The Astros are 48-34, 5.0 games up in the AL West with the Angels beating the Rangers and the Mariners beating the A's. Check the sidebar for your latest postseason odds, courtesy of FanGraphs.
*Red Sox starter Justin Masterson:
It just didn't work out. That was pretty much about it. We had them set up well, they're all kind of diving over the dish, to come in and make good pitches in. By missing out over the plate, that's exactly what they're looking for. They did a good job of taking those pitches the other way.
*Jose Altuve:
I think this is one of the best games that we have lately. We start down, we score, we come back, we take the lead a couple times, we pick up each other. This is what we want to do, play as a team and win the game.
*The Boston Herald brought the thunder:
What matters is that this is just the way it's going to be this season: The Red Sox are dumb. Sometimes they're dumb and dumber. They may yet find a way to climb back into the AL East race, if only because the division is awful, but they won't stop being dumb. Get used to it. And if you can count to four, get a uniform.
*Federal charges are going to be brought against a Cardinals employee...it's just not clear which employee could possibly be charged. The investigation by the Houston FBI office is complete and the ball is in the U.S. Attorney General's court.
*The investigation could take longer depending on whether knowledge of the security breach goes further up the chain.
*Marisnick and Rasmus should be back in the lineup this weekend, while Feldman will make a rehab start Sunday. Hinch, on Rasmus:
Hopefully we've cleared this bug bite. It sounds like one of the nastiest things he's had to go through. He lives in the back woods, so that's saying something.
*In that previous link, it doesn't sound as though Lowrie will be back with the team immediately after the All-Star Break, though sometime this month isn't out of the question.
*Jake Marisnick had a big rehab game last night in El Paso.
*Former Astro farmhand David Rollins, who tested positive for Stanozolol in the off-season and was a Rule 5 pick of the Mariners, has his 80-game suspension wind up today. The Mariners have to decide whether they'll put him on the 25-Man roster or send him back to Houston.
*Celebrate your independence by watching Carlos Correa straight murder a ball in the 8th inning.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
