*The Astros weathered (ha!) a four-hour rain delay and beat the Orioles 5-3 to take three of four of the series. Dallas Keuchel threw 8IP, 5H/2ER, 7K:1BB. Correa and Reed each had two hits and Ken Giles got his 3rd save of the year.
Keuchel:
Best fastball command I have had all year. That really jump-started a lot of things for me.
Hinch:
I'm absolutely thrilled to leave here winning three our of four on one of the toughest days to play in a while. We were here all day. The conditions weren't the easiest to play in both mentally and physically.
*Keuchel wasn't happy about a 30-minute delay after the 1st inning.
Nobody really told me anything. Gallardo wasn't out there when I initially went out there, so I knew something was up. Withholding information and not sharing it with us is pretty bogus, so I got pretty mad about that and kind of just channeled that into the way we played today.
Keuchel's mad about the weather? He IS one of us!
*The Rays beat the Rangers; The Brewers beat the Mariners; The Angels beat the Yankees; The Tigers beat the Red Sox; the Indians beat the Blue Jays; the Royals beat the Twins.
So the Astros are 8.5 GB of the Rangers; 2.5 GB of the Mariners.
They are 5.5 GB of Boston for WC1; 3.5 GB of Baltimore for WC2 with the Mariners, Tigers, and Royals between them.
FanGraphs gives the Astros a 2.5% chance of winning the division and an 13.6% chance of making the postseason.
FiveThirtyEight puts it at 3% to win the division and 16% to make the playoffs.
*Over the last 14 games, George Springer is hitting .357.
*He's an Astro now, so of course Yulieski Gurriel strained his hamstring in his first MLB game. Hinch:
He'll be day-to-day. He could have stayed in the game, but I wasn't going to take any risk with the way the weather was and this being his first day.
Gurriel says he can play today at Pittsburgh. Hinch said Gurriel might have been off, anyway.
*The Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo writes that the Astros are interested in the Rangers' Mitch Moreland, but the loss of Prince Fielder may prevent that trade from happening.
*We recorded Episode 23 of Lima Time Time last night.
*It seems as though Danny Valencia hurt Billy Butler in a clubhouse altercation over spikes.
*The victim in Ramgers reliever Matt Bush's DUI crash is still suffering, four years later.
*Darryl Strawberry is trying to save Doc Gooden's life.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
