Game of the Week: May 6: TEX @ HOU

[Commissioner Erick]

Texas Rangers (10-14) @ Houston Astros (19-6)


TEX: Cole Hamels (0-2, 7.13)
HOU: Dallas Keuchel (1-0, 3.68)


Both the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers were projected to be among the American League's best this year. Only the Astros have lived up to those expectations thus far, though some wins by the Rangers in this series would go a long way to getting back in the AL West.

It's a Texas-sized showdown when the Astros and Rangers square off in the Game of the Week.

This will be the teams first appearance against each other since a humiliating early April beatdown administered by Houston. The Astros swept the Rangers, outscoring Texas 43-15 in the process, including a 26-7 demolition. That series set the tone for the season, as Houston has jumped out to the best record in baseball, while Texas started 0-7 and 1-9 before a recent hot streak has pushed them to respectability.

Unsurprisingly, Houston's ascent back to the elite in the American League has a lot to do with Jose Altuve. In 2018, Altuve bizarrely hit .102 in May after a pedestrian .276 in April. Aside from that aberration, Altuve hit .331 in 2018, after posting a .346 mark in 2017. He's up to .357 in the early going in 2019 and is back to showcasing himself as a superstar.

After being traded from Washington, Daniel Murphy had a solid time in 2018 with Houston. He's exploded in 2019 however. He's hitting .382 with 12 doubles, leading the league in average and second in the league in two-baggers. A terrific line drive hitter, he's seeing the ball extremely well right now and putting a hurting on opposing pitchers.

Houston picked up Hunter Pence after his comp tags cleared, and despite not having a Spring Training, Pence has been terrific for Houston. He's slashing .271/.368/.475 with nearly as many walks as strikeouts. Pence was a casualty of San Francisco's rebuild, but with his age, teams were fearful of a decline making the concept of giving up a first round pick a tough one to swallow. Those fears turned into Houston's gain. Pence slugged 30 home runs last season and finished in the top five in runs and RBIs, and now Houston is able to plug him into their lineup.

The Astros will turn to Dallas Keuchel, whose previous turn on the Game of the Week wasn't great. Keuchel started opening day and allowed a pair of home runs to Cleveland. He hasn't had the best year, but is coming off a gem. He went into San Diego and allowed three hits and no walks over 8 innings in a 1-0 Houston win. He's faced Texas already, allowing just two runs in 6.1 innings, and the Astros are hoping those good trends carry over.

The Astros also have the best bullpen in the league right now. Chris Devenski and Luke Gregerson each have an ERA under 1.00, while Jandel Gustave is second in the league in wins. If there's a close game at the end, it'll be hard to break through against Houston.

Meanwhile, Texas is seeing their star-studded lineup scuffling in the early going. Rougned Odor hit 75 home runs the last two years, but he's been out for most of the season. One players's loss shouldn't be devastating for such a deep lineup as the Rangers, but so many of their core players are struggling. While Nomar Mazara is hitting .340 for the Dodgers, Corey Seager is batting .184. Meanwhile, though the other return in the Mazara trade has seven home runs, Yasiel Puig is apparently despised in Texas' clubhouse, with reports of numerous conflicts. A.J. Hinch was brought on the be the bench coach late last year, and the team hasn't performed that well under him as the personality conflicts have bubbled.

The power hitters in Texas are selling out, as evidenced by the high home run total and low averages of Ryan O'Hearn, and Puig. But you also have sophomore slumps from guys like Francisco Meia. La Cabra had a spectacular campaign last year, where he hit 33 home runs and led the league with a .328 average. This year, he's batting .270 with just three RBIs.

Every member of Texas' bullpen has an ERA over 4.72, with six players producing ERAs over 5.56. Nothing will torpedo a season like a bullpen this bad, though the hope is that the unit has turned a corner in May, where their ERA is only 3.00.

Texas is also hoping Cole Hamels can turn a corner as the veteran has an ERA of 7.13 in three starts this year, giving up five runs every time. With the quality of Houston's pitching, five runs will be too much to pull out a win.


Questions for the GMs:


For Clayton Piper, your team was awful to start the year. What happened?

There are rumblings of a fractured clubhouse over Yasiel Puig. Will you take any action or hope winning will sort that out?

Your Triple-A team is 3-21. What's going on there?

For Ryan James, you've certainly made a mark on your team. Is there anything you're doing differently than your predecessors as far as you can tell?

You've got a good problem with Tony Kemp and Derek Fisher each bringing something to the table in left. How are you parsing out playing time to them?

Mike Zunino is only hitting .153. Is his performance concerning at all?

[Commissioner Erick]

Astros 10 - Rangers 9 (13)


WP: J. Hoyt (1-0)
LP: I. Krol (2-1)


The Astros demoralized the Rangers with a dominating sweep back in April that set the two teams on divergent paths. Last night, when the Rangers thought they could exact revenge, the Astros completed a furious comeback to demoralize the Rangers further.

The Houston Astros came back from four-runs down, getting a walkoff home run from Mike Zunino in the thirteenth inning to edge the Texas Rangers 10-9.

It was another major win for Houston over Texas that put the Astros up 9.5 games over their rivals just over a month into the season. The see-saw match was a classic affair that saw Houston edge out to a lead only for Texas to tie it three times before the sixth inning. After Houston pulled forward in the middle innings, Texas put up a six-spot in the seventh, thinking it would be enough. As has gone their way this early season, Houston got all the breaks late to clinch a victory.

Dallas Keuchel was far better than Cole Hamels in the game, but neither pitcher was helped out much by his defense. An error by Kyle Seager on the first play of the game allowed Jose Altuve to score the first run, setting the tone of a sloppy, run-filled affair. Back-to-back errors by Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve in the second inning led to Texas immediately answering with its first run on a sacrifice fly by Corey Seager. It took back-to-back strikeouts by Keuchel over O'Hearn and Chirinos to prevent more runs from scoring.

Kyle Seager atoned for his mistake by hitting an RBI hit in the third to knot the game at two. When Houston loaded the bases, Keuchel responded by retiring Corey Seager to end the threat.

The fourth inning was Hamels' time to allow a run but work his way out of further trouble. He walked Yuli Gurriel to begin the inning, then allowed a hit to Tony Kemp. Zunino hit a sac fly to bring home a run, and an Altuve double put two on with one out, before Hamels fell behind George Spring 2-0. Springer grounded out weakly to Robinson Chirinos for the second out before Daniel Murphy's blooper over the third base bag was tracked down by a backpedaling Kyle Seager to prevent further damage.

However, once again, Houston's defense faltered after getting the lead. Mike Zunino fired Paul Goldschmidt's trickler into right field for a two-base error, which Yasiel Puig cashed in with a triple. Texas couldn't take its first lead of the game though, as Keuchel retired Carlos Santana on a grounder with the infield in, then struck out Kyle Seager and Brallan Perez to end the inning.

Houston again answered with a run as Alex Bregman connected on a home run to give Houston a 4-3 lead. It looked like Texas would again answer as a Corey Seager double and catcher's interference put two on with one out. As he had done all game, Keuchel worked his way out of a jam. A groundball by Billy Hamilton resulted in a force play and the second out of the inning as Seager scurried to third. A Goldschmidt trickler to the right side of the mound was gloved expertly by Keuchel as he flung to first to get out of the inning unscathed.

When Hamels was pulled for Jeffress and Springer doubled home a run, it appeared that Texas' inability to capitalize would doom them with Houston's bullpen coming up. They went 2-13 off Keuchel with runners in scoring position, getting bailed out by reaching on an error twice in those circumstances, and having runners end up in scoring position in the first place two times as a result of errors.

To Texas' credit, they didn't submit. Puig beat out a ground ball to Correa for an infield hit to start the seventh, leading Houston to go to its bullpen. Luke Gregerson walked Carlos Santana on four pitches, before T.J. McFarland was brought in to walk Kyle Seager. Jundal Gustave, he of the 4-0 record, got the handedness advantage against Perez, but Perez slashed a grounder past Altuve to make it 5-4 Houston. Bregman made a play at the plate on the next batter, Luis Guellerme, for the first out, setting up a situation where a ground ball would get the Astros out of the inning.

Ryan O'Hearn didn't hit a ground ball.

O'Hearn took Gustave into the Crawford Boxes in left field for a Grand Slam, giving Texas an 8-4 lead. For good measure, after Gustave was replaced for fresh off the DL Francis Martes, Robinson Chirinos gave the returnee a warm welcome with a home run to make it 9-5. With the home runs, Texas was primed for a victory that would help them close the gap in the AL West.

Houston was merely playing cat-and-mouse. Bregman greeted Josh Staumont with a home run in the seventh to cut the Rangers lead to 9-6. A walk and an error later, and Houston was in business. Matt Bush restored order by getting Kemp to pop up, striking out Zunino, and retiring Altuve on a lazy fly out to keep the score 9-6.

Chris Devenski struck out the side in the eighth before Houston's bats took over. With one out, Daniel Murphy singled before Correa and Bregman walked to load the bases. Hunter Pence hit a grounder up the middle to plate two, making the score 9-8. Alex Claudio came on and plunked Gurriel to load the bases before Tony Kemp's line drive to center field was deep enough to plate Bregman with the tying run. Zunino struck out to end the inning, making him 0-3 with a sacrifice fly with runners in scoring position.

Texas looked like they may have had an answer in the ninth, when Francisco Mejia pinch hit and led off with a double against Ken Giles. A fly out and intentional walk later, and Texas had two on and one out with a chance to take the lead. Chirinos and Hamilton each struck out against Giles for yet another missed opportunity.

Keona Kela set the Astros down meekly in the bottom of the ninth setting up a dramatic extra innings.

Giles worked around a two-out walk to fan the side in the tenth before Alex Bregman was caught stealing, running Houston out of an opportunity in the bottom of the tenth. Three walks sandwiching a sacrifice bunt set up a bases loaded situation with one out in the eleventh, but Hamilton grounded into a fielder's choice, and Bregman snared a Goldschmidt hit attempt to keep things tied. Kela allowed two base runners in the bottom of the inning, but Hamilton got a great jump to snare a line drive by Murphy to keep things tied going to the twelfth.

Giles got Puig to ground out to begin the inning, before James Hoyt finished it by working around a Carlos Santana single. Kela gave up a hit and a walk in the bottom of the twelfth, but a double play bailed him out. He exited for Krol, who beat Gurriel with a fastball, popping him up to keep the game going.

Giles wound up working 3.1 innings, walking five, striking out five, and not allowing a run. For his part, Kela allowed four walks and two hits in 3.2 innings, but likewise worked a scoreless appearance. Both closers gave all they had and worked in an out of jams to keep the their teams in the game.

Finally, in the fateful thirteenth, Billy Hamilton struck out with a man in scoring position as yet another missed opportunity for Texas. Zunino came up in the bottom of the inning and erased all the memories of his rough plate appearances with men on base earlier in the game. He took a Krol heater out and over the plate to right field for a 389-foot home run, giving Houston a 10-9 win, and extending their lead over Texas to 9.5 games.


Questions for the GMs:


For Clayton Piper, it's been a rough go for you against Houston as you're now 0-4 against Ryan James' club. What about them has been so tough for you this year?

Billy Hamilton went 0-8 with four strikeouts, going 0-4 with men in scoring position. How long can you go with him in the leadoff spot?

Your manager bot was definitely involved in the game, calling for a pinch runner and a pinch hitter, and burning two players off the bench to replace those players. Are you in favor of the micromanaging or would you rather let your starters play?

For Ryan James, what a wild game. What are your thoughts on Giles' 63-pitch outing?

You hinted that a big reason why you took on a team in the AL West was to take down Clayton Piper. What do you have to say after a game like today?

Mike Zunino really struggled—until he ended the game with a home run. What are your thoughts on his performance?