Major League Baseball: 2021 Season

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The Houston Astros recently picked up Jake Odorizzi. Odorizzi comes to the Astros from the Minnesota Twins. The deal is for two years, but it also includes a player option.
 
Just as a heads-up, the 2021 regular season of Major League Baseball begins next Thursday. My Houston Astros will be at the Oakland Athletics next Thursday. Enjoy the upcoming season!
 
The Phillies bullpen is ready for the new season. In their last two games they've blown a six-run lead and a seven-run lead both in the eighth inning losing both games.

Their bullpen was epically bad last year; second worst bullpen in major league history. Looks like they're set to continue where they left off.
 
BobK
The Phillies bullpen is ready for the new season. In their last two games they've blown a six-run lead and a seven-run lead both in the eighth inning losing both games.

Their bullpen was epically bad last year; second worst bullpen in major league history. Looks like they're set to continue where they left off.
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They can't do worse than last year. If they do, they WILL have batteries thrown at them.

Mets have signed SS Francisco Lindor to a 10 year, $341 Million extension to begin at the end of this season. This is the richest contract in the franchise's history.
 
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GTPlaneteers, are you ready for the start of the 2021 season of Major League Baseball? Well, the Boys of Summer will be ready to go in full anger as the 2021 season starts today. Times will be interesting considering the COVID-19/Coronavirus pandemic. However, quality baseball action will still be played. So begins the long grind towards October. Be sure to enjoy whatever action you can check out and for rooting your favorite team(s) all season long.

Enjoy Opening Day!
 
I had to work today so I didn't see the Reds play. Probably a good thing. Luis Castillo got the nod and proceeded to get beat around to the tune of 10 runs (8 earned) in only 3 1/3 innings, including 6 in the 1st. Cam Bedrosian, who I admittedly have never heard of gave up one relieving him for the remaining portion of the 4th inning.

The good news: the other bull penners combined the rest of the way for a 5 inning shutout, allowing only 1 hit with 7 strikeouts. Also nice was seeing some offense out there, much unlike last season. Unfortunately it wasn't enough as Cincy fell 11-7. 0-1 to start the season.
 
The Houston Astros smacked the Oakland Athletics 8-1 in Oakland. They've won on Opening Day for the 9th straight time- tied for 2nd all-time. What started with José Altuve swinging on the game's very first pitch for an out continued with the Astros putting on one run. Then later, back-to-back jacks by Houston put them up a bit more. While a shutout was denied, it was a fairly strong start for the Houston Astros even without players like George Springer. Though it is just one game, the team energy seems strong. Anyhow, Astros WIN!

How about the other Texas team? You know, the Texas Rangers? Well, the Texas Rangers fell at the Kansas City Royals 14-10. Both teams hung five runs each on each other in the 1st inning alone. The KC, boys, though, kept the pressure going to knock off the Rangers 14-10. Carlos Hernandez was the winning pitcher for KC along with a Save from Wade Davis. Kyle Cody was the losing pitcher for Texas. This was the first game aired on TV after regional FOX Sports networks rebranded as Bally Sports.

As I've done before, I mostly will report on my team with series summaries. So I will mostly post a summary of series rather than document each individual game. And remember- it's just one game. These are just the first series. It's too early to make any radical judgments right about now.


[OMISSION] Zack Greinke was the winning Houston pitcher, and Chris Bassitt was the losing Oakland pitcher.
 
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Alright. Time for me to do my first series summary of the 2021 season! So the Houston Astros and Oakland Athletics hooked up for a four-game series in the Bay Area. Here's how things went:

GM1 HOU at OAK: (8-1; Houston)
GM2 HOU at OAK: (9-5; Houston)
GM3 HOU at OAK: (9-1; Houston)
GM4 HOU at OAK: (9-2; Houston)

The Houston Astros start the 2021 campaign with a series sweep of the Oakland Athletics. We tied at times, but we never trailed in any game in this series. The energy that seemed to be missing from 2020 seems to have been rediscovered. Even without the likes of George Springer in the Astros' lineup or Justin Verlander in the pitching rotation, the Astros are still playing winning baseball after just one series. Question remains if the Astros can consistently play winning baseball. Dusty Baker now has 1,896 wins as manager after the win on Sunday, tied for 14th all time.

Up next for the Houston Astros Baseball Club... we're staying in California but now taking on the other California AL team for a quick two-game series starting tomorrow night. Astros at Angels.


I'm done with this post. How did your team(s) do in their first series of 2021?
 
After losing Opening Day, the Reds somehow took the next two to win the series against the Cards. Game 3 featured pitcher Jeff Hoffman (again, like Bedrosia, I had never heard of him...sorry, buddy :guilty: You can probably tell I paid no attention whatsoever to preseason, though I know Cincy finished dead last in the Cactus League) going 5 innings, giving up 3 hits and 1 run, with 6 K's and importantly no BB's. Not bad. The offense is actually doing something so far this season. There was talk of fundamentally changing the approach at the plate over the offseason and preseason. It seems to be working. Among those impressing are Castellanos, who is raking with a .545 batting average, and rookie Jonathan India, who's batting .455 (and made a slick defensive play in game 2). It remains to be seen if the offense can keep it up.

Final scores be:
Game 1: 11-6 Cardinals
Game 2: 9-6 Reds
Game 3: 12-1 Reds
 
If you want a sign of what returning to *the old normal* is kind of like, I saw the Texas Rangers game from the new Globe Life Ballpark. The Texas Rangers are hosting the Toronto Blue Jays. A LOT of fans in the stands (with masks, of course). And let me just say- that newer ballpark for the Rangers is totally lovely.

I saw the end of the Minnesota Twins at Detroit Tigers game today. Even though Detroit banged in a Grand Slam in the bottom of the 9th, it was already well decided as the Twins won 15-6 today.
 
Akil Baddoo might be the second greatest Tiger in the last 10 years after the absolute legend that is Don Kelly.

Seriously though, Baddoo has been really impressive and his hot start is exactly what the Tigers need to get their season into gear. It's still going to be a trainwreck, but as of right now it looks like it might be an entertaining trainwreck.
 
The Houston Astros concluded their two-game series at the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Summary is as follows:

GM1 HOU at LAA: (7-6; Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim)
GM2 HOU at LAA: (4-2; Houston)

So we earned a split of this series. The Angels jumped to a 2-0 lead early before the Astros hit back-to-back jacks to level the game at 2-2. The Astros took their first loss of the season in the first game of this series. Some of the Angels fans were even heckling the Astros. There were cans thrown onto the field as well as an inflatable trash can that ended up on the field. As you know... the Houston Astros are still being heckled for their cheating scandal.

Up next for Houston... we'll be playing our first game at home WITH FANS as the Oakland Athletics coming to H-Town for a three-game series. So more AL West action for the Astros.


I thought I posted this already, but I realize I haven't (until now, of course).
 
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Well this is certainly unexpected. The Reds stretched their win streak to 5 games after sweeping the Pirates and have elevated their record to 5-1.

Game 1: 5-3 Reds
Game 2: 14(FOURTEEN!)-1 Reds
Game 3: 11-4 Reds

The offense is ballin'. Tyler Naquin hit leadoff home runs in games 2 and 3. Castellanos and India have been red hot (no pun intended). Luis Castillo had a great bounce back game after getting drilled on Opening Day. Today was 7 innings of no run baseball.


I'm fully aware it's a miniscule sample size, but here are some fun stats (at least to me):
-Cincy scored 57 runs through their first six games, a franchise record that blows away the 1976 Big Red Machine's total of 51. No, I am not comparing the current team to one of the best ever, just noting what they have accomplished.

-I'm sure he will slow down, but rookie India is tearing it up and could be a contender for NL Rookie of the Year.
He is tied for 6th in hits in the Majors (2nd among all rookies), 4th in the MLB with 10 RBI's (leading rookies), is 3rd in the Majors batting .476 (2nd among rookies), has 2 sac flies (tied for the MLB lead and sole leader among rookies) and even has a triple to boot. Also among rookies, he is 3rd in OBP and 5th in OPS. And he doesn't seem to mind getting hit by pitches.

-Next I'll single out Castellanos. He is tied for the league lead with 9 runs, 6th in hits, tied tops on the leaderboard with 4 home runs, all the way down in 9th in RBI's :lol:, 8th in average, is leading in slugging and OPS, and for good measure is also leading in total bases and 2nd in extra base hits.

-As for the rest of the team: Senzel is tied for league lead in runs scored with Moose 1 back. Naquin is tied with Castellanos with those 4 homers. He is also 2nd in RBI's with 13. Moose is batting .412 and sits 6th in OBP. Naquin is 3rd slugging. He is 5th in OPS with Moose not far behind in 9th.

-As a team, the Reds are leading the MLB in runs, homers, RBI's, batting average, slugging and OPS. They are 2nd in hits, triples, and OBP. Oddly, they have not succeeded in a steal...in fact they haven't even attempted one yet this season!

-To put things in perspective, in 2020 the Reds finished dead last in hits, triples, and average (.212 compared to .316 this year). They were well down the order in the other major statistical categories as well. What a difference the season has been (so far...).
 
Well, San Diego... you finally did it- a NO HITTER! The no-no was courtesy of Joe Musgrove at the Texas Rangers. Joe Musgrove recorded 10 strikeouts and no walks. The Padres have been around since 1969 but never logged a no-hitter until tonight. San Diego beat Texas 3-0 tonight. So cheers to the Padres on FINALLY getting a no-hitter!

Series review of OAK at HOU to come, but Houston lost tonight's game.
 
I'm glad San Diego is finally getting nice things. And if it keeps coming at the expense of the Rangers, even better. John Daniels and the whole organization deserve only distain and bile. That shiny new stadium should be full of people enjoying the opposition and booing the home team to hell.
 
The Houston Astros are home for the first time! Series summary...

GM1 OAK at HOU: (6-2; Houston)
GM2 OAK at HOU: (6-2; Oakland)
GM3 OAK at HOU: (7-3; Oakland)

Minute Maid Park allows 50% capacity, and it almost felt like full capacity with the great energy. The first game was the first time fans seen the Astros live since the [brutal] Game 7 of the 2019 World Series against the Washington Nationals. We were rolling. Game 2, however, was a 1-1 tie until Oakland broke it open. Game 3 was further Oakland taking their frustrations out on the Astros, as they never trailed in Game 3. So I guess Oakland got sick of getting rattled and decided to do something about it.

The Houston Astros are now 6-3 on the season and dropped to 2nd in the AL West standings behind the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Up next for the Houston Astros Baseball Club... hey, Detroit! Let's play baseball! That's right! H-Town. MoTown. Three-game set starting Monday after a rare Sunday off.


Congratulations to all recent series winners!
 
Akil Baddoo, that is all.

Oh and :lol: at the box score for the Nats v. Cards game tonight, especially the 5th. I love it when I randomly flip on a game to see one team getting absolutely nuked by another team.
 
I forgot to post two nights ago about the Reds' series against Arizona. The Cincy offense quieted down for the first time this season, and the D'backs took 2 of 3 against by boys. It was close to being a sweep :scared:, as the bullpen gave up a 5-0 lead in game 1. That's what happens when you can't find the strike zone. The Reds ultimately won in 10 innings. With that said, the game never should have gone into extras to begin with in my opinion. Winker smacked a ball that appeared to leave the yard on the first pitch of the night. However it was ruled a double, and (wrongly, I feel) upheld on replay. The ball hit on the very top of the wall and bounced back onto the field. The question was if it hit a chair butted up against the wall that caused it to bounce back, which would have actually counted as a home run, or not. If you watch the replay, there is no physical way the ball could have taken the trajectory it did without hitting the chair. Oh well. It still ended up as a win.
 
H-Town MoTown throwdown. Here's how the Detroit at Houston series ended:

GM1 DET at HOU: (6-2; Detroit)
GM2 DET at HOU: (8-2; Detroit)
GM3 DET at HOU: (6-4; Detroit)

So them cats from MoTown did a number on my Astros. Houston couldn't suppress the offensive power of the Detroit Tigers. In many ways, Houston should be beating Detroit the way Detroit beat us. However, the bats have remained silent. A tribute to A.J. Hinch was given in Game 1 of the series when Hinch was with the Astros. Jake Odorizzi made his Astros debut in Game 2 of this series and failed HARD. He gave up multiple homers by the Tigers. Game 3 saw as many as five Astros starters get put on the IL for health and safety protocols, including the likes of José Altuve and Yordan Alvarez among others. The Astros had a chance to get runs in late, but their effort fell short and had to settle for a 6-4 loss. So the only game this homestand the Astros won was their first game. MoTown prevailed. I salute the Tigers on a job well done, including good mates Joey D and AnthonyD1993 in this inner-forum rivalry.

Up next for the Houston Astros Baseball Club... we're back out on the road. After a day off on Thursday, we're at Seattle for a three-game set (I originally thought it would be a four-game set). Then with the following Monday off, we begin a long stretch of straight days with games following a two-game Interleague series at Colorado on Tuesday next week. But first- three at Seattle.


Congratulations to all recent series winners and all who won today!
 
Let me touch up on some games that played on Thursday while my Astros have this day off...

* The Atlanta Braves took care of the Miami Marlins 7-6 in Atlanta. The win went to A.J. Minter, while Dylan Fioro lost for Miami.

* The San Diego Padres took down the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-3 in Pittsburgh. Chris Paddack picked up the win along with a Craig Stammen save. Mitch Keller got the loss.

* The Astros' next opponent is Seattle, and the Mariners won 4-2 at the Baltimore Orioles. The Mariners' winner was Marco Gonzales with a Kendall Graveman Save. The O's loser was Tanner Scott.

* After the Chicago White Sox got a no-hitter last night, they fell tonight hosting the Cleveland {baseball team} 4-2. Aaron Civaie is the winning Cleveland pitcher with an Emmanuel Clase save. Lance Lynn lost for the White Sox. I say "{baseball team}" even though they still retain the "Indians" nickname for this season.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks took down the Washington Nationals 11-6 in Washington, D.C. Merrill Kelly was the ARI winner, and Patrick Corbin was WAS' loser.

* It was 6-4 in Tampa Bay as the Texas Rangers took down the Tampa Bay Rays. John Sborz won along with an Ian Kennedy Save. The loser for Tampa Bay was Cody Reed.


Congratulations to all of Thursday's winners! Moreover, late congratulations to Carlos Rodon on the almost Perfect Game last night, but still credit for the No-Hitter. I think I heard there hasn't been a Perfect Game since 2012 (Seattle).
 
If this was the pre-American League days of Astros baseball, this would be an NL series. But... we're Interleague. So here's how this series went:

GM1 HOU at COL: (6-2; Colorado)
GM2 HOU at COL: (6-3; Colorado)

The offense was about as cold as the weather in Denver for the Houston Astros. Even the light snow on Wednesday's game felt like a blizzard was on the Astros as they failed to really get anything going. The condemnation continues for the Astros as the Colorado Rockies put a two-game sweep on the boys from H-Town in this Interleague series. Three straight losses now for the Astros.

We are now 7-10 on the 2021 season, dead last in the AL West.

Up next for the Houston Astros Baseball Club... more important matters, and more importantly- back home! Four game set coming up hosting the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.


Congratulations to all other series winners and all who won today! Let us all know how your favorite team(s) is/are doing.
 
Dusty Baker picked up his 1,900th win as a head coach as his Houston Astros defeated the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 8-2 tonight. D. Baker is 14th(?) all-time in coaching wins. HOU never trailed. HOU had 8 runs, 13 hits, and no errors. LAA had 2 runs, 8 hits and 1 error. This game was televised on YouTube. Cristian Javier was the winning pitcher for HOU. Alex Cobb was LAA's losing pitcher.

The full summary of this four-game series will come when it is over.
 
I haven't made any posts about the Reds' series recently, mostly because it's depressing after such a great start to the season. They've lost 4 straight. It would have been 5 if not for a triple play, followed by the Cleveland first baseman pulling a Bill Buckner with two outs in the 9th, letting the Reds score and eventually win in game 2 of their series. Overall, Cincinnati has only won 2 of their past 8 games and 3 of 11.

The bullpen is getting lit up. While the starters have a respectable ERA, the bullpen owns the worst in the NL. The latest series against the D'backs was a backbreaker. The offense scored 20 runs and they still got swept. It started in game 1 when the Reds held a 4-3 lead going into the 8th. A tying home run was immediately given up. Then the heavy rain started. A walk, double, hit batsman, and another walk brought in a run to give Cleveland the lead. The game was then postponed to finish the next day due to said weather. The score remained the same after play resumed on a nice, sunny afternoon and resulted in a 5-4 loss for the Redlegs. It was hard to put ALL the blame on the relievers due to the atrocious weather. But still. Then came game 2. 3-0 lead in the 9th. Garrett issues 2 walks, then former Red Vanmeter goes long to create a tie. It's not over yet though. Cincy scores 2 runs in the bottom of the 10th! But wait...the bullpen had already given up 5 in the top of the inning. That's an 8-5 loss. Then came yesterday's game. The offense went yard 6 times. Overall, the Reds scored 11 runs. Should be a win, no? Well...no. The starter, Hoffman, went 5 innings giving up 2 runs. The relievers went the rest of the way giving up 12 runs. Again, there was a 10th inning. Cincy scored 3. Arizona 6. The final was 14-11 Diamondbacks. *sigh*

And as I type, the Reds are playing their first game against the Cards in the current series and are down 5-1 in the top of the 6th.
 
Astros and Angels. Couple of AL West rivals clash in H-Town. Here's how this four-game set went...

GM1 LAA at HOU: (8-2: Houston)
GM2 LAA at HOU: (5-4, 10 innings; Houston)
GM3 LAA at HOU: (16-2; Houston)
GM4 LAA at HOU: (4-2; Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim)

Game 1 was televised on YouTube, and my only hint of this game was when I tuned into AM 790 here in Houston for live radio coverage. The Angels put up a fight in Game 2 until we forced extras. The Astros would win in extra innings thanks to a walk-off RBI single by Robel Garcia. Game 3, the bottom just fell out for the Angels as the Astros were just pounding the Halos. It was a bittersweet win as Jake Odorizzi left the game after facing just one batter. He had some soreness in his arm or something. The Odorizzi thing isn't really working well. After the Astros tied things up 2-2 in Game 4, the sweep was averted as the Astros have to settle for three out of four.

So the Astros are now 10-10 on the season after this series. We are 3rd in the AL West ahead of leading Oakland and 2nd Place Seattle.

Up next for Houston... we go from four games against the Angels, to now four games against Seattle. The action begins tomorrow night in Houston.


Congratulations to all winners of recent series and today's games! That even includes the Baltimore Orioles ending the 13-game winning streak the Oakland Athletics had.


[OMISSION] Game 2 of this series was the first extra innings game for the Astros this season.
 
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Sweep! That's what the St. Louis Cardinals did to the Cincinnati Reds. That's 7 straight losses. And the Reds, who started the season 6-1 and were 9-5 sitting on top of the NL Central before the losing streak, are now bottom of the barrel in the division at 9-12. :grumpy:

Not much to say about the series against the Cards. The pitching wasn't as horrendous as the D'backs series; it was more so-so. The offense was the real letdown. One thing of note. Apparently manager David Bell got tossed after India got hit in the head with a pitch in game 3 today. What had him so angry? Not so much his player taking a header as India was fine. It was the fact that the umps warned the CINCINNATI bench thinking there may be a retaliation. Basically a warning for doing nothing. I would expect nothing less from Joe West and crew.

Anyway...
Game 1: 5-4 Cards
Game 2: 2-0 Cards
Game 3: 5-2 Cards
 
Cincy came away with a series win against the Majors best record LA Dodgers. Quite the surprise considering the way the past week had gone. I didn't see any of the games, so all I can comment on is what I see in the box score. Game 1 saw Mahle pitch a solid 5 innings of 1 run ball. Sims and Garrett combined to give up one each which left the game tied at 3 and eventually into extras. Winker hit a 2 run shot in the 10th, and that's all the Reds needed. Antone finished off the game after pitching 3 hitless innings. Game 2 involved the Reds crossing the plate 3 times in the 7th to take a 1 run lead. The bullpen held on for the final 3 innings, giving up no hits in the process. Game 3 was ugly as LA put a smackdown on Cincy 8-0. Gray pitched very well, going 5 2/3 innings, giving up 2 runs while striking out 11. Unfortunately Romano got hammered in the 8th to the tune of 6 runs. Walking 4 and also allowing 4 hits in only 2/3rd's of an inning will do that. As for the offense, leadoff man Senzel had over half of the team's 7 hits, going 4 for 4. It takes more than one man to win a game when the rival puts up an 8 spot, as the Reds couldn't put together successive hits to score themselves. While not a sweep, Cincinnati did at least take a series and improved their record slightly.

Game 1: 5-3 Reds
Game 2: 6-5 Reds
Game 3: 8-0 Dodgers

One other note: Trevor Bauer was presented with his 2020 Cy Young award prior to game 2 of the series. It would have been nice to keep him around Cincinnati after last year's performance, but the price tag would have been way too high for a small market team like the Reds. Happy for him anyways. :cheers:
 
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Houston vs. all y'all. And this time, the "y'all" in "all y'all" was ths Seattle Mariners. Here's how the four-game set ended:

GM1 SEA at HOU: (5-2; Houston)
GM2 SEA at HOU: (2-0; Houston)
GM3 SEA at HOU: (7-5; Houston)
GM4 SEA at HOU: (1-0; Seattle)

No sweep for the Houston Astros. The big plus for us was the return of José Altuve after testing positive for COVID-19/Coronavirus. We had two fairly nice performances for both Games 1 and 2 of this series. The Astros had to come from behind to top the Mariners in Game 3. The Astros almost got no-hit through most of Game 4. Yet still, the Mariners prevented getting swept in Game 4. Oh, well. We'll take the series win. Just wished Yordan Alvarez didn't have to hit the IL due to health and safety protocols.

The Houston Astros are now 13-12, now dropping to fourth in the AL West currently.

Up next for the Houston Astros Baseball Club... AL East. Need I say more? We got three games at the Tampa Bay Rays starting tomorrow night. Then comes a day off on Monday followed by a three-game set at the New York Yankees.


Congratulations to all other winners from today and recent series!
 
I think I'm going to try and follow Baseball a little more closely this year. It's such a relaxing sport to watch and I genuinely love going to games. I've been to games at Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, The Ballpark in Arlington, and...of course, AT&T Oracle Park here in San Francisco. I also have been to tailgating parties at Comerica Park but didn't go in the stadium. All have their charm (well...The Ballpark in Arlington didn't have much) but I have to give it to my "home" team - the sweeping views of the bay from the upper seats is something special! I also love how I can take the ferry (from here in Marin) to the games and avoid the hassle of traffic and parking. When the COVID mess is done, I'm definitely going to get some Giants and probably Athletics tickets.

All that being said...which teams are even good these days? I haven't paid attention in like 5 years.
 
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The Houston Astros left Houston to go to the Sunshine State. We decided to play ball against the defending AL Champions, the Tampa Bay Rays. This is what happened in our 3-game set...

GM1 HOU at TB: (9-2; Houston)
GM2 HOU at TB: (3-1; Houston)
GM3 HOU at TB: (5-4; Tampa Bay)

The Astros win another series, but denied a sweep. The Astros had themselves quite the Friday night for Game 1 along with a very nice Saturday afternoon for Game 2. Game 1 was just taking it to the team we lost to in last season's ALCS. We had a shutout opportunity that got broken up in the Bottom of the 9th in Game 2. Tampa Bay simply had the upper hand for Game 3. I think the go-ahead score by TB was the first lead of any game in this series. They led for good in Game 3. Pitcher José Uriquidy celebrated his 26th(?) birthday on Saturday when he was the starter for Houston in Game 2. Tampa Bay, meanwhile, are on a stretch of about 17 straight games without a day off while Houston was on their string of 13 days without a day off.

The 2021 Houston Astros are now tied with Seattle for 2nd in the AL West, with a record of 15-13.

Up next for Houston... after Monday's day off, we're hosting them big bad New York Yankees in the Bronx. That's right- Astros and the Bronx Bombers. Three-game set starting Tuesday night. Some Former Astros in the Yanks' lineup.


Congratulations to all Sunday winners and recent series winners!
 

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