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Remember when we talked before the season about how this Astros team might have been built to play well on defense and hit a bunch of home runs? Well, apparently the Astros decided to hit all the home runs in one game.
That's six, count 'em, six home runs Houston hit in this game. They included dingers by Jason Castro (his eighth, even though is projections stay he's only going to hit four more all season), Matt Dominguez (now on place to hit 24 this season) and Carlos Pena (I have nothing pithy to say about him). Even Jose Altuve decided to get involved in the home run party.
And yet, because it's the Astros, this game couldn't end simply with a blowout. No, the bullpen had to give up six runs in the final three frames of the game to make things interesting. It go so interesting, in fact, that Jose Veras had to enter the game in a non-save situation to lock things down.
Great performance by Dallas Keuchel, as the entire starting rotation has been in a nice groove lately (with the possible exception of shift-crazy Lucas Harrell). Keuchel did his job and kept the Astros in the game after being staked to a big lead. He got through six innings, allowing just five hits and one run to lower his season ERA to 4.70 and his xFIP to 4.04.
What would be super nice is if the Astros could get a pair of wins tomorrow, lighting up the O's in the series finale and then lighting up the draft by taking...who? Maybe the home run barrage was a sign that it will be Kris Bryant at the top? Or will Keuchel's pitching performance be a precursor to them picking Mark Appel?
Let's close with some more gifs: