Astros Beat Mariners Twice In A Row Because Of Course They Do
It’s like I said a couple days ago: the Seattle Mariners don’t take nearly enough advantage of having the Houston Astros in their division. Following those words the M’s won two games against baseball’s worst team, and it looked like they had finally figured out that the Astros are meant to be beaten, and badly. What’s happened since Seattle took the first two games of this series? Two more games. Both losses. To the Astros.
Brandon Maurer started yesterday’s game, and let’s not talk much about that. It was horrible. Gross, really. Maurer’s going to be in AAA soon, and maybe he’ll be alright there. He was alright for a couple innings on Saturday, but more often than not he was awful and the result was a gruesome line: 4.1 IP, six runs all earned two homers a walk two Ks, blah blah blah… grisly. 6.99 ERA. Make the bad man stop.
Saturday at least featured a Kyle Seager triple and the survival of the James Jones hitting streak. Sunday featured neither of those things, and also saw the end of Robinson Cano‘s lengthy on-base streak. These things and more can be attributed to the performance of Dallas Keuchel, who I think we can now refer to as the Astros’ ace. Keuchel’s some kind of a phenomenon right now, along the lines of Jesse Chavez, and word out of Houston is that he’s a rare untradeable Astro. So watch out for Dallas Keuchel in the playoffs, in 2020.
Even Hisashi Iwakuma struggled, giving up a bomb to George Springer (who took Maurer deep twice the night before) and another to terrible nobody first baseman Marc Krauss. It’s important to note that a “struggling” Iwakuma still threw seven innings while walking nobody and striking out six. Four runs be damned, that’s a good underlying line. Homers suck, but Iwakuma’s still not walking anyone. Ace.
The Angels are coming! The Angels are coming! The Angels are coming, and uh-oh, they’re good now. Mike Trout‘s been slumping, which is amazing in and of itself, but Howie Kendrick‘s on fire and Albert Pujols is 25 years old again. Garrett Richards has a 2.58 FIP and is awesome at pitching. So now the Mariners are in fourth place and the Angels are a game and a half back of the A’s. Greeeaaat.
Chris Young vs. Tyler Skaggs, tomorrow at 1:10pm in beautiful Seattle. Chris Young! Remember how he looks good sometimes, but actually isn’t good? Well, Tyler Skaggs is kind of like that, except the total opposite. Looking at ERA and literally nothing else, the M’s have an advantage tomorrow. Looking at the things that tell us if a pitcher is good or not, the M’s are at a disadvantage. Hey, at least they’re not playing the Astros.