“This is the time of year where there’s always soreness”, Astros manager A.J. Hinch told reporters. They now find themselves 2.5 games back from the second wild card spot entering tonight’s game against the Cleveland Indians.
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As for the Indians, they’re 5-2 in their last seven game threes of a series, and 1-5 in their last six Wednesday games.
Indians: Kluber logged his shortest start of the season against the Astros, allowing five runs in 2 2/3 innings in a 7-1 loss on May 9 in Cleveland.
“It’s a big blow, no doubt”, Hinch said. The home run by Gonzalez and an RBI triple by Alex Bregman accounted for all of the Astros’ runs.
“David’s upside is real and we’re excited about it”, Hinch said. “Better to be on the winning side than the losing side, but that one seemed like it was never going to end”. The Indians skipped struggling starter Josh Tomlin’s turn in the rotation, which would have been Monday night.
“If you ask me about every pitcher, we’ll be here all night”, Francona deadpanned.
Detroit’s Justin Upton hit a three-run home run in the 11th inning to lift the Tigers over the Chicago White Sox 5-3.
Cleveland got a run back in the bottom of the second as Tyler Naquin drove in a run with a ground out, but once again Peacock avoided the big inning despite surrendering a pair of doubles in the frame. “We want to keep all of our options open”, said Francona. “That’s all I’m focused on”.
Houston Astros’ George Springer signals that he is safe after scoring on a sacrifice fly by Yulieski Gurriel during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Cleveland Indians on Monday, Sept. 5, 2016, in Cleveland.
Indians: RHP Carlos Carrasco, who struck out 11 and pitched 7 1/3 shutout innings in his last outing, starts for the fifth time in his career against Houston.
Perci Garner, Joe Colon, Dan Otero, Bryan Shaw, and Cody Anderson followed before Tomlin tossed a scoreless ninth. The team officially announced on Monday that Keuchel had been shut down from throwing after the discovery of inflammation in his throwing shoulder. He won’t face right-hander Corey Kluber, who won the award in 2014.
The Astros (73-64) are very much alive in the American League wild card race, though there are new questions surrounding the health of ace Dallas Keuchel. Castro missed two games with a bruised knee. Evan Gattis started behind the plate.
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Astros: RHP Brad Peacock will be recalled from Triple-A Fresno. He has made five relief appearances for Houston this year, posting a 3.86 ERA over seven innings. But the right-hander had a bad string of six batters against the Astros, who have won the first two of four games between the playoff contenders. He went up 0-2 to Marwin Gonzalez but instead of burying strike three and escaping the inning, Kluber left a hanging curveball in the middle of the zone, which Gonzalez crushed for a three-run home run to right field.
