*The Astros are 7-1 against Seattle in 2019. They were 9-10 against the Mariners in 2018.
*Yuli Gurriel hit his 3rd homer of the week, and his first career walk-off home run to go with his first career home run in extra innings. Four of his eight home runs this season have been go-ahead homers. Gurriel:
We've had a couple tough games here and to win gives us a lot of confidence moving forward. I didn't feel great my previous at-bats, but in that at-bat, I remained focused, locked in. I hit a foul ball. I knew I could hit a fastball, and then I got the next one. Hit it out.
Hinch:
Really an emotional win for us in a game where it felt like we were in so many positions to win and we needed the win.
*Josh Reddick tied the game with a home run in the bottom of the 8th, his 10th home run of the year and his 40th career home run with the Astros. It's his eighth straight season with 10+ home runs. Reddick:
It felt like one of our biggest hits in the last week and a half. That's the swing we've been waiting on to pick up not only ourselves, the team, the ballpark. It was a completely different atmosphere when I came across the plate and saw our dugout going crazy. It felt good.
*More Hinch:
It's a big win for us, the way that it all went down. With all the missed opportunities, I could easily sit here and say we needed one big hit. You could script it with the way the game was going, and then 'Redd' picks us up and ties the game.
*Last three games, Astros' offense: 27 hits, five extra-base hits, seven walks, four runs, 36 left on base.
*As a team, the Astros are hitting .267/.342/.471 overall. But with runners in scoring position (Houston was 1x8 last night) they're hitting .248.
*Alex Bregman was 3x5. It is his 6th 3-hit game of the season. Five of those have come against AL West opponents. Houston is 6-0 when Bregman gets three hits in a game. Bregman has raised his OPS from .910 to .929 in the last four games.
*Jose Altuve was 0x5 with 0K:0BB. It was the 36th 0x5 game of his career. Here they are, by season:
2011: 4
2012: 5
2013: 6
2014: 4
2015: 6
2016: 1
2017: 1
2018: 7
2019: 2
*Wade Miley was excellent: 6IP, 3H/1ER, 2K:2BB. Twelve of his 18 outs were groundball outs. It's Miley's 10th start of the season out of 17 with 18+ outs.
*Brad Peacock was placed on the 10-Day IL due to "shoulder discomfort." It is a joke by now. Reymin Guduan was recalled to Houston. What is dead will never die. Hinch:
He probably could keep giving us 100 percent of what he's got, but obviously it didn't go well [Thursday] and we feel like with the off-days and the All-Star Break we can get ahead of this and avoid any more missed time. We expect him to be back in the rotation after the All-Star Break. A little bit of rest does everybody good, and we hope he can mend quickly.
So who will take Peacock's spot in the rotation? As Jake Kaplan points out, Cy Sneed would be on normal rest the next time Peacock's spot comes up. The All-Star Break begins after the games of Sunday, July 7. Here's the Astros' schedule until that point:
Saturday, June 29: Seattle
Sunday: Seattle
Monday: Off
Tuesday: At Colorado
Wednesday: At Colorado
Thursday: Off
Friday: At Anaheim
Saturday: At Anaheim
Sunday: At Anaheim
Peacock's last five starts (Thursday included): 25.1IP, 28H/18ER, 28K:7BB, 8HR. 6.39 ERA / 1.38 WHIP. The Astros are 1-4 in these last five starts, but also scored 1, 10, 0, 1, 0 runs in those starts.
*Yordan Alvarez didn't play last night in what has been described as a "precautionary" move after doing something to his knee.
*Texas Sports Nation looks at the other worthy Astros All-Stars.
*Aledmys Diaz took BP on the field prior to last night's game and could travel with the team to Colorado.
*Joe Smith threw a scoreless 7th for Round Rock in their 9-2 win, throwing nine of 10 pitches for strikes. Cionel Perez threw 5.2IP, 3H/1ER, 4K:2BB. Drew Ferguson (HR, 4RBI), Alex DeGoti, Nick Tanielu, and Chas McCormick (HR, 2BB, 3RBI) had two hits each.
*Somehow J.B. Bukauskas is the only Astros representative for the 2019 MLB Futures Game. He threw for Corpus last night, going 6IP, 9H/4ER, 3K:2BB, 2HR allowed in a 6-4 loss to Amarillo.
*Fayetteville lost 3-2, but Shawn Dubin (13th Round - 2018) threw 7IP, 2H/1ER, 9K:2BB. He has 55 strikeouts in 46IP in 2019, including a 30K:6BB line in his last 20IP.
*Quad Cities is enjoying a W3 with a 7-2 win over Burlington last night. Jonathan Bermudez and Cody Deason combined on the tandem start to throw 9IP, 4H/2ER, 18K:5BB.
*Tri-City has lost five straight games following a 3-0 loss to Aberdeen in which they were held to two hits.
*Jim Crane says extending the netting is "a possibility," but the Astros will wait to get "more information." A 2-year old kid got a fractured skull from a foul ball. That's the information I need.
*Nationals GM Mike Rizzo says they have time to evaluate where they are before pulling the trigger on a major trade (i.e., Scherzer).
*Rustin Dodd takes a look at Little Big League, on its 25th anniversary.
*I simply refuse to believe that Hunter Pence had never started an All-Star Game before 2019. It's his 4th All-Star team (2009 - HOU; 2011 - HOU; 2014 - SFG).
*Last night was the 12th anniversary of Craig Biggio's 3000th hit. We were in New York, so we weren't there, but did watch it on tv. My father-in-law tried to play the odds. Going into that game against Colorado, Biggio was hitting .238/.278/.387, stuck on 2,997 hits. My father-in-law bought tickets to all games in the series but the 1st game. Biggio had enjoyed six 3+ hit games in 2007 (including a 3x5 performance against Arlington on June 24), but it was a defensible decision to make. Colorado would end up pretty good - they would go on to get swept by the Red Sox in the World Series - but they were 38-40 going into the June 28 game, having lost six in a row, two of those by walk-off (and would lose on June 28 AND June 29 via Astros' walk-offs.) Anyway, Biggio got his 2nd - and last - 5-hit night of his career that night, my Father-in-Law got to see the next three games. Here's the SABR article by Frederick C. Bush on Biggio's 3000th hit.
*Inside the turbulent life of former phenom Jon Peters aka SUPERKID.
*Good job, USWNT.
*How the neighborhoods of Manhattan got their names.
*What it takes to make Glastonbury happen.
*Check and make sure your dog food isn't giving your Pupper heart disease.
Lose Yourself pic.twitter.com/usEIDq2GSC— don zemmer (@DonZemmer) June 28, 2019
*A Musical Selection:
