Thursday Morning Hot Links

The Astros crapped the bed. Literally, just fecal matter all over the sheets with the Astros rolling around in it, asking for help but also not really asking for help. That's the dumbest loss I've seen in a long time. A Verlander gem combined with inning-ending outs on TOOTBLANs at third base in the 8th AND 9th Innings? FOH. Something something Daniella. The Astros are 81-47. There are mercifully 34 regular season games left. Idiots.

*It was the largest single-game upset (odds-wise) in MLB in the last 15 years.

*The last time any MLB team lost a game when they allowed two hits and zero walks? March 30, 2018. While an Astros pitcher has accomplished that feat four times prior to last night, the last time it actually happened to the Astros was to Pete Harnisch on May 11, 1994. The Astros have never lost a game in which they scored at least one run and had an SP throw a complete game with two hits and no walks. Shame them. Demand better. Let's be clear here: this was a historically stupid loss. And the Astros should wake up this morning feeling shame. The Detroit win kept them from being 50 games under .500. It is not even September.

*Justin Verlander did everything he could. He made two not-great pitches. JV has allowed two or fewer earned runs in a start for the 17th time this season. The Astros are 14-3 in those games. Morons.

*Justin Verlander now has seven straight games with 10+ Ks. Here are the leaders with a streak of 10+ Ks:

Chris Sale: 8 games (twice)
Pedro Martinez: 8 once, 7 once
Randy Johnson: 7
Nolan Ryan: 7
Justin Verlander: 7

*The Astros have now lost three straight Verlander starts for the first time since June 19-30, 2018. He has allowed eight total runs in his last three starts. Hinch:
Just an incredible performance. Just not one that we could help him with. We wasted a really good start by our starting pitcher.

Verlander:
The two times I gave in and gave them a fastball, they hit a homer on it. Baseball in 2019. I didn't go out of the stretch at all the entire game, and we lost. I don't know what else to say.

More Verlander:
It's a tough pill to swallow. Obviously, you want to come away with a win. You want the team to win. One bad pitch in the ninth inning. We battled back, and I gave it back in the ninth. It's kind of one of those games. I don't blame anybody but myself. I could have done a better job executing a pitch there in the ninth inning.

*Chirinos, on getting thrown out at 3B trying to hit for the cycle:
I feel like I have a great game and throw it away like that. I feel like it's all my fault. When you make a mistake like that, you don't deserve to win a game.

*Myles Straw will replace Carlos Correa for the time being. And as Aaron Sanchez goes to the IL with a hurt Man Boob, Cy Sneed has been recalled for the third time since last Wednesday.

*Meat Wagon updates:

-The Astros have committed to leaving Peacock in the bullpen.
-Aledmys Diaz took groundballs in BP and could be activated on Tuesday.
-Josh James will begin a rehab assignment in Round Rock tonight, but probably won't be back before September 1.

*We're only, like, ten days from Kyle Tucker Time.

*Ronnie Dawson got promoted to Round Rock from Corpus. He was hitting .212/.320/.403 with 141K:47BB in 103 games

*Thanks to a DM from The Batguy, I thought we could take a look how some of the players the Astros have recently traded/let go have fared in 2019:

J.D. Davis: .310/.372/.516
Tony Kemp: .194/.184/.278
Tyler White: .045/.192/.045
A.J. Reed: .136/.204/.205

*The Athletic's Andy McCullough: How does Oakland keep doing this? (The Athletic on the Athletics. Folks,)

*MLB has sent out a memo to try to get players to stop buying gas station boner-pills.

*Deadspin: Why your team sucks: The Houston Texans edition.

*How K-Pop is luring young North Koreans to cross the DMZ.

*"You're the guy with the ball to the crotch:" the story behind the funniest baseball card ever made.