Astros Crawfish Boil: Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Welcome to Humpday. Here’s your Wednesday Boil!

Houston Astros News

Thursday’s Astros game moved to Friday due to weather (mlb.com)

Alex Bregman, A.J. Hinch issue plea to help ex-Astros coach Rich Dauer (houstonchronicle.com)

Astros’ Lance McCullers: Ahead of schedule (cbssports.com)

Astros’ Yordan Alvarez makes a beautiful throw to get Tigers’ Matt Vierling out at home plate (foxsports.com)

Astros 2023: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times (chipalatta.com)

AL West News

ESPN’s Jeff Passan: It’s far too early to worry about Mariners (sports.mynorthwest.com)

How Mariners plan to battle adversity in ‘23 (mlb.com)

Shohei Ohtani pays respect to Ichiro Suzuki with ultimate gesture before Los Angeles-Mariners game (clutchpoints.com)

Angels beat reporter banned from team-owned radio program for ‘negativity’ against team (foxnews.com)

Las Vegas baseball fans love Aviators, but the A’s are very tempting (reviewjournal.com)

We found tickets for all 2023 Oakland A’s home games. Some are only $8 (nypost.com)

Rangers’ Jacob deGrom aims for better vs. Orioles (deadspin.com)

Stitches, No Fractures for Rangers’ Josh Smith After Being Hospitalized by a Wild Pitch (nbcdfw.com)

MLB News

Cheers! Dodd delights fans with winning MLB debut (mlb.com)

‘Batboys are going to be a big deal:’ MLB’s new rules put pressure on baseball’s quiet helpers (usatoday.com)

Who is the top basestealing threat for each MLB team? (mlb.com)

Maeda fans 9 in Tommy John return, showing ace upside (mlb.com)

Josh Lowe predicts back-to-back HRs as Rays improve to 5-0 (mlb.com)

Machado first to be ejected for arguing pitch timer violation (mlb.com)

Lessons From 11 Years of Darin Ruf (fangraphs.com)

Houston Astros Birthdays

RHP Brandon Backe (45) is a native of Galveston, TX. In six seasons as an Astros pitcher from 2004 through 2009, mostly as a starter, he went 30-28 with a 5.16 ERA and a 1.550 WHIP. He threw an immaculate inning on April 15, 2004 against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Later that year, Backe topped himself by throwing eight shutout, one-hit innings in Game Five of the NLCS to top the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-0. In 2008, he reached a career-high with 166 ²⁄₃ innings pitched, but also led the National League with 112 earned runs and the majors with 36 homers allowed.

Backe’s saga took a left turn after the 2008 season when he was arrested at a wedding party in Galveston. He alleged that the respondents used excessive force, and indeed, four of them were found guilty of it. Backe was seeking damages up to $13 million in lost wages, as he was unable to pitch effectively due to damaged incurred to his pitching arm in the fracas. The jury was unable to award him anything other than the $48,900 awarded to injured plaintiffs.