Astros 3, Rangers 2
W: Veras (3-1)
L: Cotts (2-8)
Submitted by Reuben
Here’s another way in which Jose Altuve is amazing: you may be stunned, as I was, to learn that Sunday’s 4-hit performance tied a career high for him. As brilliant as he’s been this year, and as hot as he’s been at times throughout his young career, it’s hard to believe he’s never had a 5-hit game. Eight times he’s reached 4 hits; unsurprisingly, half of those have come this season alone.
Once again, one of those hits was crucial: a 2-out single to center off of Ranger Closer Neftali Feliz to drive in Marisnick with the go-ahead run. Earlier in the game Altuve had rapped a pair of doubles, but he was stranded both times.
Dominguez had two huge hits of his own to snap out of another slump. In the bottom of the 2nd, Matty D came up with 2 outs and Castro on 2nd base. Ashby began talking about how Dominguez had been working on nothing but hitting the ball the other way in BP, and right as he was about to say “but I doubt he can carry that over into games” Matt lined a beautiful single to right field to tie the game at 1. In the 8th inning he crushed a 1-0 slider from long-time Astro nemesis Neal Cotts into the façade above the Crawford Boxes, or maybe even up on the train tracks; either way, it was an impressive blast, reminiscent of the Matty D of 2013, who seemed to excel against tough relievers with the game on the line. Hopefully he can approximate that guy for the rest of the season.
After Dominguez’ homer tied the game, Marisnick continued the rally by getting plunked on the upper left arm. Unlike the Rangers’ Rougned Odor, who had spun around and stomped toward first like a big macho tough guy after getting hit on his 2-inch thick arm pad by Keuchel, Marisnick, with no padding safe his jersey sleeve, simply shrugged it off and took his base. He then showed off his speed and baserunning savvy, stealing 2nd base – no easy feat with a lefty on the mound and cannon-armed Chorinos behind the dish – and moving up on a grounder to the 3rd baseman, dancing off of the bag and then breaking for 3rd as soon as Beltre made his throw to 1st.
Ranger manager Ron Washington then brought in Feliz to pitch to Grossman, who worked a 5-pitch walk to bring Altuve to the plate. As Washington put it after the game, “It shouldn’t have been [Altuve]. It should have been Grossman. If you’re going to get beat, get beat by Grossman, not Altuve.”
The 3 runs wouldn’t have been enough, of course, without another stellar performance by Keuchel, who has gone at least 7 innings four games in a row, and 7 out of 8. Dallas went winless in August despite a 3.21 ERA for the month, including 42 IP and a Complete Game. Following Keuchel with mercifully scoreless innings were a wobbly Veras and drama-free Qualls to close it out and clinch the 3-games-to-1 series victory, and an incredibly-satisfying come-from-behind win.
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Futility Watch: Bo Porter’s squad went 4-3 on the week to improve to 59-79 on the season, “good” enough for 27th-best in MLB. They are now within spitting distance of the Twins (1 game ahead), Red Sox (2), and Cubs (2.5), and have increased their cushion over the dead-last Rangers to 5 games.