*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:
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) May 16, 2016
Hard slide. pic.twitter.com/pIaz4fTPXn— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) September 16, 2015
