Kicked Some Butt with a Silver Boot!

GAME 39: Rangers 4, Astros 0
GAME 40: Astros 8, Rangers 0
GAME 41: Astros 5, Rangers 4

Can you believe it? For the first time in almost 6 years, the Astros won a series against the mighty Rangers! The Rangers had won the last fifteen Lone Star series in a row! But they have been humbled by the lowly Baby Astros!

Monday night it looked like it was going to be more of the usual. The Astros got 11 hits, but couldn't manage to score even one run. It was the third time that the Rangers had shut us down this season. But there's always something to like - this time it was Brad Peacock's personal best strikeout performance, whiffing 11 in his six innings. Altuve had a 3-hit game, and Springer got a pair of hits (along with two more Ks to add to his quickly growing collection). Unfortunately for them and for the other Astros baserunner, home plate was only a starting point, not a destination. The best moment of this game for me was when Matt Dominguez reached base on a wardrobe malfunction. The Rangers' unfortunately named second baseman, Rougned Odor, leaned down to field a ground ball, and the pesky ball jumped right into his jersey. It took Odor long enough to fish out the ball from between his buttons that MattyD was able to safely reach base. As offensive power goes, that was kind of a low-key thrill.

But the next night, things took a dramatic turn. Dallas Keuchel threw what was probably the best game of his career - a complete game shutout - with 7 K's and no walks. It was the first time this season that the Astros had been on the right side of a shutout. Meanwhile, Keuchel's teammates helped out with a whole slew of runs, most of them scored on homers. Hoes hit a 2-run homer in the second inning, giving the Astros an early lead, and Corporan knocked one out with two on in the Astros' 4-run fifth inning. Carter got 3 hits, and Altuve and Hoes each had 2. Springer looked totally different than he did on Sunday, when he struck out 4 times. In this game he seemed to have converted to a religion of patience, walking 3 times and hitting an RBI single on a 3-2 count. On the fielding side, the Astros turned 4 double plays, and Hoes got a nice outfield assist in a play on Prince Fielder at second base that was initially called a double and overturned on review. All in all a very satisfying win for the Astros!

But the big question remained: Could they win two in a row? The last time that the Astros even won two consecutive games against the Rangers, the only guy on the team who was there was Feldman - and he was in the other dugout. The Astros took the challenge, this time with Feldman on the mound for us. It wasn't Feldman's best outing though. He gave up 4 runs scattered over 4 innings, walking 1 and striking out only 3. Meanwhile, the Astros batters couldn't do much to help him out; the Rangers' pitcher Nick Tepesch, just up from Triple A, didn't allow a run in the first 5 innings. Things turned around in the sixth, though. With one out, Fowler and Castro walked, then MattyD singled to load the bases. This is where the OLD Astros would have hit into a double play to end the fun. But, perhaps energized by the previous night's win, pinch-hitter Guzman singled to score the Astros' first run, then Carter singled to knock in another. Gonzales and Villar K'ed to end the inning, but the Astros were on the board.

Altuve led off the 7th inning with a single, and Springer picked a good time for his third long ball of the season to tie the game at 4-4. Fowler and Castro singled, putting two on with no outs. It looked like this was going to be a Big Inning - but no, the next three batters went down quietly. The score stayed tied until the bottom of the ninth, when MattyD hit a massive fly ball into right field, scoring Fowler from second base, to win the game. There was much leaping and head bashing after that - the usual thing when young men get excited over winning sports competitions. They really don't have much sense that they will need all of their IQ points in the future when they can no longer play ball for a living. But let them have their fun - who knows when the Astros will win another series this year?

The Astros relievers, having had the day off on Tuesday, were excellent in this game. Downs and Clemens had scoreless outings, and Sipp, who fanned 5 of his 6 batters on Sunday, struck out 3 of his 4 batters. Qualls took over for him in the top of the ninth, getting out the last two Rangers batters. Since the score was still tied at that point, Q got pitching credit for the walk-off win in the bottom of the ninth.

The Astros have a day off to finish celebrating the series win, before taking on the White Sox this weekend. After close games against division leading Tigers and Orioles teams, and then the win against their arch-rival Rangers, perhaps the Astros will have a winning weekend against Chicago, a team with a losing record. It doesn't really matter -- we're going to have a relaxing October, watching Ausmus lead the Tigers to a pennant. But meantime, I'm enjoying seeing Springer improve at the plate, the pitching rotation looking better all the time, Villar turning great plays at short, Altuve's multi-hit games. And soon, the promotion of more new players up from the farm. Singleton, they say, is "on deck." The future is exciting.