
Tampa Bay, FL – The Houston Astros came to town Monday to start a three game series and wasted little time in getting a jump on the Rays. Jose Altuve drilled a home run to left field on the fifth pitch of the game by Rays starter Drew Rasmussen, who pitched very well until the sixth. After a single, a walk and two more hits in the inning, Houston jumped to a 4-0 lead, which they never gave up to win the first game of the series. With the victory, the Astros clinched the American League West, Houston’s fifth division title in the last six years.
Tuesday didn’t start out much better. Altuve, who is booed on every trip to the plate singled to left, followed by a single, sacrifice fly, and a double putting the Astros ahead 1-0. In the third, a three-run home run by Jeremy Peña increased the lead to 4-0. In the fifth, Altuve led off with a walk; chasing Shane McLanahan, who left the game with a strained neck muscle. Two more walks, one of which was intentional, and two sacrifice flies tacked to another run. Houston won 5-0, increasing the Rays scoreless stretch to 22 consecutive innings, going back to the Texas Rangers series finale this past Sunday September 18th. Too many zeroes!
Last night’s game started out with another first inning run led by the Astros. Tampa Bay tied the score in the bottom of the sixth on two doubles by Wander Franco and Randy Arozarena to end the scoreless streak at 28 innings. Isaac Paredes led off the seventh with a home run to left field, giving the Rays a brief lead. A three-run home run by Kyle Tucker put the Astros, adding a run in the ninth to end with a 5-2 victory.
And some other (tongue in cheek) stuff!
For the past couple of seasons, MLB has initiated changes to speed up the game. I have some ideas!
- On a 3-0 count, the next pitch will be an automatic strike. (Most of the time a hitter does not have the green light in this situation.)
- When a batter hits a home run, he does not have to run the bases. And any players on base would just go into the dugout after the home run.
- Three balls is a walk.
- Two strikes is a strikeout.
These “changes” should shorten the game by 10-15 minutes? So the fans are getting less for more!
I hope the people making changes do not read this post!
