Man oh man. THIS is what we signed up for in Spring Training. Beatdowns, triples short of cycles. Relive it with the Masked Marvel's recap.
*The Astros scored 16 runs last night, having scored 14 runs in their previous five games total (2-3).
*Via Jake Kaplan, Altuve is the first player to hit five leadoff home runs before June since Alfonso Soriano did it in 2003. He needs one more leadoff home run to tie Craig Biggio's franchise record. It is May 5.
*Carlos Correa: "Pound for pound, (Altuve) is the strongest guy in the clubhouse."
*Correa, like a sweetheart, is going to distribute beds to charity on Saturday.
*Everyone's favourite catcher, Jason Castro, is 8x20 with a 1.386 OPS in his last nine games. He made an adjustment to simplify his swing in Seattle, and there you go.
*Handsome Jake Marisnick is on his way back to Houston as the Astros option Michael Feliz back to Fresno. Marisnick will start in LF tonight to allow Colby Rasmus a day off. This will give the Astros 13 position players and 12 pitchers to allow Hinch to get cold players out of the lineup.
*Brian T. Smith writes that Carlos Gomez knows that overall he's been a disappointment.
For the last year and this year, I not really do much for this team. The fans be angry. They be disappointed.
Then *this* quote, regarding fans getting angry:
If you start playing to what the fans do, it's hard to do. When you have 40,000 people outside screaming at you, you smile and you're (upset). I'm the one here, enjoying my time. You're watching because you can't play.
That's, uh, bold.
*The versatility of the bullpen is finally starting to hit its stride.
*We will likely see a more aggressive Chris Devenski tonight against the Grand Marniers.
*Brady Rodgers threw a Maddux - a complete game shutout in which he struck out nine batters, walked none, and needed only 86 pitches. In 30IP, Rodgers has walked two batters.
*Here's the Fresno Bee on closer James Hoyt.
*Video: Outside the Lines' T.J. Quinn explains why there are more PED busts...and there will be more coming.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
