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Well let's be real, that sucked. The Astros fall to the Rangers by way of the all mighty sweep. Last season, the Rangers were one of the few teams that bested the Astros at every turn beating them 13 times.
In the series the Astros showed nice flashes from the leather with some "blue star" plays from George Springer and Carlos Correa. The problem was the pretty much the offense.
Below are three takeaways from the Rangers series.
LOB
Over and over again the Astros were smacked in the face with the realization that, hey we may have a guy on base but that doesn't mean he's going to score.
In game two the Astros got a great game from Doug Fister only allowing two runs which is enough for a win 90 percent of the time. Unfortunately, they only managed one run. In the first two innings, they had five runners on base, including bases loaded and nobody out in the second inning and they got ZERO runs. It seems like it's always something with these guys.
In the three-game series the Astros left 20 guys on base.
It will even out eventually, the runs will start coming across the plate but for right now it's pretty painful.
Jason Castro
It was a rough week for the Astros starting catcher while at the plate. In the series, he managed to go hitless in eight at-bats. His all-star season is seeming farther and farther away.
Castro is credited with the way he handles the pitching staff but so far the staff has not been off to an amazing start. It's now making Castro's at-bats stand out even more. If the staff isn't doing hot and he isn't hitting, that's a mighty big hole.
Time for Colin Moran
It may not be time to hit the panic button and start bringing up prospects left and right. But it may be getting time for one prospect, third basemen Colin Moran.
Right now the Astros third basemen are not doing to hot. Luis Valbuena and his replacement Marwin Gonzalez both are hitting around .200. The bottom of the order is doing very badly and a big reason why so many promising innings end up falling apart.
So why Colin Moran? This season in AAA he is batting .326 with a .375 on-base percentage, and a minor league career .301 batting average. Moran is a top prospect and was considered part of the future and with the major league guys struggling when will the future start.