Thursday Morning Hot Links

The Astros took care of bidness yesterday, squeaking out a 5-4 win over Detroit to complete the sweep. The Astros are 92-54, 52-22 on the road. Baltimore Orioled it so hard last night, so the Astros remain three games up on Oakland with 10% of the regular season remaining. 11-5 would break the franchise single-season wins mark

*The Astros need one more road win to tie their record set last year, two more to break it. Seeing as how there are road games with the Blue Jays and Orioles left, that seems like a safe bet.

*Man of the Match was Alex Bregman, who joined rarified company by recording his 50th double, 100th RBI, and 100th run scored of the season.

Bregman needs one more double to tie Biggio for 3rd in franchise history for doubles in a single season. Biggio also has the all-time mark with 56.

No Astro had driven in 100 runs since Carlos Lee in 1999.
Bregman is the first MLB player in history to hit 50 doubles and 30 home runs while playing the majority of his games at 3B.
He's the first MLB player to log 50 doubles and 30 home runs since Pujols in 2012.
He's the first MLB player with 50 doubles, 30 home runs, and 10 stolen bases since Matt Holliday in 2007.

Hinch:
He's having quite a season because of the preparation he's doing, the lessons he's learning, and the application of the game has been unreal. 

On May 1, Bregman was hitting .250/.368/.348.
From May 2 - present, Bregman: .308/.408/.609.

*George Springer was 2x5 and made a spectacular catch in right field to potentially save a run.

*Marwin was 2x4 with a double, RBI.

*Jake Marisnick enjoyed his first hit since returning from the DL, snapping an 0x14 streak.

*Carlos Correa "hit" .136/.200/.182 on the six-game road trip. He's hitting .163/.248/.212 in 29 games since returning from the DL.

*Gerrit Cole struck out nine over 5IP in which he walked four batters. It's the second time he has walked four batters this season, the first time since July 14. It's the 11th time he has struck out 9+ batters in a game. He has 260 strikeouts, two more than Verlander, for the team lead, and 5th place on the franchise single-season list.

Next up on the list is Nolan Ryan's 1987 season, in which he struck out 270 batters.

*Three of the four runs Detroit scored came via the home run - a solo shot off of Gerrit Cole, and a 2-run shot off of Josh Big Flames James. Hinch, on James' outing, which featured the homer following a leadoff walk:
His poise continues to impress me, his stuff impresses me a little bit more, he's got a lot of weapons to go after hitters. Today is a lesson of pitch execution for him and he still pitched well enough to go back out there and he did his job.

*Ryan Pressly became the 6th Astro to record a save in 2018. It was his first save since July 31, 2016.

*Jake Kaplan writes that the bullpen is where the Hard Questions come for the playoff roster.

*Fresno whooped Springfield 10-1 to take Game 2 of the PCL Championship and even the series at 1-1. Kyle Tucker, Jack Mayfield, and Drew Ferguson all went deep. Trent Thornton threw 6IP, 6H/1ER, 5K:2BB.

*Forrest Whitley is projected to be MLB.com's #4 prospect heading into 2019.