*Jake Marisnick hit a game-tying homer in the 9th inning and Evan Gattis worked a walk off walk after Lance McCullers' quality start, and the Astros were able to salvage a game against the Royals with a 5-4 win. Gattis was 2x3 with three walks.
*It was the second 9th inning homer of Marisnick's career, and the latest he had ever tied a game with a homer. No one had ever hit a home run off of Kelvin Herrera's slider before yesterday.
*George Springer is the first player in MLB history to hit three leadoff homers in the first seven games of a season.
*Lance McCullers has 17K:2BB in 13IP, and credits McCann with helping his command:
If I don't go out there in the first or second and start pounding the strike zone, I'm not going to get those efficient innings. (McCann) says it all the time: execute the pitch that is called, and more often than not, we're going to come out ahead.
*The Astros gave the Royals an inning's worth of outs on the basepath yesterday, but Hinch was okay with it:
That's not bad baserunning. It's good plays (by the Royals). We're challenging them. It's not bad decision-making. Things just didn't go our way.
*Ned Yost wished they would have been playing anywhere but Houston:
I think we were kind of unlucky the whole game. Both home runs that they hit late wouldn't have been home runs in any other park in baseball. But unfortunately, we were playing in the park.
*Luke Gregerson finally talked to the media in the wake of his 5ER meltdown on Saturday:
I've never seen anything like it. I don't know how it happened. I wish I could say I felt like crap and I was throwing meatballs over the middle of the plate, but I don't feel like that was the case.
*Francis Martes will make his season debut tonight for Fresno.
*The FanRag Sports staff is split on whether the Astros' rotation is for real.
*CBS Chicago's Bruce Levine writes a pretty clear argument as far as why the Astros should use Collin McHugh's injury as the final straw in needing to deal for Jose Quintana. Like someone from the White Sox sent him a picture of his laptop being held over a bathtub and said, "Write it."
*I'm not scoreboard-watching yet, but the Mariners had a 9-3 lead going into the 9th against the Angels, and lost.
On The Farm:
Tony DeFrancesco won his 1,000th game as manager as Fresno put up four in the 1st inning and held on for a 5-3 win over Reno. A.J. Reed was 2x3 with two doubles, a walk, and 2RBI. Tony Kemp was 1x1 with 3BB. He was 7x15 with 0K:4BB this series. Edison Frias threw 4.1IP, 6H/2ER, 4K:2BB.
Corpus got a 5-run 8th inning to finish off Arkansas yesterday, 7-3. Rogelio Armenteros threw 5.2IP, 1H/2R (1ER), 10K:2BB. Jack Mayfield had a double, triple, and 3RBI.
Buies Creek is off to a 4-0 start after getting the sweep of Winston-Salem with a 2-0 win. Kyle Tucker was 2x3 with a double while Ryne Birk added a solo homer. Franklin Perez and Ralph Garza combined on a three-hit shutout.
Quad Cities' offense exploded in an 18-11 win over Wisconsin to split the series 2-2. Daz Cameron was 3x6 with 2HR and 5RBI, Spencer Johnson was 2x5 with a homer and 4RBI.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
