*To further the Bad News, I left my Kindle at the gym and it was not turned in to Lost & Found. I was already in a way, but now I'm Some Kind of Way.
*Houston is now 12-8 in 1-run games. They were 12-6 in 1-run games prior to this series.
*It's the 4th time this season the Astros have allowed six or fewer hits and lost the game. It's the 9th time in franchise history that the Astros have allowed six or fewer hits, three of them home runs, and lost the game. It's the first time that Cincinnati has gotten six hits, three of them home runs, and beaten Houston since June 28, 1970.
*Houston was 1x8 w/RISP, one of those including Justin Verlander because Cincinnati thinks Italian Chili is a Delicacy and also doesn't have a roof. Nothing in that previous sentence is actually related.
*There are two MLB teams against which Justin Verlander has not recorded a win: Cincinnati and Miami. It's not looking good to get all 30. Verlander has allowed three home runs in a game 16 times in his career. Two of those have come in the last six days, three of them in 2019. It happened three times in all of 2018. Verlander has given up six home runs in the last ten hits he has allowed. That's dumb as hell.
Verlander has allowed 20 home runs in 2019. Eighteen of them have been solo home runs. Former Astros Great Derek Dietrich hit the 2nd home run of the season off of Verlander with someone on base (and it was 88.2mph off the bat, which is stupidly low). God this game was dumb. It's the first time since August 19, 2018 Verlander gave up two home runs in an inning. Verlander:
Maybe I could throw less strikes, but I'm someone who traditionally wants to attack the zone and not let too many guys get on base, so I kind of live and die by that.
Verlander has allowed only 31 ER in 107.2 IP but has given up 20 homers.— Jake Kaplan (@jakemkaplan) June 19, 2019
"It used to be the name of the game was to miss barrels. Now it's kind of to miss the whole bat,” he said. "You’ve got to generate swings and misses because it doesn't take a lot for the ball to leave."
*Chron: Justin Verlander vs. the Pervasive Homer.
All that said, Verlander passed Mickey Lolich for 19th place on the All-Time Strikeout List, with 2839. He's 16 short of tying Jim Bunning for 18th place.
*Alex Bregman hit his 20th home run of the season. It is June 18. Alex Bregman home runs, by month:
Mar/Apr: 5
May: 12
June: 3
*Michael Brantley got his 4th 3-hit game of the season. Houston is now 3-1 in those games.
*Tyler White was 2x4 with two doubles. It's his 2nd multi-extra-base hit game of the season (May 4)
*Myles Straw has 7K:8BB in his time with the Astros this season.
*I got my M.D. from Twitter University and yesterday I pronounced Jose Altuve dead at Third Base in Round Rock. I was wrong. Probably won't try to diagnose an injury from a Twitter video on here anymore. Anyway, Altuve will be at 2B this morning (First Pitch is at 11:35am Texas time). Altuve:
It's been forever, but at the same time, it's helped me a lot that the guys have been playing so good and winning a lot of games. It makes me feel better about not playing.
And regarding that video?
I was kind of surprised when I looked at the video and saw myself running, because I feel way better than that. Running is not going to be an issue. It's never been a big deal for me, so I think I'll be able to run.
Within that link we find that George Springer will begin a rehab assignment Thursday with Corpus. Joe Smith could begin a rehab assignment this week, and Collin McHugh wants to "refine his delivery" during his rehab assignment, as well.
*SI's Michael Shapiro writes that pitchers should fear Yordan Alvarez.
*Brian T. Smith says the Astros need to go all-in on a big trade in the next six or so weeks.
*C. Trent Rosecrans wrote that Yasiel Puig's reputation won them Monday night's game against the Astros.
*J.B. Bukauskas got the start for Corpus last night and threw 5IP, 4H/1ER, 7K:2BB
Bukauskas' last three starts: 17IP, 13H/3ER, 22K:6BB.
*Related: Potential trade target Marcus Stroman, who is arbitration-eligible after this season but won't be a free agent until 2021, doesn't think he'll sign an extension with Toronto. His 59.2% Groundball Rate is somewhat desirable.
*Max Scherzer broke his own damn nose in a pre-game bunting drill. Hitters and Position Players don't spend time thinking about pitching, pitchers even thinking about hitting is stupid. Universal DH now.
*New arrests shed light on why David Ortiz was shot in the back.
*The MLB Umpires Association continues to stay a bunch of whiny bitches. I'm glad they blocked me on Twitter.
*The Rangers and White Sox will have netting from foul pole to foul pole. What do you think? Concerned?
*Andy Pettitte went on WFAN and explained why he doesn't think he's a Hall of Famer.
*The Atlantic: What Really Happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. You won't regret the 45-60 minutes it takes to read this.
*A Musical Selection:
