Sunday Morning Hot Links

*The Rangers beat the Red Sox, the A's beat the Angels, and the Mariners beat the Cardinals, so the Astros only picked up a game against the Angels. Your division looks like this:

*West Shreveport: -
*Houston: -9
*Seattle: -10
*Oakland: -15.5
*Anaheim: -17

*The Astros have won seven in a row, nine of their last ten, and still only picked up one game on the Ramgers. For the Wild Card:

WC1: -2.5
WC2: -1.5

*Per FanGraphs, the Astros have a 19% chance of winning the division and a 29.9% chance of making a Wild Card spot - a 20% playoff spot increase since May 1.

*The Astros put it to the Royals - yet again - winning 13-5. It's the first time the Astros have scored 13+ runs in back-to-back games since September 8-9, 2000 when the Astros put up a 13 and a 14 at Chicago.

*Since May 1 the Astros have gone 30-19, 3rd-best record in the AL. Only the 34-16 Ramgers and 33-18 Indians have a better record. Because of course.

*A.J. Reed walked twice, scored two runs, and had an RBI sac fly in his debut. Hinch is excited about Reed's progress vs lefties and the ability to move Marwin around the field. The Astros DFA'd Double-A catcher Alfredo Gonzalez to make room on the 40-Man for Reed.

*Altuve had four hits and would have had a cycle had his helmet not hit his foot, causing him to fall into 2nd. Correa:
He tripped and wasn't able to get it, so obviously we had to make fun of him. It was pretty funny the way the helmet hit his feet and then he just collapsed.

*During his 28-game on-base streak, Altuve has hit .411/.476/.589. In this Insider-only piece, Buster Olney breaks down Altuve's "historic" season.

*Doug Fister credits the military with his success.

*Corpus' David Paulino is serving a team-imposed suspension for a violation of team rules. Luhnow said it was nothing major, and wouldn't be for an extended period of time. Paulino hasn't pitched since last weekend and is not scheduled to pitch for Corpus today.

*Luhnow hinted that Bregman and outfielder Teoscar Hernandez could be on their way to Fresno after the Texas League All-Star Game this week.