Saturday Morning Hot Links

*Charlie Morton looked more like Charlie Murphy (RIP) on the mound against the Indians last night, giving up three homers - tying a career-high - in a 5-3 loss. Tyler Bauer ran his career record against Houston to 7-0, the first pitcher to ever start a career 7-0 against the Astros. Springer, McCann, Gurriel, and Aoki were held hitless as the Astros only had four plate appearances with a runner in scoring position. The Astros are now 1-3 against Cleveland this season.

Bauer, on his Astros dominance.
I just happen to be on a good run right now I guess. It will turn around at some point too. It's not always going to be that way. So enjoy it while it's going my way.

*Jake Kaplan notes that Morton's struggles have largely come in his third time through the order. And he's right:
Opponent 1st PA (81 PAs): .146/.247/.297, 29K:2BB
Opponent 2nd PA (81 PAs): .286/.375/.429, 16K:9BB
Opponent 3rd PA (63 PAs): .358/.444/.698, 13K:9BB

Morton:
I'm essentially a two-pitch pitcher right now, and I think that's part of the problem. 

Hinch, on Morton:
He seemed to always have to deal with some sort of mess. Some of it his own and some of it just really good hitting by the Indians.

*The Astros saw 10+ pitches in two separate plate appearances in a game for the first time since 2012.

*The 36,446 in attendance last night is the largest non-Opening Day crowd at MMP this season.

*The Rangers won, of course, so they run their win streak to 10 games and are 6.5 GB of the Astros. Hacksaw Jeff Banister says the Rangers aren't focused on the Astros.

*The Astros are not expecting Collin McHugh back until after the All-Star Break.

*Jeff Blogwell wrote about some possible alternatives to Tony Sipp

*Nori Aoki is 11 hits shy of 2000 hits between Japan and MLB.

*Sports Illustrated: From title belts to toy dragons, the Astros are MLB's best team.

*The White Sox and Cardinals are favorites to land Cuban OF Luis Robert.

*Vice: I Played "The Boys Are Back In Town" On A Bar Jukebox Until I Got Kicked Out

*Astros County Book Recommendation: The Passage by Houston's own Justin Cronin. I was up at 2am reading this book last night and I apparently talked all night in my sleep. This book messes with my dreams. Read it.