Astros 5, Tigers 1: Keuchel Starts Home Stand Off On The Right Note

What Happened

Dallas Keuchel continued his dominance at home, leading the Astros to a 5-1 win to start this long home stand.  In the first three innings he struck out four batters on his way to an eight strikeout performance.  The only blemish on his night was the fourth inning where he gave up a single, a walk (his only one on the evening) and another single to give the Tigers the early 1-0 lead.  That rally was killed with a strikeout of J.D. Martinez, and a tailor made double play to end the inning.  Keuchel ended up pitching seven innings, giving up 6 hits and only the one run.  Manager A.J. Hinch mentioned in the postgame press conference that Dallas seemed in control of the game all night.

Over the road trip we got used to the offense not holding up it's end of the bargain as far as runs were concerned.  Tonight started to look the same way.  In the first four innings the Astros had runners on base.  They had multiple runners on in two of those innings.  Take a quick guess how many of those runners scored.  Yep...

But then the fifth inning came along.  The inning started with a Marwin Gonzalez single and a Jason Castro double into the right field corner.  Jose Altuve immediately drove in the tying run with a groundout to shortstop.  After another groundout you couldn't blame any fans for thinking there was no way Castro was going to make it home.  Carlos Correa walked on four pitches (one of his three walks in the game...they wanted no part of him), then stole second base.  Jed Lowrie followed that with a clutch double to left to drive in both baserunners and take a 3-1 lead.

Leading off the sixth inning Evan Gattis hit another triple (his ninth of the year).  Jake Marisnick came in to run for him and scored on a perfect sac bunt by Gonzalez down the first base line to make the score 4-1.  They tacked on an insurance run in the eighth when Marisnick singled, stole second, and came home on a Chris Carter double.

After Keuchel came out of the game, Pat Neshek came in and pitched a perfect eighth inning and Luke Gregerson pitched a perfect ninth (including two K's) for the not-save to close out the game.

These two teams will continue the series tomorrow as Collin McHugh takes the bump against the former Cy Young winner Justin Verlander.  First pitch is just after 6 pm.

Fun Facts

After tonight Keuchel has now started 13 games at home.  He is 11-0 with a 1.27 ERA in those games.

In fact, Keuchel's ERA went up from 1.26 to 1.27 after the win tonight.

With his ninth triple tonight, here is a list of all the players ahead of him on the league leaders list in that category:

Kevin Kiermaier (11)

Yeah...that's it.

Tweets of the Night

Oh those crazy kids...

This is how @JoseAltuve27 welcomed @MiguelCabrera back from the DL: http://t.co/KwbBCRMmKY pic.twitter.com/AfNmzdnOd2

— Cut4 (@Cut4) August 15, 2015

Who really needs to steal a base when you start out on third?

Evan Gattis is the first #MLB player since Roy Howell (1980) to record nine triples and no stolen bases in a season. #Astros #HotWheels

— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) August 15, 2015

And here are your updated standings after the LAA loss...

#Astros #MagicNumber: 45 pic.twitter.com/0lPWeaK9jJ

— Astros Daily (@AstrosDaily) August 15, 2015