Some diehard football fans on Jeopardy! tonight pic.twitter.com/xY9PGickz2— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) September 25, 2017
Daggum, Astros. Houston broke their nine-game home losing streak with an emphatic 12-1 win over Colorado. They had scored 14 runs over the course of their five-game losing streak. Houston had gone eight games between 10+ hit games, their longest such streak of the year. The Astros' divisional lead is back to 2.0 games.
*Before last night Houston had not hit five home runs in a single game since August 4, 2017 against Toronto. The last 5HR game before that one was July 9, 2017 also against Toronto. That August 4 game was also the last time, before last night, Tyler White hit two dingers in a game.
*The Astros struck out 32 Rockies in the two-game series and went 1-1.
*Evan Gattis was on an 0x20 before he hit the first of his two home runs in a single game for the 12th time in his career and the 4th time this season. It's his first home run against an NL team since September 11, 2016. The one before that? August 24, 2016 against Former Pirates Great Gerrit Cole.
*Current Astros Great Gerrit Cole: 6IP, 5H/1ER, 12K:0BB. He needed just 86 pitches to get through his outing. The Astros are 18-7 when he starts, and have scored 15 runs total in those seven losses - nine of those Astros runs scored against came in the disastrous bullpen meltdown in the Tyler Bauer game on May 27. He has seven double-digit strikeout starts in 2018.
Gerrit Cole, when he takes That L: 32IP, 25H/12ER, 34K:9BB, 3.38 ERA / 1.06 WHIP.
Gerrit Cole, 10+ strikeouts / 0-walk games, career:
2013: 0
2014: 1
2015: 0
2016: 0
2017: 1
2018: 3
*Gerrit Cole, 10+ K games:
2013-2017 (127 starts): 6
2018 (25 starts): 7
Gerrit Cole, 95mph Fastball and 84mph Knuckle Curve, Overlay. pic.twitter.com/hCqyEtYuSJ— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 16, 2018
*Gerrit Cole has 219 strikeouts on the season, tying 1996 Darryl Kile for 10th most in an Astros season. Here's the list:
1. J.R. Richard (1979): 313
2. Mike Scott (1986): 306
3. J.R. Richard (1978): 303
4. Nolan Ryan (1987): 270
5. Nolan Ryan (1982): 245
6. Don Wilson (1969): 235
7. Mike Scott (1987): 233
8. Larry Dierker (1969): 232
9. Nolan Ryan (1988): 228
10. Gerrit Cole (2018): 219
Astros teammates with 200+ strikeouts in a single season:
2018: Gerrit Cole (219) / Justin Verlander (217)
2004: Roger Clemens (218) / Roy Oswalt (206)
1996: Darryl Kile (219) / Shane Reynolds (204)
1987: Nolan Ryan (270) / Mike Scott (233)
1969: Don Wilson (235) / Larry Dierker (232) / Tom Griffin (200)
Charlie Morton needs 29 more strikeouts this season to join the 1969 team as the only one in franchise history with three 200+ K guys in the same rotation.
*That's the 25th double-digit strikeout game from an Astros starter in 2018, a franchise record.
*Ryan Pressly struck out all three batters he faced in a 14-pitch outing in which 11 went for strikes. It's his 6th appearance for the Astros: 6.1IP, 3H/2ER, 9K:0BB.
*All of the seven hits Rockies starter
*Carlos Correa had his first 3RBI game since June 17. Also Correa:
— Houston Astros (@astros) August 16, 2018
*Since going 3x5 against the Los Angeles Silver Medalists on August 4, Josh Reddick is 5x32 with 6K:2BB and two extra-base hits.
*Holy crap Yuli Gurriel hit his first home run since July 7.
*Holy crap Kyle Tucker got a hit - the 8th of his career.
Kyle Tucker, 2018: .157/.259/.216
Derek Fisher, 2018: .165/.209/.392
*Eight of the 15 American League teams are over .500. Four of them are in the AL West. Cleveland, with a .575 win% and who are a lock to make the playoffs, have the 5th-best record in the American League. The Mariners, at .574, are 6th.
Here's the AL:
1. Boston (86-36)
2. New York (75-45)
3. Houston (74-47)
4. Oakland (72-49)
5. Cleveland (69-51)
6. Seattle (70-52)
*George Springer will be activated for Friday's game against Oakland. Derek Fisher has been sent back to Fresno.
*A.J. Hinch ain't saying crap about who replaces McCullers on Tuesday.
*The Astros OWN Oakland, says the SF Chronicle's Bruce Jenkins.
*guys Guys GUYS: Jose Altuve took grounders ON THE FIELD and ran and stuff and is expected to join the team in the Bay Area today. Hinch:
It's a good step. Look, anything he does moving forward towards playing is a good sign. Everybody wants to know a timeline. I do, too; so does he. We're going to meet after all this activity and put the next step in order.
And George Springer is "almost certain" to be activated ahead of Friday's game in Oakland.
*Check Jake Kaplan's story on Dallas Keuchel's Players' Weekend nickname, and why it has nothing to do with a rapper, and more
*Well I guess we'll see Frankie Tuesday again in 2020, as he underwent Tommy John surgery. Martes had made five appearances in 2018 - four in April at Fresno (18.2IP, 25H/14ER, 16K:17BB). Then he was out until August 2, when threw 1IP for the GCL Astros. Now he's done for all of 2019, so that's cool...
*Czech the Masked Marvel's Reinforcing the Astros post from this morning.
*2017 1st Round pick J.B. Bukauskas threw 7IP, 1H/0ER, 5K:0BB for Buies Creek. Six members of the Winston-Salem lineup that Bukauskas shut down are in the White Sox Top 30. Since returning from the DL, over nine starts since June 29: 37.1IP, 26H/6ER, 41K:10BB.
*Former Astros Great Ben Zobrist explained, very patiently, why the umpires should be replaced by robots.
*Jose Ureña and Don Mattingly and, what the hell, Derek Jeter and okay the entire trash-ass Marlins organization should be suspended for hitting Ronald Acuña on the first pitch of the game.
*Former Astros Bench Coaching Great Alex Cora talked about the similarities between the 2017 Astros and the 2018 Red Sox.
*Former Oakland 1B Nate Freiman has a really good article in FanGraphs about the differences in the minor-league strike zone
*Oh man Brandon McCarthy will retire after this season.
*The Mets are wasting Jacob DeGrom's 2018 season.
*If you want proof that there's no actual accountability in baseball, Joe West is now 2nd on the all-time Games Umpired list in MLB history.
