Astros Fall Short Against the Red Sox, 6-5

Ronel Blanco put the Stros in an early hole allowing five runs in 3.1 innings.

In the game thread today I asked two questions. Did Ronel Blanco have enough gas left in the tank of a long season to give us one more good start before the return of Justin Verlander. And second, could the Astros continue to generate enough runs to maintain their miracle comeback season with five members of the lineup who are basically replacement level.

Unfortunately, the answer to both questions tonight was no. If the answer to either had been yes, the Astros would have added to their extraordinary winning record of the past two weeks.

Clearly, Blanco struggled tonight, but fortunately, the Red Sox starter, Nick Pivetta, had his own problems.

It seemed like an early blowout when Blanco allowed three runs in the first, punctuated by Triston Casas’ two run homer.

But the Astros answered with three of their own, thanks mainly to a two-run dinger by AAAA slugger extraordinaire Jon Singleton.

Blanco maneuvered his way out of trouble in the second, stranding the bases loaded by striking out Rafael Devers.

In their half of the second, the Astros took a brief lead thanks to a sac fly from Chas McCormick.

Blanco looked like he was finding his rhythm in the third inning, tossing a clean inning. But no such luck in the fourth. A leadoff walk and singles by Jarren Duran and Casas chased Ronel and gave the Sox a 5-4 lead.

Bryan King came in to put out the fire and held the Sox in the fifth as well. However, one of the definitely not AAAA sluggers on the team, Yainer Diaz, hit his third home in three games and his fifteenth of the season to tie the score.

The underside of the Astros bullpen, Caleb Ferguson (who looked much improved for the second straight game) and Kaleb Ort, held the Sox in innings six and seven. However, it turned out that the Astros were pushing their luck with the unexpected recent success of Ort, who gave up the winning run on a Jarren Duran homer in the eighth inning.

This run pushed Ort’s season ERA to 1.32, and it was the only run allowed by the bullpen in 5.1 IP.

The Astro did not mount a serious threat in the eighth or ninth innings, although in the ninth inning Jake Meyers put a jolt in a ball to deep center, and pinch hit-hero Tony Caratini lofted a deep fly to right that only brought disappointment to the hearts of Astros fans, as it was the final out of the game.

We can lament Meyer’s recent slump, but you can’t argue with his defense.

With such a weak lineup from 5-9, it was a bad night for Yordan to go 0-3. Overall the Astros were 0-8 with runners in scoring position. With only seven hits the Stros did good to score the five runs they did manage.

Early game tomorrow. Verlander’s return begins at 1:10 CT.

Box score here.