Okay so somehow the Astros managed to lose last night/early this morning to the A's. They had a 3-0 lead heading into the bottom of the 7th, a 3-2 lead heading into the bottom of the 9th, and lost when Marcus Semien scored from second on an infield single after Carlos Correa threw the ball away going to home. You read that right. And so the Astros are now 45-2 when taking a lead into the 9th inning.
The bullpen last night: 3.1IP, 6H/2ER, 4K:3BB.
*Will Harris has thrown 40IP this season and has allowed a total of eight runs...five of them to the A's.
*Since June 1, Tony Sipp: 7IP, 16H/7ER, 5K:5BB. 9.00 ERA/3.00 WHIP.
Elsewhere, Albert Pujols hit two 3-run homers (and took a fastball to the face) and the Angels beat the Rangers, and the White Sox beat the Mariners. The Rangers lead stands at 4.5. Though - and I know what I'm about to do here and even I find it suspect - if the Astros had found a way to beat the A's the last two nights, it would be 2.5. The Red Sox and Blue Jays both won, so the Astros are 3.5 behind Boston for WC1 and 2.5 behind Toronto for WC2.
No updated playoff odds because I'm doing this before FanGraphs has updated for the day.
*Hinch:
Definitely a winnable game. We had a rough game out of the 'pen. Not too many of our guys came in and had clean innings. It wasn't their night. When that happens, especially in this ballpark, bad things happen.
*Jose Altuve had another 4-hit game and is now 49x98 (.500) in his last 23 road games.
*Colby Rasmus, since May 1: .226/.278/.317. Carlos Gomez is hitting .231/.299/.392 since returning from the DL and .143/.186/.304 in July. Both of Gomez's extra-base hits this month came in the same July 6 game against Seattle.
*A day after Mike Fiers got salty about being pulled when he allowed five straight batters to reach base and wasn't able to get out of the 4th - again - Hinch says they have moved on. Hinch:
We love competing. We have a lot of opinions. We love being ourselves. And what comes with that is some emotion. I welcome it in the sense that if it's channeled in the right direction. We want our guys to care. We want our guys to have passion. We want our guys to be competitive, but we're also on the same team.
Fiers, who got into it with Hinch in the dugout, and then with Gomez in the dugout an inning later:
My emotions just got the best of me and I need to be more professional about what I'm doing out on the field and when I'm coming out of the game.
*Sean Pendergast has a good write-up comparing these Astros to the late 1990s Astros.
*Jeff Luhnow plans to be in on the trade market, but there's not a sense of urgency.
*Did Bregman indicate he was getting called up this weekend against Anaheim? Listen to his interview on SportsRadio 610 and decide. If he did, A.J. Grinch put the kibosh on it. The Grinch:
There's been no discussion, no target date or no idea. We're trying to win tonight's game. He's going to help us eventually, but I'm not sure what that's all about.
*Hinch said that the youth of the position players on the team will make it easier to bring in Gurriel and Bregman.
*Bregman, meanwhile, went 2x4 with a double last night at Round Rock, while Joe Musgrove threw 7IP, 6H/0ER, 9K:0BB. James Hoyt got his 24th save of the season and has struck out 79 batters in 45.1IP.
*Ken Rosenthal writes that Colin Moran is not expendable, because he's the only LHB option besides A.J. Reed.
*The Indians are reportedly "worried" about Brady Aiken's recovery from Tommy John surgery.
*Roger Clemens, Kody Clemens, and Roy Oswalt will play in an amateur baseball world series.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
