Astros 6, Angels 3: Keuchel Dominates Again At Home

What Happened

After a pretty bad outing last week in Arlington, Dallas Keuchel put it back together tonight to keep the winning train rolling along.  At times it just seemed too easy for him.  Over 7 2/3 innings he only gave up six hits (no extra base hits) and one walk while striking out six.  The only run was manufactured by a series of infield hits and groundouts by the Angels.  The only hard hit ball all night I could remember was a fly out to Tal's Hill in the first inning.

The Astros bats continued their success, and this time it was against Flamin' Jered Weaver.  Weaver has owned the Astros this season with his slow heat.  Tonight they were ready for it.  Evan Gattis dented the cow on the foul pole with a 2-run homer to give the fans free chicken sammiches in the second inning.  Not to be outdone, Carlos Correa drove another 2-run homer into the Astros bullpen for a 4-0 lead in the third inning.  George Springer drove in the fifth run in the fifth as Jake Marisnick came in to score on his single.  After a one out triple by Jose Altuve in the seventh inning, Correa drove him in with a double for another insurance run.

Keuchel came out of the game in the top of the eighth as Pat Neshek took over to face Mike Trout.  Trout swung at the first pitch and flew out to shallow right field.  Josh Fields came in to pitch the ninth and got a couple of quick outs, but then got knocked around a bit.  After a LONG double, an RBI single and a walk he was pulled for Oliver Perez.  Perez did his job by allowing another RBI single.  Luke Gregerson now came in with a save opportunity with runners on the corners.  He got Erick Aybar to ground out to finally end the ninth.  They are now one game behind Arlington for the division lead, and up by three games for the wild card.

Tomorrow night Lance McCullers heads to the hill to take on the Angels in the middle game of the series.  His mound opponent will be Hector Santiago.  Game time is 7 pm.

Fun Facts

Keuchel is the first Astros pitcher since 2004 to record 200 strikouts.  Oswalt and Clemens did it that year.

Keuchel is now 14-0 at Minute Maid Park

Altuve is now only 15 hits away from 200 for the year.  It would be his second 200 hit season, and he would be the first Astros player to have multiple seasons with 200 hits.

The top three batters in the lineup (Altuve, Springer, Correa) all had multi hit games.  Their line?  8-for-12, a homer, a triple, two doubles and four RBIs.

Tweets of the Night

This man says what we were all thinking...

pic.twitter.com/qkM1VMXvil @alysonfooter he ain't wrong

— Sean Rosales (@Sean_Rosales) September 22, 2015

Good thing we play them so much, right?

Carlos Correa, in 10 games against the Angels this season: 15-for-40, 4 HR, 10 RBI, 3 2B.

— Alden Gonzalez (@Alden_Gonzalez) September 22, 2015

Also, he is really good at baseball...

Carlos Correa hit his 19th HR in his 88th career game. That's 1 shy of Astros single-season record for HR by a shortstop (Dickie Thon, 1983)

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) September 22, 2015

There are no hits down there...

Dallas Keuchel's swing & miss heatmap is pretty interesting. He's amazing at keeping his pitches low on the corners pic.twitter.com/efoHz5VzaD

— Daren Willman (@darenw) September 22, 2015