Monday Morning Hot Links

I mean...So the thing is...What happened last night was...

Justin Verlander pitched a great game and the Astros' offense has yet to really figure it out. Hats off to 44-year old Bartolo Colon, who was perfect through seven innings despite only throwing fastballs topping out around 91mph. Good work, Astros hitters [eyes roll out of head]. Over the course of a 162-game season there are going to be some silly stretches. But to be able to play at home - in two primetime slots - against your rival who, shall we say, is not projected to be anywhere near as good as your projection and still get shut down? These were two dumb losses.

The Rangers are 3-4 against the Astros. They're 3-7 against everybody else. Check Jexas' recap of this three-game stupidity.

And yet the Astros are still 10-6. The rotation is still rolling along doing incredible things. It's just...not happening on offense, at least not clustering hits together that results in this unfortunate stat called Runs that is used to determine the winner of the game.

*Verlander threw 8IP, 1H/1ER, 11K:1BB. Verlander:
It's fun, but at the same time, you're hoping for some runs there. He was painting. It's like, what are you going to do? You're going to tip your cap. He did an excellent job tonight keeping our guys off balance and not giving anyone anything to hit.

-His 86 Game Score is the sixth game this season in which the Astros have gotten a 70+ out of their starting pitcher.
-It's the highest Game Score by an Astros pitcher since Verlander's 88 on September 12, 2017 against Anaheim.
-It's the first time the Astros have lost a game while getting an 80+ from a starting pitcher since September 29, 2013, when Erik Bedard posted an 80 in a 14-inning 5-1 loss to the Yankees.
-It's the highest Game Score by an Astros pitcher with a loss since Roger Clemens threw an 87 in a 1-0 loss to Pittsburgh on August 13, 2005.

Astros record since the beginning of the 2000 season, when getting a 80+ Game Score start: 59-7.

*MLB.com has some "cool" stats about last night's pitching duel.

*6-7-8-9 in the lineup last night: 0x15, with Gurriel's sac fly. Correa:
It's about time to turn on the hitting machines on this clubhouse. There's a lot of guys here that can do a lot of damage and we haven't been able to do that, but we've been there where we start slow and pick up the pace. For us, that time is now.

*Josh Reddick noted to Jake Kaplan in The Athletic ($) how quiet the Astros' dugout was:
It was actually pretty surprisingly quiet for our dugout, the way we're usually rowdy and going about it. Usually you hear a bunch of people saying, 'He's got a no-hitter going. He's got a perfect game going.' But we didn't hear that a whole lot.

*Robinson Chirinos accounted for all Rangers runs last night with a solo home run, and the two-run double in the 10th. He went 3x5 with 2HR/4RBI. He was 3x29 with two doubles and 18 strikeouts coming into this dumb series.

*The Astros are 12-19 since the beginning of the 2015 season at home against the Rangers.

*With a 101 wRC+, 15th in MLB, the Astros' offense has been perfectly average. Their .371 SLG ranks 20th in MLB, 10th in the American League.

*Games that were postponed yesterday: Blue Jays @ Indians, Yankees @ Tigers (both games), White Sox @ Twins, Angels @ Royals, Braves @ Cubs. Shohei Ohtani seems to be pitching every Sunday. With yesterday's postponement in Kansas City, he'll now pitch on Tuesday. If the Angels follow the once-a-week turn for Ohtani, it lines him up to pitch in Houston on April 24.

*Buster Olney writes about how the Astros/Angels rivalry could be one of the best in baseball.

*I spent way too much time on that Game Score thing, so now I have to get in the shower and hustle out the door without breakfast despite having been up since 4:45am.