The Astros lost again, but boy was it more interesting than the box score looks.
Notes:
White - 3/5, 2 RBI
Gurriel - 3/5
Rondon - 0.2 IP, 5 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
Armenteros - 4 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
The benches cleared(ish) after Angels pitched Noe Ramirez threw and hit Jake Marisnick in the shoulder.
Brad Ausmus said it was "hard to tell" if Ramirez had intent, which made me actually laugh out loud.
A.J. Hinch is was not having it postgame.
Nevertheless, the next couple of games are going to be must watch TV. Poor James.
Full Box:
The A's are now 4.5 GB out of 1st place, but it may not be time to worry about that just yet.
FiveThirtyEight has the Astros at an 88% chance to take the division.
Fangraphs? 97.6%
Baseball Reference? 86.2%
Baseball Prospectus? 95.7%
BUT, the Astros need pitchers, like, yesterday. Will the Astros go for an actual ace, or a "pitch the rest of the season innings eater"?
As a reminder, here is a list of essentially everybody on the trade block as it stands.
One name not on this list that might wander onto the team..is an Oriole?
What would it really take to acquire Syndergaard? Sources say, a lot.
Was last night the final straw for Framber Valdez?
Jake Marisnick was the Astros recipient of the Heart and Hustle Award, the MLBPA announced yesterday.
Chirinos has been struggling at the plate. Here's what the Astros are doing about it.
The Astros are wearing some pretty cool Apollo 11 themed hats on Monday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the mission.
There's a new ideal way to strike out hitters in modern baseball.
On This Day in Baseball History
In 1974, Bob Gibson recorded his 3,000th strikeout.
In 1990, the Twins recorded two triple plays in the same game.
In 2017, Ryan Zimmerman hit his 235th home run off of former Astros great Scott Feldman, making him the Nationals all-time home run leader.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
