Astros 2, Rays 9: Kazmir Has First Bad Day of His Astros Career

What Happened

Even though Scott Kazmir only has a record of 1-2 since he came over, he still had pitched well.  This was not the case tonight.  Kazmir gave up four runs in the first inning, and the Rays never looked back in the wire-to-wire win.

It started off well enough as the first two batters were retired quickly.  Then Evan Longoria got a roller through the shift and Logan Forsythe walked.  Asdrubal Cabrera then hit a bloop into centerfield just out of the reach of Carlos Gomez to plate the first run.  Tim Beckham followed that with a blast into the Crawford Boxes for a quick 4-0 lead for Tampa Bay.

Carlos Gomez scored one in the second inning on an error by Beckham.  The Astros pulled within two with an opposite field home run on a pitch that was a foot into the left hand batter's box.  That was all the Astros would score on the night, although they had their chances.  The best chance of the night was when they had runners on first and third in the fifth inning with one out, but Carlos Correa and Jed Lowrie failed to get a run home.  The team put the ball in play tonight (only four strikeouts) but a lot of them went for warning track fly balls and line drives right at infielders.

The Rays tacked on a couple of extra runs with one in the fifth on a sacrifice fly, and Josh Fields allowed an inherited runner to score in the sixth.  I think they may have got some more hits and runs later on.  I don't know...I stopped paying attention.  Forensic Files was coming on on HLN.

Tomorrow these two teams will face off again as Scott Feldman goes against Jake Odorizzi at 7 pm.

Fun Facts

The 15 hits the Rays got tied a season high for the Astros staff.

Gattis got on base two times because Beckham was jittery with his throws.  Heard about all the triples and thought he was a burner.

Tweets of the Night

Twitter (including Mr. Ensberg) had no time for complaining and foolishness...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Who cares? We&#39;re in 1st. It takes time to see if moves work. <a href="https://t.co/GtNICKNr3Y">https://t.co/GtNICKNr3Y</a></p>&mdash; Morgan Ensberg (@MorganEnsberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/MorganEnsberg/status/633447361793036289">August 18, 2015</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If you complain about this year&#39;s Houston Astros, you will be sent a picture of Lucas Harrell. Courtesy, me</p>&mdash; AstrosNation (@Astrosdiehards) <a href="https://twitter.com/Astrosdiehards/status/633458445748801536">August 18, 2015</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Gattis giving advice to the rookie...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/BulldogBeing">@BulldogBeing</a> was telling <a href="https://twitter.com/TeamCJCorrea">@TeamCJCorrea</a> &quot;don&#39;t shave again and one day you too might have a beard this glorious.&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a></p>&mdash; JR Montes (@jrmontes) <a href="https://twitter.com/jrmontes/status/633449928619130880">August 18, 2015</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>