The surging Houston Astros descend on the Queen City.
The Astros get three cracks at the Reds.
Despite joining the American League over a decade ago, the Cincinnati Reds remain Houston’s most common opponent, and will remain so for at least another 40 years. With 850 meetings between the two, Houston’s next most common opponent is the San Francisco Giants, with 738 common games. Cincinnati owns a 449-401 edge for an Astros winning percentage of .472. That’s Houston’s 24th-best. In addition, Cincinnati has won the last six games of the series. The two have never met in the postseason.
Like I said, Houston has dropped the last six meetings in a row, including three in 2023 and three in 2019. To find Houston’s last win over the Reds, I had to go all the way back to June 19, 2016, when Mike Fiers (5-3, 4.42) earned a 6-0 win with Chris Devenski collecting a 10-out save. Luis Valbuena (8) and Evan Gattis (11) went deep and collected two hits each. Anyone remember these guys? Oh, and Jose Altuve went 1-for-2 with a run and a RBI.
Although Houston has lost six in a row to the Reds, we should not let that temper any expectations. After all, we had lost six in a row to the Kansas City Chiefs as well, and we all know how that worked out.
I mentioned in the GameThread that Houston’s rotation has been unparallelled over their last five starts, but I think it bears repeating along with a spotlight:
Five starts, 33 1⁄3 innings pitched, 12 hits allowed, one earned run. .120 oppBA, 0.27 ERA, 0.750 WHIP.
That’s the combined line for Ronel Blanco, Framber Valdez, Spencer Arrighetti, Yusei Kikuchi, and Hunter Brown in their most recent appearances. That looks like the line for a pitcher of the month. I think the entire rotation could be the AL POTM for August 2024. Maybe I’m a homer, but I really don’t think so.
Houston just swept the Royals at Minute Maid Park, taking a four-game series and in the process jumping from the sixth-best record in the American League all the way up to fourth. In the meantime, Kansas City dropped from the two-seed all the way down to the sixth. In the series finale, Blanco earned the win after five shutout innings, walking four, allowing three hits and striking out three. Yordan Alvarez (29, 30) went deep twice, hitting multiple home runs for the sixth time this season. Jon Singleton (12) also went deep, while Mauricio Dubón collected a pair of singles.
The whole series was frustrating. That stinks. These guys are good. We were in every game. They pitched extremely well. They got big hits, and we didn’t. — Matt Quatraro
The Reds were in danger of getting swept in a four-game series themselves, by the Milwaukee Brewers over the past four days, but after losing the first three managed to eke out a 4-3 win on Sunday afternoon. Rece Hinds scored the walk-off game-winner in the bottom of the 11th on a Bryse Wilson infield single. Jake Fraley (4) hit a home run while Jonathan India collected three hits. Alexis Diaz (2-5, 4.66) earned the win in relief.
Gametimes and Starting Pitchers
Monday, 3:10 PM CT: Justin Verlander (unconfirmed, 3-4, 4.16) vs. TBD
Wednesday, 5:40 PM CT: Spencer Arrighetti (7-11, 4.63) vs. TBD
Thursday, 12:10 PM CT: Hunter Brown (11-7, 3.55) vs. TBD
Heroes and Zeroes (five highest and lowest WPA vs. Royals)
Framber Valdez 45.6
Jose Altuve 44.4
Yainer Diaz 36.3
Yusei Kikuchi 35.3
Hunter Brown 34.7
Ben Gamel & Mauricio Dubón -3.9
Jeremy Peña -7.1
Jake Meyers -14.7
Josh Hader -26.2
Bryan Abreu -29.4