So much ground to make up, so little time
7½-game deficit, fall to third magnify 2-11 mark vs. Texas
Two losses to the Rangers over the weekend added up to more just another series defeat for the Astros.
Sunday’s setback — a 5-3 loss in 11 innings at Minute Maid Park — was a punch in the gut for a team that entered the season with World Series aspirations but finds itself in third place in its division.
The Astros are 7½ games out of first place a week into August, which might mean it’s wild card
or nothing.
“We’ve had a hell of a time matching up with these guys,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said of Tex-
as, which saw its division lead cut to 2½ games July 22, then went all in at the non-waiver trade deadline.
The Astros didn’t and watched what adding the right pieces can do.
Jonathan Lucroy drove in three runs in the series. Carlos Beltran had four hits and two RBIs. Reliever Jeremy Jeffress gave up two runs in the eighth inning Sunday but recorded two holds in the series.
The extra miscue
“It’s a little frustrating, but they’re a great team. They made some good acquisitions at the deadline, and I’m sure the Angels are saying the same thing about us this year,” said Dallas Keuchel, whose shutout Friday was the only win by an Astros starter during the sevengame homestand. “It’s amazing what one pitch, one hit, one miscue will do in a major league game, and more times than not, we’ve had one more miscue than the Rangers.”
The Astros are 2-11 against Texas and have lost 19 of 23 meetings dating to Aug. 3, 2015. They have a winning record against the rest of the AL West, including an 11-1 mark against the Angels.
“There’s plenty of time,” said Ken Giles, who pitched out of a bases-loaded jam and struck out six Sunday but has yet to get a save opportunity since taking over the closer’s role. “There’s still a lot of baseball left.”
Fifty-one games, to be exact. Starting with a home series against Oakland at the end of August, the Astros have 25 division games remaining. That includes six against the Rangers.
“We played some great ball the last two months,” Keuchel said. “Barring a catastrophic collapse in the middle of August, late August, it’s going to come down to September.
“If we continue to play some good ball and have some good pitching, we’re going to be right in the thick of things like we have been the last two months.”
Minus a spurt there, the Astros haven’t been in the thick of much on offense lately. They had no answer for Yu Darvish in seven scoreless innings Sunday, rallying for three in the eighth and ninth against Texas’ bullpen.
Tony Kemp’s RBI single off closer Sam Dyson sent it to extra innings. That concluded a 24-hour period in which Kemp was scratched from Class AAA Fresno’s lineup due to a dental issue, caught a redeye flight from Las Vegas to replace Colby Rasmus on the active roster, and spent Sunday morning at the dentist.
That rally and Friday’s four-run third inning have been the lone bright spots for an offense that has totaled 17 runs in its last nine games. Of the nine active Astros with at least 170 atbats, only two ( Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa) are hitting better than .252.
Musgrove solid
Sunday’s loss pushed aside a quality first start from Joe Musgrove, who allowed one run on five hits in nearly matching Darvish for seven innings. In completing an eventful first week in the majors, Musgrove, 23, struck out six and didn’t issue a walk, which gives him a 0.79 ERA and 0.62 WHIP in 111⁄3 big league innings.
The struggles continue for Will Harris, who was charged with two runs in the eighth inning when Giles surrendered a double to Jurickson Profar. The Rangers then got two runs off Chris Devenski in the 11th thanks to run-scoring hits by Ian Desmond and Roughned Odor; the Astros stranded three men in extra innings.
“We just have to battle through our little funk right now,” Giles said. “It’s going to come around.”