Keuchel’s ongoing revival goes unrewarded in loss
While Alex Bregman received a standing ovation before his first at-bat and nearly sent the 30,628 fans at Minute Maid Park into a frenzy by barely missing a grand slam in the sixth inning Monday, Dallas Keuchel was at it again.
And when Astros manager A.J. Hinch went out to get the ball in the eighth inning, the crowd acknowledged Keuchel’s effort with a standing ovation.
Keuchel didn’t get the win — the Astros had no answer for Michael Pineda and the Yankees’ bullpen in a 2-1 loss. Combined with
the Rangers’ win over Oakland, the Astros (54-45) are 3½ games out of first place in the American League West.
But last year’s American League Cy Young Award winner continues to put a
miserable first half of 2016 further and further behind him. After two wins in his opening three starts, Keuchel lost as many games from April 21-June 12 as he did in all of 2015 (eight), while his ERA ballooned to 5.92 at one point.
“He’s starting to show who he is — the kind of pitcher he can be — and whenever he’s on the mound we kind of expect that to happen,” said George Springer, who scored the Astros’ only run with a firstinning homer.
Strong stretch
On Monday, Keuchel (6-10) pitched 72⁄3 innings, striking out five and walking none. He now has six starts among his last seven in which he’s allowed two or fewer earned runs.
“I felt like today was the first time — even through this whole stretch — that I’ve really been able to command both sides of the plate,” said Keuchel, who won three of his last four starts before the All-Star break. “Fastballs to both sides, and the only thing lacking was a few sliders. But I felt really good, and that’s a good sign.”
Monday’s second run, however, put Keuchel in line for the loss after the Yankees had tied it in the fifth.
Keuchel faced the minimum through four innings by erasing his only baserunner — an Austin Romine single — with a double play.
In the seventh, he worked around a leadoff double by striking out Starlin Castro, Mark Teixeira and Didi Gregorius in order.
Chase Headley’s fifthinning RBI single came off a slider. So did Romine’s RBI double in the eighth.
“Obviously the big double from Romine was the difference, but all in all, Dallas is pitching very well with stuff working in every direction,” Hinch said.
The second run was enough for Pineda, who besides one pitch to Springer held the Astros in check through seven innings.
Team record falls
The homer was Springer’s team-leading 22nd and fifth leading off this season. Combined with six by Jose Altuve, the Astros broke the franchise record for most leadoff home runs in a season with 63 games to spare, passing the 2001 Astros, who had 10, led by Craig Biggio’s eight.
The Astros stranded a runner in scoring position on three occasions and left the bases loaded in the sixth. That was their best chance as Altuve reached on a two-out infield single before Pineda walked Carlos Correa and Luis Valbuena.
That brought up Bregman, who nearly drove out an 0-1 slider the other way only to watch Aaron Hicks catch it on the warning track in right field. Bregman finished 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in his major league debut.
Dellin Betances struck out the side in the eighth and Andrew Miller worked around an error and got a game-ending double play with two runners on.
“The two-out hit eluded us today against premium pitching and that turned out to be the difference in the game,” Hinch said.