Meltdown frustrates Giles
Ken Giles’ violent exit from the Astros’ 4-0 loss on Tuesday, complete with self-harm and tossing of equipment in plain view of television cameras, was a “tough look” for the team’s fiery closer, manager A.J.
Hinch said Wednesday. “It’s a tough look for someone coming out of competition like that,” said Hinch, who did not see the now viral video until after Tuesday’s postgame news conference. “I understand the frustration. I understand how much these guys put into it. But in an ideal world, you handle it a little bit more calmly and without the violence.”
Hinch lifted Giles from the game after four of the first five men he faced reached base.
Gary Sanchez obliterated a first-pitch hanging slider off the ivy wall in center field for a three-run homer, breaking a scoreless tie and handing Giles his first loss of the season.
Once he was pulled, cameras caught Giles screaming indiscriminately as he walked toward the dugout. Giles punched himself in the face as he approached the steps. Once down the stairs, Giles grabbed a bat and slammed it to the dugout floor.
“I didn’t give our team a chance. Of course I’m going to be frustrated at that,” Giles said Tuesday. “This team deserves the best out of everybody, and they need me to be the best I can be.”
Giles did not speak with reporters prior to Wednesday’s game against the Yankees. Hinch had not spoken with his closer regarding his actions but hinted he may do so during batting practice, when pitchers shag fly balls in the outfield.
That’s when Hinch said he conducts most of his conversations with players, secluded from the horde of pregame visitors who line the field and the commotion of batting practice near it.
The cerebral 43-year-old manager possesses a psychology degree from Stanford and is renowned for his communication skills and ability to relate with the varied personalities within a baseball clubhouse.
Giles’ situation presents a somewhat difficult balancing act. The emotion and fire with which he plays can be an attribute. Asking him to mute it, even slightly, seems unwise.
“I think there’s a difference between letting them be themselves and letting them tear themselves down,” Hinch said. “That doesn’t necessarily have to be physical, and we saw the video last night — that’s one aspect of it. You can emotionally tear yourself down, too.
“Everybody responds to failure and success differently. You don’t want it to be counterproductive. You want it to be channeled in the right area and used in the right way and ultimately maximize their potential.”
A&M ex Martin gets to AA quickly
After only 19 innings at Class A Advanced Buies Creek, Corbin Martin got a promotion. The former Texas A&M righthander whom the Astros selected No. 56 overall in last year’s draft will make his Class AA debut on Thursday night, starting for the Corpus Christi Hooks against Midland.
Martin did not allow an earned run in any of his four outings at Buies Creek, striking out 26 while walking seven.
Opponents are hitting just .136 against the 6-2 Hempstead native throughout his minor league career (51 2⁄3innings), and he has a 69/16 strikeout-towalk ratio. Promoted with Martin was
Josh Rojas, a middle infielder who stole 12 bases without being caught in 24 games at Buies Creek.
Yanks have power as television draw
Four years removed from the last time they played a game that nobody with a Nielsen meter bothered to watch, the Astros’ Tuesday night loss to the Yankees generated the largest audience on their regional sports network home since the days of Fox Sports Houston.
The Astros’ 4-0 loss to New York generated a 5.9 Nielsen rating on AT&T SportsNet Southwest, the best RSN number for an Astros regular-season game since a 6.0 rating for a July 3, 2008, game against the Dodgers.
An average of 220,000 viewers and 145,561 households watched the game, according to Nielsen. It was the second most-watched program on Houston TV for the night behind an episode of “NCIS” that rated 7.4 on KHOU (Channel 11).
Astros games on at least three occasions in 2013-14 failed to register a Nielsen rating on distribution-starved Comcast SportsNet Houston, which gave way in 2014 to AT&T SportsNet Southwest. Ratings have increased as the team has improved, even though AT&T still lacks the more widespread carriage enjoyed by the network now known as Fox Sports Southwest, which carried Astros games through 2012.