Houston Astros: Week 12 Round Up: Road Warriors
Traveling proves to be a thing of beauty for the Houston Astros, as Week 12 entailed another sweep and two West Coast series wins!
Most teams — unlike the Houston Astros — seem to have a better feel for things at home. Sleeping in your own bed, having local resources at your finger tips, and the disappearance of jet lag are just some of the few things that any team in baseball would love to enjoy more often.
Apparently, not for these Houston Astros! Especially, after this past week 12 of the season.
Taking on the likes of two divisional rivals in the Oakland Athletics and a much improved Seattle Mariners team was not going to be an easy feat to begin with. But like always, the spacemen lived up to the challenge.
On Monday thru Thursday, the Astros completed a 4 game sweep of the A’s. And after a rough start in Seattle on Friday, they came back in the final two games up in the great northwest to take the series on Saturday and Sunday.
Here are some of the other highlights and headlines of the week:
The M&M Factor
During Friday’s loss to Seattle, Joe Musgrove pitched his worst outing to date. He gave up nine earned runs off of 12 hits, three of which were home runs. He only struck out four and gave up a walk as well to balloon his ERA up to 6.01.
It would also force the hand of A.J. Hinch, who optioned Musgrove to AAA Fresno the very next day. Clearly, he and the team had seen enough.
On the plus side, however, Lance McCullers was activated off of the 10-day DL and made his first start since June 8th in Kansas City. Through five innings, he only gave up one earned run in four hits, while walking none and striking out eight. Needless to say, it’s good to have Batman back!
Jordan Jankowski was called up for two games to spot Brad Peacock for his paternity leave. According to a tweet from Brian McTaggart after yesterday’s game, after appearing in neither game, he was sent back down for Peacock to return.
Keuchel Kornered
An article from the Houston Chronicle reveals that lefty ace, Dallas Keuchel will not return until after the All-Star Break. The team is looking to take it’s time with the beard to make sure that he is 100 percent.
Smart move, since the team really needs him right now. Rushing things may cause for another DL stint. And trust me, no one wants that!
Next: Joe Musgrove needed to be sent down
Catching Fire!
The duo of Brian McCann and Evan Gattis continue swinging hot bats. While June has not been incredibly kind to El Oso Blanco, he finished week 12 going 5-for-17 (.294) with a 2-run bomb into the second deck in Seattle and 7 total RBI in the past two series.
Meanwhile, the second half of #BearSquared, the BMac struggled a bit with the hits, only going 3-for-17. However, his hits were incredibly clutch. Of his four RBIs this past week, three came courtesy of this clutch bases-clearing RBI double.
Between the two burly bear-like catchers, they rank in the catcher Top 3 in MLB in home runs, RBI and slugging, according to a recent USA Today article. Perhaps these two need to be kept around as the catching tandem in Houston for a while?!?
GO HOUSTON ASTROS!!!!