Yuli Gurriel last night became the first Astros player with walk-off hits in consecutive games since Geoff Blum on June 10-11, 2009. Wonder what that guy is up to these days.— Jake Kaplan (@jakemkaplan) June 30, 2019
*Gurriel was the first Astro to have consecutive walk-offs in extra innings since Craig Biggio (ever heard of him, bandwagoners?) did it on August 4/5, 1991. Gurriel:
I like being in tense situations and feel like I focus even more. I'm not scared to fail and I always have a positive mindset in these situations.
*Gurriel turned his ankle running to 1B in the 7th inning. Hinch:
When the game's on the line he has that hitterish vibe to him that he's going to get a good pitch to hit and he's going to hit it hard...He was operating on basically one leg; his ankle is bugging him a little bit from earlier in the game. It was an incredible at-bat.
*Houston has won four of their last six games.
*Houston is 6-1 in extra innings, 14-9 in 1-run games.
*Verlander was off, by Verlander's standards: 5IP, 5H/4ER, 5K:4BB, 2HR. He has allowed a league-leading 23 homers this season. He has a 2.86 ERA. He allowed 28 HR in 214IP in 2018. Verlander has allowed 69 hits in 2019 - 23 of them have left the yard.
*It was the 5th time in his career that Verlander has walked four batters and given up two home runs, the first time as an Astro. His teams are 1-4 in those games. It was his 2nd shortest outing of the season.
*Verlander starts as an Astro, by outs, regular season:
<14: 2
15-17: 6
18-20: 24
21-23: 18
24-27: 5
*The bullpen of Rondon, Harris, Pressly, McHugh, Osuna, and Devenski combined for 5IP, 2H/1ER, 4K:2BB.
*Collin McHugh struck out the side on 13 pitches.
*It's the 7th time in 2019 that Astros pitchers have walked 6+ batters. They're 5-2 in those games. Four of them have come against the Mariners.
*The Astros scored five runs in the bottom of the 2nd Inning. The last time they scored five runs in an inning was the top of the 4th on June 23. They had scored four runs in their previous three games combined.
*The Astros are now 4-17 in games in which they do not hit a home run.
*George Springer had two hits and is hitting .350/.409/.500 since coming off the IL.
*Jose Altuve is hitting .256/.283/.395 in 10 games since coming off the IL.
*Yuli Gurriel has gone 36 PAs without striking out, the longest active streak by a non-pitcher in the Majors. He last struck out in the 6th Inning of the June 20 game against the Yankees.
*Myles Straw started at Shortstop last night. Chanandler Rahm writes that the Astros want him to freestyle more.
*Yordan is in the lineup today.
*Brad Peacock update: His MRI came back clean, with some inflammation in his shoulder and that he had tried to pitch through it "the last four or five starts."
Peacock's last four starts: 20.1IP, 24H/16ER, 22K:5BB, 8HR
Peacock's previous six starts: 34IP, 21H/5ER, 41K:11BB, 1HR
*2019 3rd Round pick Jordan Brewer will sign on Monday.
*Jenny Dial Creech: Make. The. Ballparks. Safer.
*For whatever reason, I was watching this when it happened. Blue Jays pitcher/potential Astros target Marcus Stroman left his start against Kansas City yesterday with "a left shoulder pectoral cramp." Trade a bag of rosin to Toronto for him now.
*The Rangers released Former Astros Trade Great and 2017 World Series Hero Josh Fields.
*Mike Petriello does some excellent work on how to pitch to Bryce Harper.
*A Jagoff from a team of Jagoffs at Barstool thought it would be a good idea to slut-shame a murdered college student. Freakin dregs of society. Barstool is the toilet of the sports internet.
*The Atlantic: The Hero Who Betrayed His Country (chill out, chuds. It's about Estonia, and it's an interesting read.)
*A Musical Selection:
