A Royals Flush!

GAME 52: Astros 9, Royals 2
GAME 53: Astros 3, Royals 0
GAME 54: Astros 9, Royals 3

The Royals must have had a bad surprise when they saw how much the Astros have changed since their sweep in Houston last month. This time the Astros returned the favor in Kansas City, with their first sweep of the season! Admittedly, by the standings, we are still in the AL cellar, but with a 5 game winning streak, the Astros sure don't look like the worst team in baseball. And they aren't! Today's win puts the Astros over .400, and ahead of the Cubs and the Diamondbacks. That's a 6-4 road trip -- definitely a change from just a month ago!

The Royals flushing wasn't just some cheap close games either. The Astros really pummeled Kansas City in the first and third games and shut them out in the middle game of the series. They looked like real WINNERS. And they are -- that's 5 wins in a row. They guys are definitely heading home with big smiles!

Game 1 on Memorial Day looked like a tribute to our new favorite rookie, George Springer. His perfect night at the plate included a home run, two doubles, a single, and a walk. He knocked in 3 runs and scored 5 times, and made a terrific running catch in right field. All of Springer's famous tools were on display -- batting, running, fielding -- and hopefully this outstanding performance gave him some much deserved attention from the baseball press. But although Springer was the obvious star of the game, this 9-2 win wasn't just his doing. The bottom two guys in the lineup, Presley and Gonzalez, got 3 and 4 hits respectively, and Fowler and Castro each had a pair of hits. Feldman had a good start, giving up 2 runs on 8 hits in 6 innings. Sipp did his usual 1-2-3 inning, then Fields and Williams each pitched scoreless innings. This was a great team effort, along with our rising potential superstar. The Astros scored a bunch of runs (5) in the first 2 innings, and then continued to pick at the Royals, adding a run in 4 other innings. One stat from this game that I really love: Ten of the 16 hits came when the Astros had 2 outs. Like I'm always saying, "There's ONLY 2 outs!" so go for it! They went for it!

I'm going to jump to today's Game 3 win, since it was very similar, but with the wealth spread around a bit more. Yes, Springer did get his dinger, with a 2 run homer in his first at-bat to give the Astros a lead right away. He didn't really have much opportunity to get more hits today though, since he ended up walking twice and was hit by a pitch smack in the middle of his back. So he ended up scoring twice, with 2 RBI. But the home run hero of this game was Chris Carter, who knocked out two long balls, one solo and one 3-run homer. (Going 2 for 4 in this game finally nudged Carter's BA to .200.) Down towards the bottom of the lineup, Corporan went 3 for 4, with an RBI and a run. And Fowler hit a bases-loaded two-out single in the second inning. CLUTCH! Robbie (or as he's now known, "Mike") Grossman, just up from the minors, had a good day, with a single, a pair of walks, and a couple of outstanding plays in left field. On the pitching side, Cosart only lasted 5 innings, but it was because of pitch count not poor performance. He gave up 2 runs (one earned) on 4 hits and a pair of walks. Williams followed up, giving up 1 run over 2 innings, before Downs and Farnsworth finished up with a scoreless inning each. So, all in all, the Astros spread the fun around, with something for everyone - except perhaps Villar. He went 0 for 4 with a throwing error. Altuve only got one hit, an infield single, to keep alive his hitting streak, but he broke another streak today -- with the sun in his eyes, he dropped the ball on a catch, for his first error in 88 games.

Sandwiched between these two decisive wins was a low-scoring shutout. This game was Collin McHugh's baby, another example of the good work that he's been doing for the Astros this season. Yesterday he threw 7 shutout innings, allowing just 5 singles and NO walks, while striking out 9. The Astros offense generated plenty of base runners -- 12 hits and 4 walks -- but had a bit of a hard time materializing runs from them. (That's what happens when Springer doesn't Dinger!) The first run scored in the 4th inning on MattyD's RBI single following a pair of walks. But that was it up to the 8th inning, when the Astros got a pair of insurance runs. Castro led off with a double, then pinch hitter Guzman walked. With runners on the corners and one out, Grossman was at the plate when a wild pitch allowed Castro to score. Grossman singled, to put runners on the corners again, and Presley hit a nice sac fly to score Guzman. As it turned out, the insurance runs weren't actually needed. Sipp pitched yet another perfect frame, plus one in the 9th, keeping his 0.00 ERA intact over almost 10 innings in his 8 appearances this season. The 4 outs only took Sipp 12 pitches, but apparently Porter wanted Qualls to earn his keep, so he came in to close. With such good Astros pitching, the biggest offensive performance for the Royals was their manager. A furious Ned Yost came out to argue balls and strikes and was promptly ejected by the home plate ump.

With all this good starting pitching going on, the Astros have a bit of a dilemma: They've got 6 healthy starters right now. Who gets sent down? McHugh had been brought up for a fill-in start, but
he's been throwing so well, it's crazy not to keep him in the bigs. (Who knows why he didn't have big league success with the Mets and the Rockies? He's doing great for us!) Keuchel was the AL player of the week for his outstanding pair of starts last week. Feldman's an obvious keeper. Ever since his disastrous 1/3 inning with 7 ERs in April, Cosart's been throwing quality starts.  Oberholzer, the last guy to get sent down when McHugh got kept, is back and had a great start in Seattle. And Peacock  has been doing well too. So the decision is (drum roll): No decision. The Astros are going to keep 6 starters with them, at least for the time being. What a good problem to have!  (But my bet is that they'll send down Peacock.)

Home again, home again, jiggety jig. Having won 9 of their last 14 games, the team is in a nice frame of mind to take on Baltimore in MMP, which is just perfect for some Springer Dingers right into the Crawford Boxes. Sadly for me, mlb.tv will black me out of these games because I'm considered to be in the Baltimore viewing area. So cheer loud on my behalf.