Wednesday Morning Hot Links

*Jeff Blogwell Zapruder'd that God-awful Minute Maid commercial.

*The Batguy went down an Astros Twitter Tuesday rabbit hole.

*Lima Time Time: Episode 15 is available.

*The Astros beat the Angels 7-1 last night/early this morning. The Rangers obviously beat the Yankees because they are a machine built to run on the sins of humanity. The Mariners beat the Pirates, the A's beat the Giants. The division stays the same (Astros -10) with only the Angels dropping to 19.5 GB.

*In Wild Card news, the Blue Jays and Red Sox won but the Royals lost. So the Astros are tied with the Royals at a half-game out of the Blue Jays' 2nd Wild Card spot, and 1.5 back of the Red Sox for the 1st Wild Card.

*FanGraphs postseason odds: 15.4% to win the division, 52.3% to make the playoffs
FiveThirtyEight's playoff odds: 12% to win the division, 44% to make the playoffs
Astros County's playoff odds: 100% to win the division, 100% to make the playoffs.

*Scott Feldman threw a very efficient 5IP (65 pitches) in his spot start. Feldman:
That was something me and A.J. talked about when he took me out, was at the beginning of the day if you would have told us that we'd go five and we'd have the lead it was probably a pretty good day...Really just can't say enough about the job (Castro) does behind the dish every night. He makes it a lot easier on us pitchers.

*Hinch likes the vibe around the Astros right now:
We've got to go out and produce and do some things and prepare, but we do have a nice little vibe about us, a little swagger. We've got our confidence back and the way we show up and (are) performing right now, it's a fun atmosphere.

*McCullers (blister) is on track to make his next start on Monday.

*A.J. Hinch gave A.J. Reed the night off after seeing how frustrated he was.

*Jose Altuve was 2x4 with his 19th and 20th stolen bases of the season. His 4.1 fWAR is tied for 2nd in all of baseball, behind Mike Trout and tied with Josh Donaldson.  Since May 1 Altuve is hitting .370/.439/.536, 18K:27BB with an 85% SB rate.

*Carlos Correa hit a 3-run homer in the first inning and went 3x4 with a walk and 4RBI. Since the beginning of the Baltimore series (May 24), Correa is hitting .283/.383/.558

*Alex Bregman and Joe Musgrove will represent the Astros in the Futures Game. Bregman, meanwhile, was 2x3 with a 2-run homer in the Texas League All-Star Game last night, and is set to join Fresno later this week.

*From a couple of days ago, FanGraphs projected A.J. Reed.

*2014 17th Round pick Ben Smith has overcome A LOT to be pitching in Tri-City right now.

*2016 17th Round pick Brian Howard will return to TCU for his senior season.

*Ramgers GM Jon Daniels, on their ten-game lead:
We're aware of where we are, but I try not to look at things that way. We're very cognizant of what can happen quickly.

*Jeff Passan on the Angels and irrelevance.

*The Ringer: Tim Lincecum's second act.

*Jeff Zimmerman offers a new way to look at college baseball stats.

*Hey Paul Clemens was claimed off waivers by the Padres.