Confession time – I’m an avid soccer fan, specifically Tottenham Hotspur. I grew up playing the sport and absolutely love it. Some people complain about draws, but they don’t bother me in soccer. However, baseball is NOT soccer. A tie just isn’t right, even in Spring Training. Unfortunately, today did end in a tie. The Houston Astros and Washington Nationals battled to a 1-1 draw in a game that featured loose pitching and a Correa bomb.

Dallas Keuchel took the mound today for the Astros and continued his brilliant form. Not only did he only allow one hit while striking out four in his three innings of work, he also flashed his Golden Glove on the field. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him win a few more GGs before he finally hangs it up.

Carlos Correa did Correa things. He scored the only Astros run in the game with a solo shot against Nationals starter Joe Ross. He also drew a walk and continued to dominate the shortstop position. I’m not crowning him MVP quite yet (it’s only spring), but…

Other than that, the Astros pitching combined for a ton of wild pitches (4+). James Hoyt gave up the lone run to the Nationals without a single ball leaving the infield. In general it wasn’t a pretty day for pitching, but it was effective enough to limit the damage when needed.

I want to touch on two players before closing out this recap, Jon Singleton and Jake Marisnick. Big Jon collected one hit and stole a base today without striking out. He put the ball in play rather than simply whiffing at the plate. He hasn’t been good this spring, but this was a decent outing for a change. I still expect he’ll leave the friendly confines of Minute Maid this summer.

As for Marisnick, well, he’s been almost as awful as Singleton so far this spring, defense excluded. The biggest issue I’ve noticed (while listening on the radio) is that he’s absolutely terrible against breaking pitches. In fact, I believe his two strikeouts were a result of getting punked by change ups. If you want to stick in the bigs, you MUST hit and recognize the breaking pitches. Getting fooled happens, but if it continues to happen it’s a trend. I hope he can turn things around at the plate because his glove is absolutely monster on the field.

Well, that’s all for today! We face the Nationals once again tomorrow at 12:05 PM CT. Pitchers Colin McHugh and TBD (PTBNL’s cousin) will take the mound for their respective teams.