Saturday Morning Hot Links

Wow what a dumb game! Dallas Keuchel was perfect until he very decidedly was not perfect and the Astros' bats took an extra day off. The Astros are 1-3 on their ten-game homestand.

*Keuchel: 7IP, 7H/6ER, 3K:0BB. Keuchel:
I've already taken a look at [the pitches] before I got too down on myself or blamed myself. Sometimes when you throw pitches in guys' cold zones, they're going to hit them out. That's just what happened to be the deciding factor, the last three runs in the seventh.

More Keuchel:
That's probably going to go down as one of the more frustrating outings of my career.

Keuchel gave up 3HR for the 8th time in his career and the first time since September 16, 2015 against East Fort Worth.

Sean Manaea didn't allow a hit until the 4th inning, setting an Oakland record of 14 consecutive no-hit innings. Hinch:
We just couldn't bunch anything together to where we could get something going and get on a roll a little bit. We had a couple of opportunities, but if you expect to capitalize on every single opportunity, especially against a quality pitcher like Manaea...you're not going to. Given a couple more shots, you're going to break through. But not tonight. 

*There were only three hitters in the lineup last night with an OPS over .800:
-Correa (.954)
-Reddick (.860)
-McCann (.849)

*Oh hey look Joe Smith gave up 3H/2ER in 0.2IP. His ERA is 9.72. His FIP is 4.01 Joe Smith is not very good right now and I'd rather only see him in games where it's 14-0, or at HEB. Smith's last two outings: 1.2IP, 6H/6ER, 0K:1BB.

*Collin McHugh threw a perfect 9th. His last six outings: 8.1IP, 3H/0ER, 16K:2BB.

*There are four AL West teams over .500. There are four teams over .500 in the AL East and AL Central combined.

*In this Alyson Footer Notes piece, we find that Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and George Springer are buddies, Josh Reddick donated a bunch of jerseys to Kingwood High School, and Jeff Bagwell will make his broadcasting debut tonight.

*3B Coach Gary Pettis' son, Dante, was drafted by the 49ers in the 44th pick last night. Jake Kaplan has background and details in The Athletic.

*Tyler Stafford has a good piece in The Athletic on Ken Giles and his slider.

*Everyone who attends the June 24 game in Corpus against Frisco will get a replica World Series ring.

*Speaking of Corpus, the 12-8 Hooks took on the 5-15 Frisco RoughRiders (the Double-A club for Arlington) last night. Frisco had a 1-0 lead going into the bottom of the 9th, Corpus tied it up. Then Frisco scored two in the top of the 10th, and Corpus answered with three for the 4-3 walk-off win on Myles Straw's single/Frisco's throwing error.

*Corbin Martin and Brett Adcock combined for a 14-strikeout one-hitter against Frederick last night. Martin this season: 19IP, 4H/1R (0ER), 26K:7BB. Yes, a 0.00 ERA / 0.58 WHIP. "Hitters" are "hitting" .065 against him this season.