Now that's more like it. After giving up 6 runs in the bottom of the ninth yesterday to blow a 4-1 lead against the Athletics, the Astros score 6 runs of their own in the bottom of the first today. Sure, yesterday's defeat was one of the most fan-crushing of the season, but anytime you can take 2 of 3 from the best team in baseball, well... you take it.
Dallas Keuchel hurled his fourth complete game of the season, and every Astro had exactly one hit, save for Marc Krauss, who still managed an RBI on a fielder's choice and came around to score in that crazy first inning. Speaking of the 1st, how many of you had the Astros sending 10 men to the plate in an inning, with Jose Altuve making 2 of the inning's 3 outs? I'll be honest: I didn't see that coming.
With Keuchel dealing, the game was pretty much iced after the 1st inning 6-spot, but Jon Singleton's 2 run homer in the bottom of the fifth certainly didn't hurt. After every Singleton homer, I start to think Gator's going to heat up and take the league by storm for the rest of the season. Sure hope I'm right this time. Bob Grossman had a homer of his own this afternoon, which wraps up our extra base hit report.
I don't know if the front office is looking to deal Keuchel or not, but if they are, Houston's first 10 game winner in two years sure gave contending clubs a tantalizing taste of what he's capable of this afternoon. There's a good chance he'll never be more valuable than he is right now, but luckily there are people way smarter than me working to figure that out.
This is my fourth paragraph in a row to start with a sentence mentioning Keuchel. Some people would call that superfluous. I would call those people wrong. Keuchel.
Even with the incremental improvement we've experienced this year, wins are still a precious commodity in Houston, so don't concentrate on the-sweep-that-could-have-been. Just revel in everything going according to plan for a single game, and enjoy the first series win against Oakland of the year. Man... a sweep would have been so cool.