:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/17492295/175707455.0.jpg)
Welp fans, it's another one of those games where our offense is great, but their offense is much much better! Either that or our pitching's bad, but their pitching is not as bad. Regardless of which is which, we still ended up losing, which is not surprising given that today is Tuesday, which should be renamed Luesday.
Anywho, the game started off with a scoreless frame by Jordan Lyles, followed by a 3-run half-inning in which Steven Wright, who was making his first major league start, threw a knuckleball all over the place, kind of like an abstract painter just flings paint all over the place, including the new carpet that just got put in. These acts of recklessness lead to the first two runs being scored on two different passed balls. This is pretty sloppy for the Red Sox, but given that there were four passed balls in the inning and we only scored on two of them, I have to think the Astros did pretty sloppy too given those circumstances. But I'm only kidding, of course. The third run came of the inning came on a Wallace ground out that scored Jason Castro.
So Astros fans seemed to be happy. We were winning. We were scoring runs off of all the different Red Sox pitchers. Heck, even when Lyles gave up 3 runs in the 3rd we still had a 2-run lead. That changed when the half-inning rolled around when we scored another run. By the beginning of the top of the 5th inning we had a 4-run lead. But 4-runs leads are forbidden, and so Lyles gave up 5 runs to get rid of that blasphemy. As soon as we lost the lead, which we never gained back, Dallas Keuchel replaced Lyles on the mound. Lyles had a total line of 4.2 IP, 9 H, 8 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 1 HR.
Lyles has been a frustrating pitcher, always seeming to pitch well for a few innings and then completely melt down like a snowman dealing with global warming. I have hope he can become a consistently good major league pitcher. September of last year was promising for Lyles and people still forget he's only 22 years old. He's got time to improve, y'all.
Besides the fact that tonight's game was a net disappointment, a few events were particularly exciting, especially on the slugfest side. Robbie Grossman, Brett Wallace, and Jake Elmore all hit home runs. Grossman's blast left the bat at 106 mph, according to Astros Analysis, which solidifies the fact that Robbie Grossman is absolutely the best player in the major leagues. Why? Because he's Robbie Grossman! Why is he Robbie Grossman? Because someone has to be Robbie Grossman!
Brett Wallace, who isn't Robbie Grossman, hit another home run today, which at #9 on the season ties his season high from last year, albeit in 100 fewer plate appearances. One has to love that.
The other player to hit anything other than a single was L.J. Hoes, who hit a triple that landed on Tal's Hill. Nice to see him have a bit of pop in his bat. Pop in the bat is legal, while cork is not.
Other than those handy dandy hits, there isn't much else to be excited about. Maybe the fact that we're one step closer to Carlos Ro... I mean, uh, Carlos Correa...?
That sentence doesn't make much sense, but neither does games like these when the offense performs higher than usual, but the pitching performs a lot worse than usual, which is usually worse than everyone else. Oh well, that's Astros baseball for ya. Anyone excited for Cosart's start tomorrow? Will he continue pitching well? Maybe it'd be a good time for his first career no-hitter?
