I'm old enough to remember when the Astros lost. Actually, they lost Game 6 of the World Series and then didn't lose ever again. Win streak is at a franchise-tying record twelve games, set in 2004 and 1999. Houston is 49-25. Never forget that Tampa Bay hosted the Astros in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. We're cool with Tampa Bay.
*Houston had been 0-18 when trailing in the bottom of the 9th. It was their first walk-off win since the famous 1-0 Padres "Eric Hosmer infield fly" play back on April 7. Houston has scored 5+ runs in 11 of the 12 games in the win streak.
*The Astros' comeback from 4-0 is the largest deficit overcome this season.
*Alex Bregman delivered the walk-off blow. Bregman:
Altuve told me...that he's not bringing his bat or batting gloves to the on-deck circle, so I better get the job done.
Hinch:
You do it as often as Alex has done it, we know it's going to be a good at-bat. Whether it ends in our favor or not is baseball, but he's a guy we want up there.
*Gerrit Cole was surprisingly off: 7IP, 3H/4ER, 8K:5BB. The five walks are a career-high, and he had walked five batters in his previous two starts (13IP) combined, though he sent 13 of the last 14 batters he faced back to the dugout.
*In the last week George Springer is 3x26, hitting .115/.233/.115.
*Both of Gurriel's hits came with runners in scoring position and he is now hitting .472/.483/.566 w/RISP.
*The big news of the day prior to Bregman's heroics was that the Astros have promoted Jeff Luhnow to God-Emperor through 2023. Luhnow:
You look all around baseball, and you've got organizations that were successful in the last five years that are now having to rethink everything. We don't want to be them...Personally it's satisfying to have accomplished what we did and to have the vote of confidence from Jim to keep me around for a few years.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Jeff Gordon: And then there's the Cardinals.
*Houston sent down Reymin Guduan.
*Corpus won the 1st Half title behind a strong start from Forrest Whitley oh and also by scoring 12 runs.
*I gotta go.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith