Houston Astros: Week 6 Recap: Burning down the house
After losing two series in a row the previous week, the Houston Astros made a killing over the past six games. It’s safe to say the world champs are back!
Pitching switches and hot bats highlight quite the week for the Houston Astros. The spacemen swept the Oakland Athletics in California and two out of three from the in state division rival Texas Rangers. Even an injury scare made things shake up just that much more. Here now is the Houston Astros Week 6 Recap!
Check and Mate!
In a surprising move, skipper A.J. Hinch switched the rotation schedule. He had Justin Verlander start Friday’s game against Cole Hamels and the Rangers, and moved Charlie Morton to start on Saturday against Doug Fister.
It is a move that proved to be beneficial. At least, to a degree.
Verlander suffered his second loss after the bats were unable to pick him and his quality start up. On the flip side, Morton tallied a career high 14 strikeouts during his stint. Additionally, Dallas Keuchel set a season high in strikeouts with eight of them just yesterday.
Three of the five starters in the rotation lead the American League in ERA as of this writing. Since
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the old saying goes that pitching and defense wins championship, this is boding well for the spacemen!
Springer Dinged
This Houston Astros Week 6 Recap also features the ultimate gasp moment of the week.
Friday saw a huge scare, when reigning World Series MVP George Springer got hit in the elbow by a pitch from Cole Hamels in the 3rd inning. No surprise, he had to be removed from the game while displaying signs of visible pain.
The good news in all of this: The X-Rays came back negative.
According to a report from MLB.com, A.J. Hinch confirmed that Springer won’t need a rehab start. In fact, he will be back in the lineup today in Anaheim as the Astros take on the Angels.
Talk about literally dodging a bullet, am I right?!
When Bears Attack!
Evan Gattis is currently riding a five-game hit streak this week. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. Don’t adjust your screens!
After showing clear early struggles in 2018, the bear has locked himself as an invitee to the metaphorical hit party. This past weekend was his best showing of the year so far, as he tallied a homer in each game on both Saturday and Sunday.
Add clutch base hits to that, and the bear got four runs across while scoring a pair himself. The biggest of hits came Sunday against Matt Moore, in which El Oso Blanco hit one over the train tracks at Minute Maid Park, a.k.a. the juice box.
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Now, the bull-bear does still have some work to do to get his average and OPS above the current .214 and .633 that they respectively stand at right now. But as I pointed out in a piece I wrote a couple of weeks back, May is the month of the bear. ALWAYS!
By the way, the Astros will face another lefty starter tonight, so expect Gattis to be in at DH. If this past week is any indication, there will be more mauling and destruction of baseballs to come!