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Astros Give Runs To The Indians, Seek Help From Texas Rangers

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  • Updated: April 10, 2015

Only 27 innings into 2015, the Houston Astros are gasping for air. The Cleveland Indians came to town for a 3-game set, and promptly made the Astros dread the remaining 1,431 innings (minimum) of the season.

A trip to Arlington for a weekend gig against the Texas Rangers will hopefully help mend their wounds.

Monday’s (April 6) Opening Day game at Minute Maid Park looked like the perfect blueprint for the season as owner Jim Crane, GM Jeff Luhnow, and manager A.J. Hinch drew it up over the winter, with several free agent signings and trades.

Scrapping against last year’s AL Cy Young Award winner, Corey Kluber, Astro lefty Dallas Keuchel started his own Cy Young bid, shutting down the Indians for 7 innings on 3 just hits in an eventual 2-0 win. Southpaw Tony Sipp came in from the bullpen to pitch a perfect 8th, striking out 2, and newly named closer Luke Gregerson (one of the offseason signees) shut the Tribe down in the 9th for the save.

Similar to last year’s script, reigning AL batting champ, second baseman Jose Altuve got the scoring started (and ruined Kluber’s no-hitter in the 6th) with a dunker to center, stole second (he had 56 last year to lead the league), and came in on a single by George Springer.

Altuve described the 6th inning this way: “I wanted to put the ball in play. As soon as I got on first base, I knew Springer was hitting behind me, and if I got to second base, he can drive me in. That’s what happened, and we took the lead, and that’s pretty important in the inning.” Center fielder Jake Marisnick added a sacrifice fly in the 8th to provide a cushion.

A strong outing by a starter, an improved bullpen, Altuve leading the way, Springer driving him in —this game was a microcosm of how most games should go this season, at least according to the front office.

Going virtually bat-less (and in the third game, Thursday, almost hit-less), the final two games leave skipper Hinch to ponder sending each hitter to the batter’s box with a GPS to see if they can find a pitch in the strike zone.

The ink was barely dry on Carlos Carrasco’s newly signed four-year contract extension when he threw what must have looked like a ballpoint pen to the Astro hitters, pitching a glittering 6 1/3 innings, striking out 10 of the 19 batters he faced, leading Cleveland to a 2-0 mirror of the first game. Carlos Santana and Mike Aviles clobbered balls over the fence for all the power (and runs) the Indians needed.

Astro starter Scott Feldman put a so-so spring behind him by pitching 6 2/3 innings of 5-hit ball, with 5 Ks, and Santana’s 29th-birthday home run. Following the game, Feldman deferred, “Sometimes you’ve got to just tip your cap. Carrasco was pretty lights out for them tonight. It’s just one of those games. For the most part, if we surrender two runs on any given night, we’ll probably win most of those games with our lineup.”

Thursday (April 9) marked the Major League debut of Astro rookie starting pitcher Asher Wojciechowski, who gave up 4 earned runs (and 8 hits, a quarter of them homers) in his 4 innings pitched. The 6’4″, 235-pound South Carolinian righty was the only rookie to make the Astros’ roster out of spring training.

By contrast, Indians right-handed starting pitcher Trevor Bauer all but channeled Bob Gibson by no-hitting the Astros for 6 innings, and striking out a career-high 11 batters before leaving with a 111-pitch count. Hoping for their first no-hitter since 1981, two Indians relievers pitched a hitless inning each, with closer Nick Hagadone finally giving up the lone hit and run to Astro SS Jed Lowrie, who homered solidly to left with one out in the ninth, making the final score 5-1.

Having just snapped the Astros’ 17-inning scoreless streak, Lowrie remarked, “The scoreboard is way too big to not know that you’re being no-hit. It’s a weight lifted off the whole dugout, the whole team. Hopefully, it was good for morale.”

Collin McHugh gets the start Friday for the Astros against the Rangers.

Author: Brad Kyle

Brad was born the same year as rock’n’roll and Disneyland. Aging only slightly better than one of them, he’s a Houston native, and has seen countless Astro games, in all three Houston pro ball stadiums: Colt Stadium, The Astrodome, and Minute Maid Park.

He has spent one day as a crematorium assistant, one day in a Paddington Bear suit at the Beverly Hills Saks Fifth Avenue, and 3 days as an extra on 1998’s 20th Century Fox theatrical release, “The Newton Boys,” directed by Richard Linklater (and starring Matthew McConaughey and Ethan Hawke).

Brad has also played pinball with the Talking Heads’ David Byrne (he’ll claim he won, but *wink*), and when presenting Peter Gabriel (Genesis) with a paper plate for his autograph, he proceeded to write, “To Brad, Eat well. Peter Gabriel.” I’ve been following his advice ever since!

Brad has spent professional time (more than one day for each) as a teacher, youth minister, radio personality, record store manager, entertainment booking agent, singer, comedy writer, and…..oh, yeah, sports writer!