*The Masked Marvel has the recap of the Astros' 6-0 win over the Reds yesterday.
*I wrote about 2014 35th Round pick Keegan Yuhl.
*Yesterday's game was only the 2nd shutout thrown by the Astros this season. The 2015 Astros had thrown four shutouts through their first 70 games.
*The Astros are 15-9 at home since the beginning of May and have won 9 of their last 12 at home.
*The 34-36 Astros are two games within .500 for the first time since being 3-5 on April 12. The Rangers won, of course. The Mariners lost to the Red Sox, and the A's lost to the Angels whom the Astros get at home next. Your updated division looks like this:
*East Abilene: -
*Seattle: -8.5
*Houston: -11
*Anaheim: -13.5
*Oakland: -16.5
*The Astros are 6.0 back of Boston for the 1st Wild Card spot and 4.5 back of Kansas City for the 2nd Wild Card with Toronto, Detroit, Seattle, and New York between them.
*Hinch says that Mike Fiers has been better at not creating his own drama:
I think the key for Fiers is not creating his own damage, or his own drama, and that's been good for him this month. Today, he attacked them and went after them with a lot of first-pitch strikes and found himself with fewer baserunners.
*Evan Gattis says things are getting better:
I think we just had a slow start, and now we're playing Astros baseball again. We're a pretty dynamic team with a lot of ways to win. We have a lot of guys who can hit the ball out of the ballpark, we have good pitching, and we have a lot of guys who can run, steal bases and just get on base.
*Hinch is getting a little tired of the extra-inning games:
We're good at them and we win a lot of them, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much about them, but it's pretty taxing to go through this many extra-inning games...I guess if we continue to win, we'll play as long as we have to, but some wins in regulation would go a long way.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
