Did you watch that whole game? Why?!?! What's wrong with you?! You, my friend, are a true baseball fan. Fourteen inning games should be reserved for the playoffs and lazy Sunday afternoons -- not Monday nights when I have to write the recap. It was painful to get there, but in the end, it was worth it as Carlos Correa drove in Jose Altuve to walk off in the fourteenth inning. And the poor losing pitcher? Our good friend, Scott Feldman -- who was still an Astro not eight hours ago. Thanks for the going away present, Scottycakes.
The Astros have scored a grand total of three runs in their last 31 innings, but lets gloss over that frustrating stat and discuss tonight's excellent non Will Harris pitching. Doug Fister, who's wife could be having their first child at this very moment, pitched brilliantly, allowing only four hits and a single walk over six innings while striking out eight Blue Jays. Granted, two of their bigger bats, Josh Donaldson and Troy Tulowitzki, were on the bench, but it was still unequivocally a strong performance from a pitcher who seems to have been walking a tight rope (and occasionally falling off said tight rope) in recent starts.
Chris Devenski pitched what felt like a second game after the Will Harris BS, throwing four innings of no-hit ball while striking out SEVEN in a row. I might have misheard this, and I'm too tired to do the research on my own, so please correct me in the comments (I'm sure you will), but I think Brownie said the last Astro to strike out seven in a row was Jim DeShaies. The Blue Jays struck out an astounding 22 times in this game, and we'd get to make fun of them for it except that the Astros struck out a sterling 18 times themselves. Not a lot of contact in this game, folks.
Marcus Stroman's slider was unhittable through his seven innings tonight -- with the exception of one he left up in the zone to Jose Altuve. Gigante clobbered the hanger for his 19th home run of the season. Other than that, Stroman was phenomenal -- striking out thirteen Astros and topping his personal single game strike out record by three.
The Rangers didn't play today, which seems to be about the only way we can make up any ground on them. Not the most solid longterm strategy, but work with what you've got, right? Stros and Jays play game two of this four game set tomorrow evening.