9th loss in 11 games continues June swoon
Fans were filing in casually, while others were chatting, Minute Maid Park still a placid, airconditioned summer escape Thursday at 1:10 p.m. Were any spectator to blink or peek at a cellphone, they likely would have missed the first moment of the game.
But everyone in the stands could hear its resonant clang.
Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Kevin Newman rocketed a 91 mph first-pitch fastball for a home run that struck a metal sign beneath the train tracks.
Like a gong to welcome visitors, including three of the four players the Astros traded in January 2018 for pitcher Gerrit Cole, the Pirates had Houston’s attention and made themselves comfortable.
With two outs, Brad Peacock got two strikes on Colin Moran — the best position player dealt for Cole — and Corey Dickerson. Moran lined an RBI double, and Dickerson followed with a two-run homer into the Crawford Boxes, and the Pirates went on to drub the Astros with three more home runs in a 10-0 victory.
With nine losses in their last 11 games, the Astros are 12-12 in June and have seen their AL West lead over the Texas Rangers shrink to 4½ games.
Sunshine beamed through the ballpark windows before Thursday’s first pitch. But gloom settled in while Peacock (6-6, 4.13 ERA) buried the Astros in a six-run hole.
He gave up seven hits and one walk in three innings. Half of the hitters he faced reached base. Five of them sent his pitches screaming back at velocities greater than 100 mph.
With Dickerson up, catcher Max Stassi set up inside, an ideal place to jam or strike out the lefthanded hitter. Peacock left a fastball in the center of the zone.
Peacock kept missing. Pittsburgh kept hammering. Jung Ho Kang and Jacob Stallings struck singles off the left-field wall. To begin the third inning, Peacock scurried toward third base to field a slow roller and flung the ball out of Yuli Gurriel’s reach. The throwing error mattered less when Peacock followed with a flat slider that Josh Bell, who leads the majors with 70 RBIs and 53 extrabase hits, launched 445 feet for his 22nd homer.
In his last five starts, Peacock has a 6.39 ERA and eight home runs allowed. His summation of what he struggled with Thursday: “Everything.”
George Springer captured how the Astros’ offense felt from the start. “It’s weird,” he said.
The Astros’ hitters could not feel as comfortable as Pittsburgh’s. They had to face Joe Musgrove, a former teammate who remains a close friend to several players here.
“He was loved here,” Springer said. “Pitching against us was weird. Unfortunately, he threw the ball well, but I’m happy to see him have some success.”
Musgrove (6-7, 4.27) returned to Minute Maid Park for the first time since completing the 10th inning and earning the victory in Game 5 of the 2017 World Series. He mowed down his former team through six innings, recording five strikeouts without issuing a walk, and exited after throwing just 83 pitches because of the cushy lead.
He threw a first-pitch strike to 19 of the 26 batters he faced. He had only one three-ball count. He surrendered nine hits, all singles.
“I tried not to prepare any differently for this start, but going out and getting warmed up for the game and coming into the dugout, I don’t think I’ve been that focused for a while, that locked in,” Musgrove said.
Astros fans likely will remember the gregarious 6-5 righty for his dominant stretch as a fastballslider reliever. But it’s his contribution to the rotation that has made Musgrove, who on Thursday mixed in six pitches, Pittsburgh’s best acquisition in the Cole deal. He has completed six or more innings in 11 of his 16 starts this season, compiling a 2.21 ERA in those games.
Michael Feliz, another piece in the swap for Cole, pitched a perfect seventh inning. Moran’s double gave him a .317 average and 22 RBIs in his last 26 starts.
The Pirates outscored the Astros 24-2 in the final two games of the three-game series, the first this season the Astros have lost at home.
Seeking to bring in a fresh arm to their seven-man bullpen Thursday, the Astros called up Cy Sneed, a rookie righthander with a 4.48 ERA with Class AAA Round Rock. He gave up his first home run in the fifth inning to Starling Marte and his second an inning later to Bryan Reynolds.
Sneed, in an unglamorous position to mop up a mess he made worse, finished the game. He struck out four batters and surrendered four runs on seven hits in a six-inning debut.
Looking back on the game, both managers suggested that the way it began immediately foretold how it would end.
Pirates skipper Clint Hurdle called Newman’s opening blast an “adrenaline shot.”
Said the Astros’ A.J. Hinch: “It steadily went downhill from there.”