Well the Astros won last night on a walk-off - read the Masked Marvel's recap here - while the Mariners beat the Rangers, the Angels beat the White Sox, and the A's walked-off the Dodgers. The Astros' lead is at 2.5 games with 42 games left, and FanGraphs gives the Astros a 67.5% chance of winning the division and an 83.8% chance of making the postseason.
Let's get to them links:
*Marwin will get a start tomorrow as a reward for his 10th inning walk-off homer last night. Hinch:
He gets to play tomorrow. I'm not sure what position, but he'll get to play tomorrow. That's a good back-to-back for him. I think he's earned it.
*Rays reliever Brad Boxberger, who served up the Marwin walk-off, discussed the pitch:
Three-two count and he knows I'm not looking to walk him and I'm going to go after him with my best pitch, and he sold out on it. I threw it right down the middle. I missed the location on it, and he didn't miss the pitch.
*Tonight's Rays starter is Arlington's Nate Karns, who signed as the Nationals' 12th Round pick in 2009...three years after the Astros drafted him out of high school in the 10th Round. Karns told Marc Topkin that not signing with the Astros was a pretty easy decision:
They didn't offer anything. Communication was very limited. I just kind of moved on from that situation and got ready for college. It was really that easy for me...(Getting drafted) was something that I wanted, but at the same time I wasn't going to sell myself short. So I thought the best route at that time was college.
*Luke Gregerson recorded six outs for the first time since June 6, 2014.
*Scott Kazmir says the 2015 Astros remind him of the 2008 Rays, who lost to the Phillies in the World Series.
*Jerome Solomon writes that the piss-poor attendance the last two night for this Rays series is the Astros' fault.
*If you were on Twitter at all yesterday you saw countless tweets about Carlos Correa visiting Texans' training camp. He and Jadaveon Clowney discussed the finer points of getting hit by a person vs getting hit by a baseball.
*Here is a fantastic look at Fresno's 5'11 225lb 1B Tyler White, currently raking at Triple-A, and how he got on the Astros' radar. In 38 games for Fresno, White is hitting .396/.489/.617 with 28K:26BB.
*Speaking of Fresno, Mark Appel got the start last night and allowed 12H/9R (6ER), 3K:2BB in 4.2IP...a game Fresno would win 14-12.
*Speaking of Mark Appel, Lance McCullers threw 3IP for Corpus last night, striking out five and walking three with an unearned run. A.J. Reed got four hits. McCullers could rejoin Houston "soon."
*MLB and Fox have reached an agreement to allow in-market streaming for 15 teams for 2016. Oh but the Astros aren't one of those 15 teams, of course, because Fox doesn't hold the local broadcasting rights. FanGraphs takes a look at what it means.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
