I of course did not see much of the game, but the Astros beat the piss out of the Best Fans In Base Ball 8-2 thanks to Carlos Correa's grand slam and Gerrit Cole's strong start. Houston is 67-39. There are 66 regular season games left.
*Let's start with Gerrit Cole. Cole threw 7IP, 4H/1ER, 7K:3BB. The one run he allowed was a solo home run to Paul Goldschmidt. Goldschmidt has hit a home run in six consecutive games, with 13RBI. It's fine. No one cares. Woodlands-lookin' ass boiiiiiiiii.
*Cole has made 23 starts in 2019. 2019 starts with...
0ER: 3
1ER: 9
2ER: 5
3ER: 2
4ER: 2
5ER: 0
6ER: 1
7ER: 0
8ER: 1
Not bad, if that's your kind of thing.
*I guess we can nit-pick. Cole had not walked three batters in a game since June 19.
*The Astros walked six times for the 22nd time this season. Somehow they're only 13-9 when that happens.
*Carlos Correa was 2x5 with 5RBI and a Grand Slam, the 10th Granny for the Astros this season. It was Correa's first MLB Grand Slam. Correa:
Our lineup is pretty scary. We can do pretty special things. We can turn around games pretty quick in the matter of just one inning.
It's Correa's 2nd career 5RBI game, his first since July 9, 2017.
Correa also seems to have avoided yet another Stupid Injury when Professional Dumb Ass Yairo Munoz slid hard into 2nd to break up a double play and ended up spiking Correa in the elbow, which seems like a really hard thing to do, unless you're a Cardinal, then it's just what you do if you're the classiest team in baseball. Hinch:
It's an unnecessary slide. He didn't need to go all the way through the base and hit Carlos. The slide rule fails again.
Correa:
It didn't look clean, but I don't think he was trying to take me out and trying to get me hurt.
Hinch, on what would happen to Munoz today:
Old school, he'd get hit [Hinch immediately thinks of Ausmus] I know we don't do that anymore. But it was an unfortunate play.
More effective than hitting Munoz today would be to continue to allow the Cardinals to slide into irrelevance.
*Robinson Chirinos was 2x3 with a walk, and has at least one hit in eight of his last nine games in which he has received an AB. He's hitting .345/.486/.448 in his last ten games.
*Yordan Alvarez has one hit in his last 10 ABs. This, too, is fine.
*Alex Bregman has been on base in four of his nine PAs this series against St. Louis.
*Ryan Pressly, who might get put on the IL:
Everybody's got to work through something. I'm in the training room getting treatment and I've got all the faith in my training staff to get me right.
*The Cheatin-Ass Cardinals honored their 2004 team prior to the game. Reminder that they lost. Alyson Footer has a pretty great oral history on MLB.com on the 2004 NLCS.
*Jeff Luhnow compared the 2004 Cardinals team to the 2019 Astros. And if that means "win 105 games, barely get by the LCS, and get swept in the World Series" like the Cardinals did, then count me the hell out of that.
Trade/Rumor Roundup
*The Braves, Dodgers, Brewers, Twins, Rays, and pretty much anyone else with a record over .500 right now is interested in just about everybody. The Trade Deadline is at 4pm Eastern on Wednesday.
*The Astros are "mounting a push" for Marcus Stroman, in part because the Mets' asking price for Syndergaard is too high.
*Oakland traded for Jake Diekman, and their bullpen JUST MIGHT be better than Houston's.
*Kyle Tucker is Keith Law's "good prospect most likely to get traded this year."
*The Dodgers, in a valiant effort to lose a third straight World Series, are considering trading for Stroman.
*Trevor Bauer is "almost certainly" not going to be on Cleveland's roster in 2020.
*The Twins and Rangers have discussed Mike Minor.
*The Mets might try to package Zack Wheeler and Edwin Diaz.
*The Tour De France ends today, which means I'm done watching cycling for another 49 weeks. It also means that Summer is just about over, and it makes me sad.
*SB Nation: How cyclists continue to cheat.
*A Musical Selection:
