Houston Astros: Takeaways From Opening Day Win
By Yoni Pollak
The Houston Astros defeated the New York Yankees 5-3 on Opening Day of the 2016 season.
The game which was supposed to be played on Monday afternoon was pushed to Tuesday afternoon due to weather concerns. The weather still played a factor on Tuesday with first pitch temperatures recorded at 36 degrees.
Dallas Keuchel took the mound for the Astros and was shaky early on, issuing four walks in the first few innings, something he had done only once last season. It took some time for Keuchel to acclimate to the freezing cold, but he settled in nicely, sending down 11 straight to end his outing.
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If fans still aren’t sure about Keuchel’s ace ability, they should look no further than yesterday’s game. Even with Keuchel not having his strongest stuff, last year’s Cy Young winner was still able to get out of early jams and got through seven innings after throwing 60 pitches through just three innings.
New Astro Ken Giles served up a solo shot to his first batter faced, Didi Gregorious, after being named the set-up man for the time being. His location on that pitch was terrible, but his control was perfect for the rest of the inning, striking out two of the next three batters. Giles’ fastball is as good as reported and his slider was filthy as well.
Closer Luke Gregerson picked up where he left off last year and shut the door on the Yankees. He’ll remain the closer until he hits a bump or two.
It took some time for the offense to show up, but Carlos “Charizard” Correa made sure it would. Last year’s AL Rookie of the Year had an RBI ground out in the 4th to put the Astros on the board. In the sixth he homered off Masahiro Tanaka to tie it up at two.
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The big play of the game came in the 8th inning when Correa’s tapper back to the mound caused a raucous at Yankee Stadium. Correa stepped out of the baseline to run down the line, forcing Dellin Betances to throw over him and thus into the outfield scoring the go-ahead run. Joe Girardi argued the call to no avail, giving the Astros the 3-2 lead. Luis Valbuena’s 2-run single gave the Astros a comfortable cushion and enough for the Opening Day win.
Of note, Carlos Gomez and Jason Castro looked terrible to start the season. Gomez’s 3K day and Castro’s 2K day were eerily similar to many games from last season. Gomez and Castro are in contract years, so hopefully both will pick it up.
In happier news, Tyler White singled in his MLB debut. Unfortunately the rookie had to leave the game following a fastball to the hand in his next at-bat. X-rays came back negative and he’s day-to-day, though will likely sit out the next few games.
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