*Chris Devenski made one bad pitch and that sealed the series loss at Cleveland. Astros lose a second consecutive one-run game, 4-3.
*Hinch decided to give Altuve and Springer another day off, as well as a scheduled day off for Carlos Beltran.
*Jose Altuve - who had a pinch-hit single - was caught stealing in the 9th, just before two straight singles.
*David Schoenfield has the strategy breakdown of last night's game.
*Here's a good article from Sam Miller about stabilization rates, and Dallas Keuchel's historically-impressive start to 2017.
*Brady Rodgers is being evaluated for an elbow injury.
*These Hot Links posts are better than Jon Heyman's notes.
*MLBTR has the latest update on Cuban OF Luis Robert
*Ben Lindbergh wonders if GMs are gaming the 10-Day DL.
*Paul Lukas looked at how teams set up their home/away unis.
*FanGraphs: What can you learn about minor-league plate discipline?
*The Red Sox' 2014 9th Round pick was critically injured in a car crash Wednesday night.
PreStros Report: Games of April 27
Fresno (9-12) fell to Reno in a lopsided 8-1 loss. Brian Holmes allowed 3H/3ER, 2K:4BB in 5IP. Aaron West and Kevin Comer were bitten by the Unearned Run Bug. The "offense" was 0x12 w/RISP and left 12 men on base. Derek Fisher and Preston Tucker each had two hits. Reid Brignac had a double.
Midland scored two runs in the 7th to send their game at Corpus (12-8) into extra innings, where Midland got three runs in the 10th for a 6-3 win. Joshua James threw 4.2IP, 4H/1ER, 6K:3BB; Ryan Deemes allowed 3H/2ER, 3K:0BB in 2.1IP, Ralph Garza struck out four in 2IP and Eric Peterson took the L with 2H/3ER, 0K:2BB in the 10th. J.D. Davis was 2x5 and stole home. Bryan Muniz was 3x4 with two doubles. Bobby Boyd (BB), Garrett Stubbs and Mott Hyde (RBI) had two hits each.
Buies Creek (14-7) beat Winston-Salem 2-0 in a rain-shortened six-inning game. Matt Bower threw all 6IP, allowing 3H/0ER, 5K:1BB. Johnny Sewald was 2x3, Oswaldo Duarte was 2x2, and the BCA stole five bases in the game.
The River Bandits got got by a 9-run Clinton 3rd inning in a 10-5 loss. Cuban lefty Cionel Perez made his stateside debut and allowed 5H/7R (6ER), 2K:2BB in 2.2IP. Brett Adcock threw 4IP, 3H/1R (0ER), 4K:1BB. Randy Cesar was 2x4. Taylor Jones and Carmen Benedetti were each 1x3 with a double and 2RBI.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
