Back on Track in Anaheim

GAME 45: Astros 5, Angels 2
GAME 46: Angels 9, Astros 3
GAME 47: Angels 2, Astros 1

After the excitement of winning back-to-back series, the Astros have moved back on track to win one game per series. In the first three nights of the current West Coast road trek, the Astros got their one win on Monday night, coming within a few steps of another compete game shutout for Dallas Keuchel. As a fan, the most excruciating aspect of this series (and the one in Seattle to follow) is having to stay up half the night to watch the games on live TV. We knew this when the Astros got shoved into the AL West - with so many of the games in-division,  starting after 10 PM Eastern time, it makes for an awful lot of very late nights.

Back to Keuchel... He pitched another fantastic game - running a shutout into the ninth inning, allowing only 5 singles, while striking out 8 and only walking 1. In the bottom of the ninth, Keuchel got two quick ground ball outs. Then Mike Trout hit what appeared to be a routine ground ball to second, which Altuve fielded and tossed to first. But Trout beat out the throw and it was called a single. It seemed that Altuve could have made the play a little more quickly, but no one can really fault him for not fielding well. He hasn't made an error all season, and had already made a couple of amazing plays in this game. But Keuchel seemed upset, and after he gave up a single to Pujols, Porter brought in Josh Zeid to finish up. Zeid unfortunately gave up a triple, allowing Keuchel's two runners to score, before getting a ground ball out to end the game. So too bad for Keuchel, who was tagged for a pair of ERs instead of a CG shutout, but a win is a win!

The Astros offense got off to a quick start against a hot Angels starter, Garrett Richards. Altuve led off with a double, then Springer walked (good eye!), with Altuve advancing to third on the ball 4 wild pitch. Altuve scored on an errant pickoff attempt to give the Astros the lead. Fowler walked to load the bases. Back to back singles by Castro and Dominguez brought in 2 more runs. In the second inning, three consecutive 2-out singles brought in another run. And a double-single combo by Castro and Carter scored the 5th run in the third.  That was it for Astros scoring, but due to Keuchel's awesome pitching, it was plenty.

The Angels seemed a bit miffed about it, and beat the Astros up on Tuesday night. The Astros kind of let them do it, with a pair of errors and a less-than lights-out start by our ace Scott Feldman. This time it was the Angels that took advantage in the first inning, scoring 3 runs after a 2-out error by Chris Carter. Due to errors, Feldman's line for the game doesn't look as bad as his pitching really looked --of the 9 runs he gave up, only 3 were earned. But he only eked out 4 innings, plus 3 batters in the 5th, giving up 8 hits and 2 walks, striking out 4. Didn't really look like an ace. He hasn't really been that hot since returning from the DL, raising his ERA from 1.69 before the DL to 3.02 after. To find something to like about this thrashing, Altuve got 3 hits, raising his BA to .313, and extending his hitting streak to 12 games.

There was much more to like much about last night's 2-1 loss. Collin McHugh threw another very nice start,  with 7 strong innings, giving up 2 runs on only 4 hits and a pair of walks, striking out 7. However, the Astros defense couldn't do much at all against Jered Weaver, who allowed only 2 hits in his complete game win. The Astros only run was a Springer Dinger in the 4th inning. Altuve hit what appeared to be a single to center to lead off the game, but was robbed by a Collin Cowgill's great catch. That was Altuve's best chance to keep his hitting streak going; it ended at 12 games. (Start again tonight in Seattle!) The bad news was that Springer injured his hip flexor on a (successful) pickoff play in the ninth inning. (Status TBD.) At least there were no errors. And Farnsworth, whose initial outing as an Astro was pretty lame, threw a 1-2-3 eighth inning. Another close loss - they all look like L's in the win-loss record, but the Astros stayed in this one till the end. There's a lot to be said for that!

So we got our one win in Anaheim, and while we are still the worst team in the AL, at .362 we're still 50 points better than last year. So far...

On to Seattle!!! I'm going out to Virginia to a goodbye happy hour for a former coworker tonight, but I'll still be home with plenty of time to catch tonight's Midnight Madness game on the West Coast! My mom and dad will be sitting in their living room, watching their Mariners host the Astros at a much more reasonable time. See you online!