! (Leeds United has been a train-wreck since 2003 - it was a real bad time when the Astros AND Leeds were both just complete disasters and affronts to their sport). This was how I was spending my leisure time. Anyhow, when, on June 3, 2017 - the final day of the hardest year I've ever encountered - the Astros beat the Rangers to go to 40-16, the 2017 Astros brought me joy. Later that Autumn, a team I actually loved actually did something. They won the World Series. Since then it has been Hans Gruber falling from Nakatomi: they traded for Osuna, Taubman did Taubman things, Fiers talked to Evan Drellich. It's all shadows now. To me, it's tainted. It doesn't need an asterisk, the asterisk is implied. Were other teams doing it? Maybe, probably, I don't know. I know a lot of people worked really hard to get that World Series and, as advanced as the Astros were with analytics, a freaking trash can, the guy the Astros let walk to the Mets, and the Other Guy From The Carlos Gomez Trade, brought them down.
No one will ever replace the feeling I had at 10:59pm on November 1, 2017. But I know now that it's not the same, that there is shame involved. And if the players don't feel it themselves, I sure do.
Throughout this offseason I have considered shutting Astros County Dot Com down. Getting Randos (and, to be honest, some friends I've known for a long time) in my mentions blasting me for having the gall to be happy for 25 guys doing cool things who happen to have "Houston" stitched across the front of their shirt is not fun. I simultaneously want the Astros to beat the hell out of everybody and also to not have done what they did. And what they did was to cheat their way to the postseason. I'll go to my grave wondering how Alex Bregman could hear a trash can getting hit with 42000 people yelling at the top of their lungs in the bottom of the 10th of Game 5. I'll also go to my grave wondering why a team with that much talent would risk it all. No one - including Mike Fiers - has turned in their Ring, so maybe that's why I'm going to keep this dumb blog going for the time being.
I was not immediately affected by Hurricane Harvey. My mom and my dad live on different sides of Houston. Neither of their houses flooded. I've met a lot of you in real life. I know a lot of you on Twitter. I'll go with the maxim (which I didn't come up with) that Facebook is for friends who are now strangers, and Twitter is for strangers who are now friends. The 2017 World Series saved a lot of you - it was a welcome respite when your world was literally floating away or rotting under floodwaters (which Yankees fans would like to have happen every single year). Now, I'm just sad. I'm beaten down by pretty much everything. The Apologies are hollow because it didn't need to come to this in the first place.
That said, I don't think the Astros were the only team dabbling in the "dark arts" of using technology MLB made available for an edge. Still, when you're the first one caught, it's not pleasant. And you can bet that if Even Drellich With Reporting From Ken Rosenthal (the Carlos Santana feat. Rob Thomas of our generation) tugs at this thread long enough, he/they could unravel the whole thing. I just don't know if they will, or if the Fury of Baseball can stay stoked long enough to care if another team did.
Folks, I have some bad news. The Astros dropped a game to the A's last night 4-3. And it was bad. Running on Laureano, watching pitches right down the middle when it matters most, walking players. So much bad. I'm not a huge fan of writing my own recap. There are a lot of writers better than I who know what they are doing. I am here to provide you some piping hot links! So on that note, if you would like a very detailed and well-written recap on what went wrong in the 9th, Chandler Rome has you covered. If you would like the full recap of the game, Tags has you covered on that front (with videos that you can click and watch too!)
Alex Bregman might have a new and home run celebration idea and I am here to tell you that I do not want it and I would like more dugout stares please. Stop trying to ruin such a great thing. My favorite part of the video in the link above is the dedication of Tyler White to still do the stare and not participate in this new lame celebration even though no one else joined him. He is a boss and a legend. Absolute unit.
Mayhaps you're heard: the Astros are having a hard time hitting the ball right now. Houston hasn't scored a run in 22 innings. They're 20-12, one game up on the 18-12 Angels. FanGraphs is still projecting a 100-62 season.
*Offense freaking sucks right now. For the 10th time in 32 games the Astros have been held to 0 or, hey, 1 run. They're 4-5 on this ten-game homestand and need a win to salvage a split against the Yankees as well as a .500 homestand.
*Last night the Astros were shutout for the second time in, wait, two games. The 2018 Astros have been shutout three times. They were shutout six times in all of the 2017 regular season. The last time the Astros were shutout in back-to-back games was July 1/2, 2013 - the dark days - against Frickin Tampa.
*A game after the Yankees emptied their bullpen to shut the Astros down, Luis Severino gave the bullpen the night off, needing just 110 pitches to throw a complete-game, 10K shutout. Hinch: Tonight was about Severino, obviously. He completely dominated the night. We didn't have an answer for him.
*Keuchel threw 7IP, 6H/3ER, 5K:0BB and two home runs to Giancarlo Stanton. After having allowed 15 home runs in 145.2IP in 2017, Keuchel has now given up eight home runs in 45IP in 2018. The two home runs were the first Keuchel had ever allowed to the Yankees.
*As Chandler Rome notes, Marwin has struck out four times with runners on base this series.
*While a bunch of people on line were diagnosing a mental health issue for Ken Giles (I'm not doing it), A.J. Hinch had some words to say: It's a tough look for someone coming out of competition like that. I understand the frustration, I understand how much these guys put into it but in an ideal world you handle it a little bit more calmly and without the violence.
Giles: I didn't give our team a chance. Of course I'm going to be frustrated at that. This team deserves the best out of everybody and they need me to be the best I can be and that's what I'm going to give them from here on out.
How can you be mad at this guy? Gary Sanchez banged a bad pitch. Giles wants to win sooooooo bad. How many times do we, as a society, claim to want players who act like they care? Giles hit himself hard enough that, if he had hit you with the same force, you would be spitting blood. Dude can't be perfect. Nobody but 2008 Brad Lidge can be perfect. Hell, the Astros broke Kenley Jansen. I'm not on the Two Minutes Hate on Ken Giles. He's hard enough on himself as it is.
Titan of Baseball Journalism Roger Angell was decidedly not impressed by Hinch not walking Sanchez, and most assuredly not impressed by Giles: What followed was transfixing, another Never Before, as the stalking-off Giles began punching himself, first in the chest and then in the jaw. The instant image was of a newborn flailing in his crib, and an adult baby, disrespectful of Sanchez and the Yankees and everyone watching. In the dugout, he smashed a bat to the floor and huffily made his departure, but left an image that will last his lifetime.
Rog, I love you, but I don't know about All That.
*Tyler Bauer walked back his accusatory tweets pointed directly at the Astros by saying he wasn't speaking directly about the Astros: I want to make it abundantly clear and not mince words on it. I have no problem with any other organization in the league. None. Regarding the Astros, I think they do a great job of player development. I have no accusations against them at all. I've never made any, and I'm not accusing them of cheating.
I don't know, Tyler. The thing is, I want to believe you. I think you're misunderstood, Tyler, I really do. That story about you trying to figure out why some of your teammates don't like you? I can identify with that. That's totally something I would do. You like to play with drones. I spent all last weekend reading and writing about Henry Cabot Lodge, Sr., his grandson Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., and his really weird November 21, 1963. But something's just not right. Can't put my finger on it. Perhaps it's the whole "I have no accusations against them at all" part of your clarification statement, and how this whole fracas started with you responding to your buddies at Driveline Bases answering a question about whether the Astros were doctoring baseballs. Now that, that just seems disingenuous.
*Oh here comes Jeff Passan saying that baseball should make pine tar legal for pitchers and opens with Passan comparing "a pitcher for the Houston Astros" to Walter White.
*Former Astros Great and current manager slumming it with the Yankees Aaron Boone is trying to stay out of it: I don't know. I don't get into Twitter wars anymore. I don't read that much into it. Guys use stuff to try and help with grip, but I don't think anything in my view fishy is going on.
Yankees blog Yanks Go Yard says it's because Boony and Hinchy (as they're likely calling each other because baseball) are Boys. And also that Boone should be ashamed of himself.
*ESPN's Bradford Doolittle has a really great article on Alex Bregman, "baseball's sixth-best player." Obscured, so to speak, by Altuve, Correa, Springer, Keuchel, Bregman had this to say: It motivates you every single day. I think that's why this team is so good. Everyone wants to be the best. Everyone wants to be the best player they can possibly be, and they want to be the best players in the game. I think it drives all of us. I definitely use it as motivation to keep working to get better.
Stay for the comparisons of Bregman's slow start in 2017 to his start this year. Good job, Doolittle.
*David Barron notes that the Astros .993 fielding percentage is on pace to best the 2013 Orioles' .991 fielding percentage - highest for a season in MLB history. McCullers: We've taken pride in defense even going back to 2015. We didn't have this kind of roster, but that was one of the things that was stressed: to handle the ball well and play clean baseball.
*Tuesday night's 5.9 rating on AT&T SportsNet Southwest was the highest for a regular season Astros game since 2008.
*Corpus' Yordan Alvarez was 2x3 with two home runs and two walks. 6'7" 225lb 2016 19th Round pick Taylor Jones was 4x5 with 2RBI and is hitting .378/.472/.635 in 21 games. Corpus won 8-3.
*Down East beat the dog piss out of Buies Creek, 15-3. Colin McKee made his High-A debut and allowed 1H/5ER, 1K:3BB (two runs were charged to him when Brandon Bailey allowed them to score).
*Quad Cities scratched back to .500 (12-12) with a 4-3 win against Great Lakes. Tyler Ivey threw 5IP, 4H/2ER, 7K:1BB. Ivey has 33K:4BB in 22.2IP. Making his season debut, Enoli Paredes struck out seven of the eleven batters he faced.
*Jim Crane is taking the lead on trying to find sponsorship for what used to be called the Shell Houston Open, or risk getting dropped from the PGA calendar.
*The Mariners pulled an Astros last night after James Paxton struck out 16 in 7IP, only to watch the bullpen lose it 3-2 after leaving the bases loaded in the 9th.
Wow what a dumb game! Dallas Keuchel was perfect until he very decidedly was not perfect and the Astros' bats took an extra day off. The Astros are 1-3 on their ten-game homestand.
*Keuchel: 7IP, 7H/6ER, 3K:0BB. Keuchel: I've already taken a look at [the pitches] before I got too down on myself or blamed myself. Sometimes when you throw pitches in guys' cold zones, they're going to hit them out. That's just what happened to be the deciding factor, the last three runs in the seventh.
More Keuchel: That's probably going to go down as one of the more frustrating outings of my career.
Keuchel gave up 3HR for the 8th time in his career and the first time since September 16, 2015 against East Fort Worth.
Sean Manaea didn't allow a hit until the 4th inning, setting an Oakland record of 14 consecutive no-hit innings. Hinch: We just couldn't bunch anything together to where we could get something going and get on a roll a little bit. We had a couple of opportunities, but if you expect to capitalize on every single opportunity, especially against a quality pitcher like Manaea...you're not going to. Given a couple more shots, you're going to break through. But not tonight.
*There were only three hitters in the lineup last night with an OPS over .800:
-Correa (.954)
-Reddick (.860)
-McCann (.849)
*Oh hey look Joe Smith gave up 3H/2ER in 0.2IP. His ERA is 9.72. His FIP is 4.01 Joe Smith is not very good right now and I'd rather only see him in games where it's 14-0, or at HEB. Smith's last two outings: 1.2IP, 6H/6ER, 0K:1BB.
*Collin McHugh threw a perfect 9th. His last six outings: 8.1IP, 3H/0ER, 16K:2BB.
*There are four AL West teams over .500. There are four teams over .500 in the AL East and AL Central combined.
*In this Alyson Footer Notes piece, we find that Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and George Springer are buddies, Josh Reddick donated a bunch of jerseys to Kingwood High School, and Jeff Bagwell will make his broadcasting debut tonight.
*Speaking of Corpus, the 12-8 Hooks took on the 5-15 Frisco RoughRiders (the Double-A club for Arlington) last night. Frisco had a 1-0 lead going into the bottom of the 9th, Corpus tied it up. Then Frisco scored two in the top of the 10th, and Corpus answered with three for the 4-3 walk-off win on Myles Straw's single/Frisco's throwing error.
*Corbin Martin and Brett Adcock combined for a 14-strikeout one-hitter against Frederick last night. Martin this season: 19IP, 4H/1R (0ER), 26K:7BB. Yes, a 0.00 ERA / 0.58 WHIP. "Hitters" are "hitting" .065 against him this season.
Congratulations to all the Murderball players who were picked by diaper-wearing old men last night, and will get paid legally rather than under the table until their sport deems them worthless at Age 26 and screws them out of their contract, or "restructures" it so that they're playing for $2.13/hour + tips. I went to grad school at OU (and am still an adjunct faculty member there), so here's hoping the Browns can keep Baker Mayfield alive long enough to experience a win.
*Gerrit Cole (1.3 fWAR) and Justin Verlander (1.2 fWAR) rank 3rd and 4th in MLB.
*National Treasure Susan Slusser writes about tonight's opposing starter, Sean Manaea - who is coming off a no-hitter of the Red Sox - and the challenges the Astros will pose. Hinch: It's a challenge because a guy is coming off his best performance and the emotional high of accomplishing something so unique. It's hard to study film of his most recent start - you don't really want to see that. So you focus on what he might do against you.
*In THE ATHLETIC Jake Kaplan says that, five turns through, the Astros rotation has been as advertised.
*Hunter Atkins thinks Jake Marisnick is showing signs of breaking out of his slump.
*SI has an article about James Paxton's struggles, so I present this stat to you:
Paxton vs Houston, 2018: 6IP, 3H/1ER, 7K:3BB
Paxton vs Everyone Else: 25.2IP, 27H/17ER, 37K:12BB
*How Hayden Hurst went from minor-leaguer with the Yips to the 25th pick in last night's NFL draft.
*From FanGraphs: Should Kyler Murray play football or baseball?
*Preston Tucker thinks Ronald Acuna (I don't know where the accent mark thing is) could be the Braves' Carlos Correa.
Note: The Hot Links are late this morning because for an hour I thought the air conditioning at our house went out. It healed itself, and the kingdom rejoiced.
*Mike Fiers and a big 6th inning were the keys to the Astros' 5-1 win over Oakland last night. The Astros guaranteed their first series win in their last five series (Boston, Arlington, Anaheim, Kansas City).
Fiers threw 6.1IP, 3H/3ER, 5K:3BB and got three GIDPs. The Astros are 26-8 on the road this season.
*Fiers: I felt really good. Just needed to throw in the zone a little bit more. I was able to get back, get back to throwing a lot of strikes. Honestly, they did a good job of taking a lot of pitches, taking some close curveballs, working the count deep...But overall, it was a good outing, and I'll take that every time.
*Every Astros starter got a hit, except for George Springer who was 0x5. Bregman was 1x2 with 2BB. A's starter Sean Manaea: They're unbelievable. One through nine, you don't catch any breaks. They've got power, they've got speed. They're a really, really good ball club, and they're playing really good baseball right now.
*Oakland is searching for answers against the Astros, who have won nine straight games in Oakland and 14 of the last 15 games. Stephen Vogt: Any time you are getting beat by the same team over and over, it's frustrating. But that is a really good team and they are going to win a lot more games. We have a chance to take one and salvage the series and it will still have been a pretty good homestand.
*Jose Altuve got a hit off Sean Manaea, his first, and is now 1x14. There are now just two pitchers Altuve has faced 10+ times without a hit: Wade Davis and Bronson Arroyo.
*"I think Marwin can be in the conversation among the best players in the big leagues." - Lance McCullers. This is an excellent profile on Marwin.
*San Antonio announced that they will be a Triple-A franchise in 2019, sparking rumors that there could be some reshuffling - possibly with the Ryan-owned Round Rock franchise returning to Houston. Houston's PDC with Fresno expires after the 2018 season.
*13th Round pick Jake Meyers has signed for "somewhere around $125,000," or the exact number the Astros can sign a pick from Rounds 11-40 without it counting against their overall bonus pool. Check the updated 2017 Draft page for details.
