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Led by Kyle Tucker’s fourth homer, the Astros’ offense tried to make it back, but Oakland’s bullpen held the lead.
After winning their first five games of the season against the Athletics, the Astros have lost two in a row to Oakland. On Friday, Houston hitters were silenced by right-hander Frankie Montás over six innings and, even though they enjoyed some late magic, they lost 7-3 and fell to second place in the AL West.
Righty José Urquidy took the...
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Astros go for series win and 5.5 game lead on A’s
Last night, Lance McCullers once again gave up only one run in a game but could only get through five innings in the Astros 6-2 loss to the A’s.
But Lance was far from the main culprit in last night’s loss to the A’s. Complete lack of production from the two to four holes in the lineup, that is, Brantley, Bregman, and Alvarez, and in general, no hits with runners in scoring position.
But more...
Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
It’s McCullers against Sean Manaea. Can the Astros make it six in a row against the A’s?
The Astros have been flattening baseballs.
They have scored 51 runs in seven games, second in MLB. They’ve scored four or more in every game they’ve played en route to a 6 -1 record.
And although the Astros are second in MLB in OPS, .892, let’s not forget the pitching. They’re third in ERA at 2.61.
Lance McCullers goes tonight on the mound. He was wild in his...
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The 37-year-old legend has kept his elite status with the Astros and often fools hitters despite having a fastball that averages 88.5 MPH in 2021. A deep dive on Greinke’s miracle!
There was a time when Zack Greinke could go up to 95-96 miles per hour with his fastball and didn’t have to worry about being a control freak, having a zillion pitches in his repertoire, or painting the strike zone a la Greg Maddux.
But time did its thing and Greinke began...
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His big league performance has been mixed thus far, but the stuff demands attention.
Most evaluators didn’t envision Luis Garcia in the majors right now a couple of years ago- and they certainly didn’t expect that he’d make his big league debut in 2020. As we all know, unique circumstances led to both of those events coming to pass, and the results have left Garcia’s prospect stock in a strange place.
In 2020, Garcia was called up down the stretch with...
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I would like to petition that the Astros face the A’s once a week for the entire season
Check out the rest of the Crawfish Boxes here and listen to the latest version of Locked on Astros, our partnered podcast, here.
Astros News The Astros continue to absolutely crush the A’s, this time slapping them 6-2 in the home opener (Astros.com) And here are the highlights from that game (MLB.com) Paul Wall helped the Astros to make a pretty sweet hype video...Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
Correa, Alvarez and Altuve go yard
Brilliant pitching by 24-year old Cristian Javier and three bombs gave the Astros a comfortable 6-2 victory over the Oakland A’s. All three homers were solo shots, the first by Carlos Correa in the second inning, the second an upper-deck job by Yordan Alvarez in the sixth, and a gas pump bomb by Jose Altuve in the seventh.
Carlos Correa accounted for another run in the fourth with an RBI double, and after Alvarez’ homer...
Astros southpaw Framber Valdez hasn’t pitched in the majors this season on account of a broken finger, though he did return to throwing from flat ground Thursday, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle.
The Houston Astros haven't ruled out re-signing Carlos Correa after failing to work out an extension with the 2017 All-Star before Opening Day. "We respect...
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It’s the home opener.
The 5-1 Astros play the 1-6 A’s in the first game in front of fans at Minute Maid Park since 2019. If the Astros can sweep the A’s in this three game series, have they already knocked them out of playoff contention for good 10 games into the season?
Let’s hope.
Cristian Javier gets his second start of the season against Cole Irvin who has an 8.31 ERA in 4.1 innings pitched this year.
Standard Stros lineup. Brantley’s back in. Jason...
Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
Intrigue is plentiful in the Astros’ bullpen to start the season.
When Ryne Stanek signed with the Astros as free-agent in the offseason, I wrote about his propensity to not only generate whiffs, but also issue plenty of walks. Even at his best, the right-hander never posted a walk rate lower than 10.3 percent. A strikeout rate that topped off slightly above 30 percent did help negate some of those walks, though. This approach was best seen when the former...
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The Astros (5-1, 1st in AL West) open Minute Maid Park for 2021 with a three game set against the Athletics (1-6, 5th in AL West)
A’s Quick Notes The NarrativeThe A’s arrive in Houston after an absolutely horrendous first week of baseball that they were just barely able to salvage with a 10th inning win in yesterday’s game. Even with that win, the entire Oakland team has pretty much been in shambles over the past 7 games, with an anemic offense and a...
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Watching the home opener while living halfway across the country feels like when you were a kid in Texas hearing about how much fun playing in snow is
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Astros News The Astros are prepared to put on a show for fans at Minute Maid Park again (Astros.com) And here’s what fans need to know about today’s home...Mike Scioscia is backing Los Angeles Angels fans who taunted the Houston Astros for cheating.
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Baseballs are being crushed into oblivion.
The Astros have come away from the first road trip of the season with a record of 5-1. Their play thus far has been thoroughly impressive, as evidenced by their supreme run differential of plus-27, currently the best in baseball.
The one constant for the Astros throughout their time in Oakland and Anaheim was their offensive output. As it stands, only one team has scored more runs (Cincinnati).
In light of this...
Greinke allowed just five hits and two earned runs in seven innings in Houston’s win over the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday night. More than 11,000 fans were in the stands at Angel Stadium.
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I understand we have off days because players need to rest across the course of a 162-game season, but have they ever considered not resting?
Check out the rest of the Crawfish Boxes here and listen to the latest version of Locked on Astros, our partnered podcast, here.
Astros News The fireworks came late in yesterday’s 4-2 win over the Angels, this time in the form of a 9th inning 2-run blast from Correa (Astros.com) And here are the video highlights from...Photo by Harry How/Getty Images
The Puerto Rican shortstop took closer Raisel Iglesias deep with Yordan Álvarez on board to bring another win to H-Town.
Thanks to Carlos Correa’s two-run shot in the ninth and Zack Greinke’s dominant outing, the Astros broke the tie for first place in the AL West and sat alone at the top of the division. On Tuesday, both studs helped Houston beat the Angels 4-2 and begin the season with a 5-1 record.
Flying home as winners.#ForTheH...
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A
It’s early. I know it is. As for Tuesday morning, the Astros have only played five games in the 2021 regular season. But as there are players with disappointing beginnings, there are others that have impressed so far. And one of them is Yuli Gurriel.
Last year, the Astros handed a contract extension to Gurriel in the middle of his struggles and right before the postseason, where actually it all became even worse. But Gurriel, in his 37-age season, wasted no...
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Let’s head home on a winning note.
If we had a poll as to who was must-see-TV on the Astros, I’d bet it would be Yordan at the plate. But for me, my favorite thing to watch is Zack Greinke pitch.
Realistically, a guy throwing 88 mph fastballs shouldn’t still be in the major leagues right now. Or the minors. He probably wouldn’t even be drafted coming out of college. How does he do it?
The sabremetric data on Greinke’s first start looked decidedly...