I have never wanted to write a recap less, but this is why they pay me the big bucks…
Anyway, the Astros lost a frustrating and very winnable game Tuesday night and they wasted a great pitching performance.
Spencer Arrighetti pitched like a top-end starter tonight, going 6.2 innings, striking out seven and only walking one. He did give up a no-doubt homer in the top of the second, but besides that, he did a good job limiting the damage.
Houston’s offense was largely dormant until the seventh when they tied the game up with some very good hitting.
After Single(triple)tons RBI triple, Altuve drove in the tying run with an RBI infield single.
Going into the 8th, the score was tied at 2. The Astros bullpen looked almost unhittable, but their offense would miss several opportunities to win the game.
Kyle Tucker came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with runners on second and third and two outs. He struck out and he did not look very good doing it.
Bryan Abreu struck out five A’s in two innings. He has never looked more unhittable than he did tonight, it is a shame the team could not drive in a runner to win the game in the 10th or 11th.
The Astros honestly did not make any boneheaded mistakes on offense in extras. Yainer Diaz did swing at the first pitch with a runner on 3rd and one out in the tenth, but being aggressive has worked well for him and I cannot fault him for that. He grounded out and did not score the run, but that is life.
Pena hit a rocket to right field the next AB, but former Astros minor leaguer Daz Cameron made an outstanding dive to deny the Stros a DUB.
The 12th inning was a disaster for the Astros defensively. The A’s bunted three times in a row and the Astros could only get one out. Some of this was just good bunting by the A’s, but the Astros probably could have defended better.
The Astros began the bottom of the 12th down two runs.
Jose Altuve hit a towering double that bounced off the wall and scored a run. Alvarez moved Tuve over with a slow ground out.
All Tucker had to do was put the ball in play and the Astros would likely have tied it up; However it was not to be, Tucker struck out.
Bregman had one last chance but he grounded out softly to the pitcher.
Final score: A’s 4, Astros 3
Thoughts:
Arrighetti had a great bounce-back game. He probably is not going to be a top-of-the-line starter, but he is certainly outperforming his projections. Honestly, he is probably the team’s fourth-best starter right now.
Tucker is still getting his feet under him, nothing to worry about there.
Extra-inning baseball is really fluky, stuff happens.
The Mariners are currently losing to the Padres. A win tonight would have been sweet, but if Seattle loses tonight, then the Astro’s magic number is 14 with 18 games left. The Astros are not going to get the 2 seed, so a Mariners loss is worth almost about as much as an Astros win.