The last time the trio of Altuve, Correa and Springer did not play for the #Astros was on Aug. 4, 2017. The Astros beat the Blue Jays that day 16-7. 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️— Steve Grande (@AstrosGrande) August 1, 2018
*Houston hit four home runs in the game for the fourth time this season. The Astros are 10-2 when hit three or more home runs this season, and both losses were to the Indians. They're 37-6 when they hit 2+ home runs.
*The Astros struck out 10 times in a game for the 26th time this season, and are now 11-15 in those games.
*Marwin hit two home runs, his first home run since June 27. It's just the 3rd 2HR game of his career, and his first since May 2, 2017 against the Ramgers (the Grand Slam Game). Marwin:
Every time you hit a homer you feel good, obviously. I can't even remember when my last one was from the right side. I've been hitting better from my right side but not for power, so that was a surprise after my second homer.
*Prior to the game Kyle Tucker was optioned to Fresno and Jake Marisnick was brought back to Seattle. Hinch:
Jake has done his part in Triple-A and had gone down and played well. He hit well and got a lot of at-bats. Tucker was starting to find his way out of the lineup more than not. From a development purpose, we really need Tucker to play every day. Tough call when you have a young player with the potential that Tucker has. We feel like it was better for him to go down and play and continue to develop and take the lessons he learned while he was here and come back soon.
See you in exactly one month, Kyle.
Here's Jake Kaplan, on Tony Kemp simply outplaying Kyle Tucker.
*Jake Marisnick was 2x4 with a home run and two strikeouts. It's Marisnick's 8th home run of the year. Just for reference: Joey Votto and Jose Altuve each have nine home runs. Alex Gordon and Jason Hayward have seven home runs, as does David Freese (whom I just now found out was still playing). Adrian Beltre has five home runs.
The two Marisnick hits brought his batting average to an even .200, the first time he's been at .200 since April 3.
*Evan Gattis got his 6th 3-hit game of the season, two of them were doubles. After going 1x30 from July 9-24, Gattis is 10x24 since.
*Dallas Keuchel went 7IP, 8H/3ER, 2K:1BB. He needed just 99 pitches to get 21 outs - 72 of those pitches were strikes.
He has four or fewer strikeouts in 11 of his 23 starts, but allowed 0-2 walks in 18 of those starts. That said, Keuchel's last six starts: 39.2IP, 33H/9ER, 25K:9BB. Keuchel:
For us to get a series win here was big, but it's not make or break. We know we're good enough to win this division. It's just a matter of getting guys healthy.
Nelson Cruz hit his 5th career home run off of Keuchel - no other MLB player has three. He's given up 15 homers to the Mariners, most against any one team.
Keuchel, on Marisnick:
He's as much a part of this team as anybody else. I didn't necessarily like the move when he was sent down. I personally don't care if he's hitting .100, he's a valuable part of our team and you can see why. He's kind of a wild card. He's a high-intensity guy, and that's what we need right now.
*Brad Peacock has faced six batters over his last two outings. The last time he recorded two perfect outings in a row was March 29-April 2.
*Hinch:
When you look at our team when we're at our best, it's guys like Marwin and Reddick earlier in the series, there's Yuli, there's our catching group. This is a very deep team, and (when) you go through some stretches where you don't play your best, you can kind of forget this team is built pretty well, built to withstand injuries or poor performance.
*The Mariners are now tied for 2nd place with Oakland. Seattle is 10-14 since July 1, 7-13 in their last 20 games. Oakland has won 30 of their last 40 games.
*There's a lot going on in this update from McTaggart, such as:
-Springer is expected to avoid the DL.
-Correa is headed for a rehab assignment with Corpus starting tonight.
-Altuve talked about the Astros' acquisition of Roberto Osuna. Altuve:
We don't know what actually happened, so it's really hard for me to get behind a mic and a camera and just fire up a guy when I don't have an idea of what really happened...He's one of our teammates, so now you have to be paying attention to the details. He's going to be here sometime soon...and after that happens we're hoping to find out what happened. We're a team, so everything we do we're going to be on the same page.
*FanGraphs' Dan Szymborski has the AL version of his Trade-Deadline ZiPS roundup.
*Do you have Roberto Osuna Tiredhead yet? Buckle up!
-Osuna had his court date yesterday in which...nothing was decided. Nothing will actually be decided until September 5, one month after he's eligible to join Houston. His lawyer said they're hoping for a peace bond with no trial. Oh, and Luhnow talked about Osuna showing remorse? Nah. The lawyer:
I think (Luhnow) is the one you might want to ask what he meant by remorseful. I can tell you that my client is not remorseful of being guilty of any criminal activity.
-Ben Reiter - of Astroball fame - wrote about how the front office so lavishly praised for their incorporation of the human element in a mathematical framework could make such a PR-unsavvy move. Reiter:
The Astros' long-term-focused front office, though, views everything it does through a probabilistic lens, and in this case its bet is apparently this: that Osuna's appalling offense will remain a one-time event; that his mere presence won't upend a clubhouse that is already being tested by injuries and a stretch of uncharacteristically poor play; and that he'll use that fastball and slider to help the club close out another World Series, as Aroldis Chapman - similarly suspended for domestic abuse two years ago - did for the Cubs in 2016.
*Brandon Bailey threw 8IP, 1H/0ER, 8K:1BB for Buies Creek yesterday...and BCA lost 2-1. Bailey's last five starts: 30IP, 15H/0ER, 33K:5BB. That's disgusting.
*Gizmodo: The "quietest place in America" is becoming a warzone.