*Josh Reddick did a good thing to overcome a sluggish return from two months off from Dallas Keuchel, Brad Peacock pitched well in what was essentially a 4th-inning start, and the Astros beat the Tigers 6-5. The Astros are 68-34. Seattle lost so the Astros are 18 games up. There are 60 games remaining.
*The Astros have come from behind to win 29 times this season.
*Reddick hit a three-run homer in the 8th inning to put the Astros up 6-5. It was his 10th home run of the season, making him the 11th Astro with 10+ home runs, tying the 2015 team. Reddick had 5RBI on the night, a season-high, and his first 5RBI game since September 24, 2016. Hinch:
He had the two sac flies and I told him, 'Go get another RBI,' and he said, 'How about three?'
Reddick also said that the Astros weren't real impressed with Nick Castellanos' reaction to his own 3-run home run off Keuchel earlier:
You're pumped up, your teammates are pumped up. The way [Castellanos'] three-run homer was kind of pimped...wasn't really sitting with us too well. I felt like we had all the right to do it right back.
Here's the video of Castellanos' homer. See for yourself if he pimped it.
*Reddick thinks maybe his concussion on June 12 "knocked something right."
*Dallas Keuchel threw 79 pitches in 3IP, allowing 6H/3ER, 3K:3BB. Keuchel:
I felt really good, so that's a positive. But just gotta commend them for laying off some pitches early. That was probably their game plan all along.
*Brad Peacock threw 4IP, 3H/2ER, 4K:1BB. He gave up just his 2nd home run of the season in 75.2IP. 129 pitchers in MLB have thrown at least 70IP and Brad Peacock's 0.24 HR/9 rate is the best among those pitchers.
*Jose Altuve hit a 1st inning triple and ended up with yet another 3-hit game to extend his hitting streak to 19 games. He now has more 3+ hit games (19) than he does games without a hit (18).
*1-3 in the lineup (Fisher, Altuve, Reddick): 6x10. 7-9 in the lineup (McCann, Bregman, Aoki): 0x11.
*The Astros only struck out three times in the game, the 8th time this season they've had three or fewer strikeouts. They're 8-0 in those games.
*George Springer was placed on the 10-Day DL with Quad Discomfort after catching it in the ground in Philadelphia. Springer:
If I can't play at 100 percent, I'm only going to hurt the team...At this point in the year, it's a lot smarter to miss six games, instead of six weeks.
*Michael Feliz was sent to Corpus, not Fresno, mainly because of the distance from Houston. Hinch:
We're going to send him to AA and let him exhale. It's an easy transaction for to try to get him a little bit of work. He's very much a part of what we're doing and we expect him back.
*The Dodgers consider Yu Darvish but won't trade any of their "top prospects" for him, and consider Sonny Gray their backup plan.
*For whatever reason the Orioles traded for the Phillies' Jeremy Hellickson, but are still open to trading Zach Britton for rotation help.
*Jon Heyman thinks the Astros will bolster their pitching staff in some way. Maybe Brad Hand?
*The new CBA is trying to limit teams from spending too much with new draft pick penalties.
*Bagwell's army arrived in Cooperstown.
*So many Astros fans flew into Albany, NY that it made the paper.
*Bagwell, Yastrzemski, and a HOF connection.
*Do you remember reading "Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark?" I do. It scared the hell out of me as a kid. Now they've re-released it with the original drawings restored.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
