But have the Astros considered not losing? Houston wasted opportunity after opportunity last night in a 4-1 loss at New York. It's Houston's 6th loss in a row. Houston is 48-29.
*Houston's L6 is the longest losing streak for the franchise since June 4-10, 2015. The losing pitchers in that skid were: Chad Qualls, Roberto Hernandez, Brett Oberholtzer, Luke Gregerson, Lance McCullers, Dallas Keuchel, and Tony Sipp.
*The Astros have had the lead entering an inning in three of their last 54 innings.
*Houston was 1x13 with runners in scoring position. That is really hard to do (not for me, though, striking out would be as good as I could hope for. Bet I'd get the bat off my shoulder, though.) Let's look:
Top 2: Runners on 1st/2nd, nobody out
-Chirinos struck out swinging, White struck out swinging, Marisnick struck out swinging.
Top 3: Runner on 2nd, nobody out
-Bregman struck out swinging, Brantley grounded out to first, Altuve walked, Alvarez grounded out to first
Top 4: Runner on 2nd, two out
-Marisnick doubled, Straw struck out swinging
Top 6: Runner on 2nd, nobody out
-Chirinos struck out looking, White walked, Reddick lined out to left, Straw struck out looking
Top 8: Runner on 1st/2nd, one out
-Reddick GIDPd
Top 9: Runner on 2nd/3rd, two out
-Alvarez struck out looking
Houston is 6x44 w/RISP during this losing streak.
Hinch:
We haven't played from ahead enough in the last week, and certainly when you make your fair share of mistakes, either in or out of the boxscore, it's tough to win here.
Reddick:
It keeps carrying over and carrying over. We'll get out of it. Just a matter of bad luck and not getting the job done.
As someone who reads History, that's pretty much the downfall of every empire: bad luck and not getting the job done.
Bregman:
We need to do a lot better if we want to win games. Give a lot of credit to them, they have a good team over there, but we have to show up tomorrow and figure out a way to get it done.
*Jose Altuve had three infield singles, so that leg appears to be okay. It was his first three-hit game since April 7.
*Tyler White was 1x2 with 2BB. In his last 13 games White is hitting .317/.472/.537 with 14K:12BB.
*In his last 40 games Bregman is hitting .245/.386/.503 with 22K:33BB on a .216 BABIP. He was 0x5 with 1K last night, the 2nd time this season Bregs has gotten at least five plate appearances in a game and not reached base.
*Brad Peacock was legit: 6IP, 5H/2ER, 11K:0BB. 69 of his 102 pitches for strikes. It was the first start in his career in which he struck out eleven and didn't issue a walk. It's only the 5th double-digit K start of his career, the 2nd of 2019. The Astros are 1-4 when Brad Peacock strikes out 10+ batters in his career. Nothing makes sense.
*Hector Rondon: 1IP, 3H/2ER, 13 pitches.
*Garrett Stubbs and Jack Mayfield were optioned back to Round Rock. Max Stassi was activated from the IL and Reymin Guduan was brought up. It looks as though Springer will rejoin the team on Tuesday.
*Joe Smith made his 2019 debut in Corpus last night, striking out the side in the 7th. Collin McHugh threw 0.2IP, 0H/0ER, 1K:0BB. Enoli Paredes struck out nine batters in six scoreless innings.
*Bregman had a nice little interview with the YES Network.
*Dan Szymborski updated the ZiPS projection system (almost) halfway through the regular season.
*Oakland ace Frankie Montas was suspended 80 games for a banned substance. He has posted 2.9 fWAR for Oakland in 15 starts.
*The fight to bring an NPR station to the Rio Grande Valley.
*A Musical Selection:
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
