Nuclear Meltdown in Arlington. Astros get Fukashimed by Rangers 13-2.

Generally speaking, I don’t do play-by-play recaps of Games the Astros lose by 11 runs on 16 hits. And just by coincidence that’s exactly what happened today in Arlington, the Rangers taking game 3 of the series 13-2. So I’ll just give you the big picture.

The Astros pitching sucked.

For the first five innings of the game, it looked more like batting practice for the Rangers than a real game. Rangers bats left Astros pitching in smoldering rubble, like the wreckage at Chernobyl or Fukashima. Starter Zack Greinke allowed runs in three of the fours innings he pitched and got saved from worse damage by a number of good fielding plays.

His final line was four innings pitched, (He pitched in the fifth without recording an out) allowing six earned runs on nine hits and two walks. He faced 23 batters and got one strikeout. It seemed every breaking ball he threw was a hanger, and the Rangers took full advantage.

Bryan Abreu is back on the roster, but probably not for long. Abreu did get two outs, but not before the Rangers scored seven runs on seven hits. He threw 37 pitches, only 20 for strikes.

If you think that maybe the Rangers were just hot today, first consider that the rest of the Astros bullpen, Blake Taylor, Phil Maton, and Brooks Raley, shut out the Rangers for the rest of the game and only allowed two hits.

There were a few, tiny, radioactive, silver linings for the Astros today. Yordan Alvarez hit his 28th homer. Alex Bregman had two hits, and the rookie Jake Meyers did a thing yet again, getting an RBI double for the Astros’ only other run. And, he lived up to the name Jake with a great play in center.

Zack Greinke has to be a concern for the playoffs. He can be sharp, but then he has games like this. Let’s hope he doesn’t have another one like today’s.

Oh well, days like today happen even to the best teams playing against even the worst teams. The Stros still took two in Arlington and are 6.5 games ahead of the second-place A’s, who play the Yankees at 6:08 tonight

I don’t know who to root for.

Tomorrow the Astros go to Seattle. Game time 9:05.

Box Score and Videos Here.