*With a 6-1 win yesterday afternoon the Astros are now 10-2 against Oakland this season (and are 17-2 over their last 19 match-ups). Carlos Correa had the first multi-HR game of his season and Brad Peacock gutted it out through the 5th inning.
*Peacock's line: 5IP, 2H/1ER, 7K:6BB. He needed 106 pitches to get through five innings, and threw first-pitch strikes to just ten of the 23 batters he faced. Hinch:
It was a good game for Peacock to get through five innings. It was a grind for him. You look up at the end of the day, he had a really good day. It was just difficult for him to get his rhythm and get his timing.
Peacock:
They were definitely making me throw my slider for a strike and I wasn't, so I had the six walks.
Peacock, June: 5GS, 24.1IP, 19H/9ER, 35K:17BB. Yeah, the walks the walks the walks, but he's held it down in a crucial time of Injury Season.
*The Astros are 54-26, 28 games over .500 for the first time since they were 87-59 on September 20, 2001.
*Houston was the only AL West team to win yesterday, and they have a 13.5-game lead. The other five 1st-place teams have a combined lead of 15.5 games.
*Hinch, on Correa:
He's always in rhythm. That opposite-field home run today was only topped today by the top of the batting eye. We haven't seen but two or three balls go up there this season. His strength was on display today. His at-bats are always must-watch.
*On April 22 Carlos Correa was hitting .196/.292/.250. From April 23-present he's hitting .332/.407/.580.
*If the Astros needed him, Dallas Keuchel would be ready. Keuchel:
If I had to pitch, I would pitch right now. I want to be 100 percent symptom-free, and everybody's on board with that.
*And Charlie Morton (same link as above) understands the Astros being conservative with him:
I haven't thrown more than 50 pitches in four weeks, so I completely understand if they don't want to have me go out and throw in the big leagues.
*Mike Lupica: It's the Summer of George!
*The Houston section of Jon Heyman's AL Notes column is laughable.
*The Yankees start a series tonight and have to face Lance McCullers after getting to the hotel at 6am thanks to a three-hour delay in Chicago. Oh, and they just had to recall Chris Carter. And they lost Dustin Fowler to a knee injury in his MLB debut.
*Derek Fisher, Kyle Tucker, and recently-promoted Yordan Alvarez will play in the Futures Game. It's the first time the Astros will have three players in the Futures Game since 2013 (Correa, Springer, DeShields)
*Here's a great profile from O.G. Greg Rajan on Kyle Tucker.
*On Simpsons Night, Fresno won its 7th game in a row. Joe Musgrove threw 7IP, 1H/0ER, 7K:2BB. A rehabbing Collin McHugh will face a rehabbing Madison Bumgarner tonight.
*Jeff Sullivan: Baseball is getting more boring.
*Pitchers think the ball is juiced.
*An oral history of Barry Bonds' massive Yankee Stadium home run.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
