Bob's 2016 Daily Game
Last Updated 10/07/2016
I enjoy playing sports simulation games, particularly ones that don't rely on hand-eye coordination. My favorite is Baseball Mogul by Sports Mogul which allows you to be General Manager and Manager for real or imaginary teams in all sorts of situations. The granddaddy of such games, though, is Strat-o-Matic which was around before there were personal computers and the games were played with "player cards" and a series of dice rolls (which you can still do if you are blessed with endless time and patience).
Before the season, I was contacted by Adam Rosen at Strat-o-Matic who offered me a free copy of their latest computer game if I would write about playing their new "Daily Game" for the 2016 season. Hey, twist my arm.
What's unique about The Daily Game is that most sims base their results on past seasons. Strat-o-Matic claims this version factors in-season results so, for example, Tyler White or Chris Devenski perform as their 2016 results imply, rather than basing their data all on previous seasons. If Carlos Gomez stinks up the joint, eventually your computer Carlos Gomez will too. If some other player performs way over his head, your computer version will eventually adapt. That's the premise anyway.
While the game allows you to be General Manager and Manager, I've decided that the Astros' 25-man roster would be the same as real life as often as possible but that I would set the lineups and make in-game decisions on my own without looking up how A.J. Hinch had his lineup. I intend to play all 162 Astros games from start to finish, a process that takes around 20 minutes per game.
Although fatigue from overuse is measured, managers do not have to get relief pitchers up and throwing before bringing them into the game. There are some in-game strategy options but fewer than I was expecting. I don't understand why baseball sims have an issue with setting infielders at double-play depth but both games I've mention do not allow that choice.
The first week of the season was almost over before Adam sent me the game and I complicated matters by trying to modify some esoteric things that messed up the updates (I wanted the Houston Astros versus the Seattle Mariners, for example, not the Houston Aeronautics versus the Seattle Sailors). So I had some catching up to do once I got everything worked out.
Where the Astros suffered a 5-8 start to the season, my sim Astros began the year 7-6. They swept the Yankees in dramatic fashion but then were swept by the Brewers and lost three of four to the Royals before sweeping the Tigers. It took a long time to find out where the league standings were hiding but I eventually found them:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 Major League Daily AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 8 5 .615 ---- 150 2016 Boston BOA 7 5 .583 .5 2016 New York (AL) NYA 6 6 .500 1.5 2016 Toronto TOA 6 7 .462 2.0 2016 Baltimore BAA 5 8 .385 3.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 10 2 .833 ---- 147 2016 Cleveland CLA 6 6 .500 4.0 2016 Minnesota MNA 5 7 .417 5.0 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 5 8 .385 5.5 2016 Detroit DEA 4 8 .333 6.0 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Seattle SEA 8 4 .667 ---- 149 2016 Oakland OAA 7 6 .538 1.5 2016 Houston HOA 7 6 .538 1.5 2016 Texas TEA 6 8 .429 3.0 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 4 8 .333 4.0
You also get a nice box score and a three-paragraph game recap after every contest and I will try to provide periodic "favorite games" for you like this one:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Detroit Tigers At 2016 Houston Astros 4/15/2016
Tigers AB R H RBI AVG Astros AB R H RBI AVG
I.Kinsler 2B 4 0 2 0 .282 J.Altuve 2B 5 2 2 3 .380
A-A.Gose PR 0 1 0 0 .158 G.Springer RF 4 1 1 0 .255
B-M.Aviles 2B 0 0 0 0 .300 C.Gomez CF 4 1 2 1 .333
E-V.Martinez PH,2B 1 0 1 2 .409 C.Correa SS 4 1 1 1 .186
J.Upton LF 6 2 2 2 .385 C.Rasmus LF 4 0 1 0 .118
M.Cabrera 1B 4 0 2 0 .250 E.Gattis DH 5 1 1 0 .250
J.Martinez RF 4 1 2 1 .250 M.Gonzalez 3B,1B 5 0 0 0 .042
N.Castellanos 3B 5 1 1 2 .150 T.White 1B 3 0 0 0 .091
T.Collins CF 5 0 0 0 .000 C-L.Valbuena PH,3B 1 2 1 0 .324
B.Wilson C 5 1 1 0 .200 E.Kratz C 3 0 0 0 .182
A.Romine SS 5 0 0 0 .125 D-J.Castro PH,C 2 0 1 3 .240
J.Iglesias DH 4 1 0 0 .323
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Totals 43 7 11 7 Totals 40 8 10 8
A-Pinch Ran For Kinsler In 10th Inning
B-Subbed Defensively (2B) For Gose In 10th Inning
C-Pinch Hit For White In 10th Inning
D-Pinch Hit For Kratz In 10th Inning
E-Pinch Hit For Aviles In 11th Inning
Tigers.......... 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 - 7 11 2
Astros.......... 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 3 - 8 10 0
Tigers (4-6) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
S.Greene 8 6 3 3 3 5 1 111 4.26
L.Kensing 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 10 2.08
F.Rodriguez L(0-1)B(2nd) 1 2/3 4 5 5 2 1 1 50 13.50
Totals 10 2/3 10 8 8 5 7 2
Astros (5-6) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
S.Feldman 7 6 3 3 0 4 1 103 6.17
K.Giles 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 17 3.18
L.Gregerson 1 2/3 1 2 2 1 0 1 26 4.91
J.Fields 1 3 2 2 1 2 0 26 10.38
W.Harris WIN(1-0) 0 1/3 1 0 0 0 0 0 7 8.44
Totals 11 11 7 7 3 7 2
Jose Altuve ripped 2 homeruns and had 3 RBI as the Houston Astros beat the
Detroit Tigers in 11 innings by a score of 8 to 7.
The score was tied at 3 after nine. Finally, Houston prevailed in the 11th
inning. Carlos Correa kicked off the action when he drew a walk. After an
out was recorded, Evan Gattis stepped up to the plate and he ripped a
one-base hit, and an error was also committed. Marwin Gonzalez dug into the
batters box next, but he struck out. Luis Valbuena came up and he drew a
walk to load the bases. Jason Castro stepped into the box and doubled
resulting in an exciting win for Houston and a wild post-game celebration by
the home town fans. This was the kind of game that many fans love as the
lead changed hands 5 times.
The victory went to Will Harris(1-0) who went 1/3 of an inning, allowing no
runs. Francisco Rodriguez(0-1) suffered the loss in relief. He pitched 1
and 2/3 innings and surrendered 4 hits and 2 walks.
As a team, the Astros are batting .246 with 15 home runs. The pitchers have a crummy 4.58 ERA. The hitters have a nasty habit of falling behind in the game early and then making last-ditch comebacks. I don't know if that's the game or just their interpretation of the Astros, but it makes for some tough-to-believe finishes like the game above.
White is hitting .080 so I am waiting for Strat-o-Matic to catch up. Devenski (0-1, 5.87) has been great in all but one game where he allowed four runs without getting an out. I've been trying to stretch out his pitch count in case the real Devenski joins the real rotation.
I'll have more updates as the season progresses and more observations about the game itself. I hope to add more details here each week as long as the Astros are still active. In case you're interested in playing this yourself, the main Strat-o-Matic game is $39.95 while the Daily Game option is an additional $29.95. You can buy additional season packs for almost any historical season, including Negro Leagues and Japanese Leagues.
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The Astros had a terrible week but my computer Astros won 2-of-3 from the Rangers,
swept the Red Sox and won the opener in Seattle by shutout for a 6-1 week that vaulted
Houston into first place in the AL West and second in the overall American League
standings.
Wasn't this the way it was supposed to be?
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 Major League Daily AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 12 8 .600 ---- 142 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 11 9 .550 1.0 2016 Baltimore BAA 8 12 .400 4.0 2016 Toronto TOA 8 13 .381 4.5 2016 New York (AL) NYA 7 12 .368 4.5 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 14 5 .737 ---- 141 2016 Cleveland CLA 11 8 .579 3.0 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 11 10 .524 4.0 2016 Detroit DEA 8 11 .421 6.0 2016 Minnesota MNA 8 12 .400 6.5 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Houston HOA 13 7 .650 ---- 142 2016 Oakland OAA 12 8 .600 1.0 2016 Seattle SEA 10 9 .526 2.5 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 8 12 .400 5.0 2016 Texas TEA 8 13 .381 5.5 Besides the overall won-loss record looking upside-down from real life, the stars of the lineup aren't reflecting reality much either. Yes Altuve and Springer at the top of the order are performing as expected but the hot bats otherwise are Carlos Gomez (352 batting average), Luis Valbuena (.316, 4 HRs, team-leading 17 RBIs), Evan Gattis (.279, 4 HRs, 14 RBIs despite the late start) and Jason Castro (.273 average). Struggling out of the gate are Carlos Correa (.192 average), Colby Rasmus (.137 but a team-leading 12 walks) and Tyler White (.136 average). I'd have to believe Correa and Rasmus will turn things around shortly. The pitching numbers are beginning to level off. Seven of twelve pitchers now have ERAs under 4.00, and those accord for all but two of the victories. The only starting pitcher who doesn't make the group is Scott Feldman (0-1, 4.42 ERA which would seem to concur with the real Astros' opinion to sit him while they try Chris Devenski in the rotation. That will be tricky since Devenski's stamina factor is only in the 30s according his game card so he will need to stretch out his arm if he wants to be an effective starter. My game of the week is the season's first complete game and shutout at the hands of - guess who? -- Dallas Keuchel. Here's the box score:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Houston Astros At 2016 Seattle Mariners 4/25/2016 Astros AB R H RBI AVG Mariners AB R H RBI AVG J.Altuve 2B 3 1 1 0 .311 N.Aoki LF 4 0 0 0 .230 G.Springer RF 4 1 0 0 .265 K.Marte SS 4 0 2 0 .238 C.Gomez CF 4 1 1 1 .352 R.Cano 2B 4 0 0 0 .338 C.Correa SS 4 0 1 0 .192 N.Cruz DH 3 0 0 0 .237 E.Gattis DH 5 1 3 3 .279 F.Gutierrez RF 4 0 1 0 .185 M.Gonzalez 3B 4 0 0 0 .192 K.Seager 3B 4 0 1 0 .254 T.White 1B 4 0 1 0 .136 C.Iannetta C 2 0 0 0 .300 J.Castro C 4 0 2 0 .273 D.Lee 1B 3 0 1 0 .227 J.Marisnick LF 3 0 0 0 .222 L.Martin CF 3 0 0 0 .338 ------------------ Totals 35 4 9 4 Totals 31 0 5 0 Astros.......... 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 - 4 9 0 Mariners........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 5 0 Astros (13-7) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA D.Keuchel WIN(3-1) 9 5 0 0 2 10 0 122 2.88 Totals 9 5 0 0 2 10 0 Mariners (10-9) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA W.Miley LOSS(1-3) 5 1/3 6 3 3 4 5 1 104 6.94 V.Nuno 3 2 1 1 1 1 0 45 1.88 M.Montgomery 0 2/3 1 0 0 0 0 0 9 4.50 Totals 9 9 4 4 5 6 1 Dallas Keuchel retired 10 batters on strikeouts as the Houston Astros defeated the Seattle Mariners by a score of 4 to 0 at SAFECO Field. Keuchel(3-1) dominated Seattle hitters. He gave up just 5 hits and 2 walks in 9 innings seeing his ERA drop from 3.91 to 2.88. Houston totaled 9 hits on the night. Evan Gattis was the hitting star with three hits, including a double and a home run. Wade Miley(1-3) was charged with the loss. Keuchel was asked about his big strikeout performance, 'Well, it's a little odd when you rack up these numbers on the road - instead of cheers and a running tally in the stands, everything gets real still and quiet. Just strange - but it's nice to be able to take the crowd out of the game.' Hmmm. Fake quotes, too? Finally, from the mailbox was this tweet from Andy Sloane: "@StratOMatic @AstrosDaily are they checking the lineups, eligible a, starters, and schedule of every ... team every day?" Here's the complete answer from Adam Rosen at Strat-O-Matic: "We release the new data every day at 10:00am. The data uses a projection of that night's starting lineups, though because it is so many hours before the games start, it is possible the lineups won't always be 100% accurate. If the gamer waits until later in the day (after the real lineups have been announced) or the following day to play Baseball Daily, he can manually adjust the lineup so that it matches the as-played version."
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While the real Astros looked like they might finally build some momentum, the Ersatz
Astros faded
a bit, going 2-5 against the Mariners, A's and Twins. They're staying in
the hunt so far but they are also proving to be rather streaky. Boston and Kansas City
have now established
themselves as the early favorites:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 Major League Daily AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 18 9 .667 ---- 134 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 15 11 .577 2.5 2016 New York (AL) NYA 10 15 .400 7.0 2016 Baltimore BAA 10 17 .370 8.0 2016 Toronto TOA 10 18 .357 8.5 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 18 8 .692 ---- 134 2016 Cleveland CLA 14 11 .560 3.5 2016 Detroit DEA 13 13 .500 5.0 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 14 14 .500 5.0 2016 Minnesota MNA 11 16 .407 7.5 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Oakland OAA 16 12 .571 ---- 135 2016 Houston HOA 15 12 .556 .5 2016 Seattle SEA 14 12 .538 1.0 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 13 14 .481 2.5 2016 Texas TEA 11 17 .393 5.0 The real-life Astros are stranger than fiction. Their best home run hitter so far is 5-foot-5 and on a pace (through Thursday night) for a 50-HR season. Meanwhile, their pitcher with the most wins (3) has an ERA of 6.59. To their credit, the Daily Game has come close to replicating some of this. Jose Altuve has 5 home runs in the fake game (a pace of 30 homers, still twice Jose's real-life career high) and Collin McHugh is 2-1 with a 3.94 ERA although the top pitcher is clearly Dallas Keuchel with four wins and a 2.41 ERA. For our Boxscore of the Week, let's give some love to Mike Fiers who tossed this gem against the Twinkies and got top relief from Will Harris and Ken Giles who was closing because Luke Gregerson had appeared in the previous two games and was tired. The only run scored on a bases-loaded walk to Evan Gattis. Fiers leads all our starters with a 1.96 ERA despite missing out on the victory, such as in this contest:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Minnesota Twins At 2016 Houston Astros 5/2/2016
Twins AB R H RBI AVG Astros AB R H RBI AVG
D.Santana CF 4 0 2 0 .263 J.Altuve 2B 4 0 0 0 .295
B.Dozier 2B 3 0 1 0 .237 G.Springer RF 4 0 1 0 .240
J.Mauer 1B 4 0 1 0 .255 C.Gomez CF 4 1 1 0 .323
M.Sano 3B 4 0 1 0 .278 L.Valbuena 3B 4 0 1 0 .293
B.Park DH 4 0 0 0 .182 C.Correa SS 1 0 0 0 .217
O.Arcia RF 4 0 0 0 .234 E.Gattis DH 2 0 1 1 .268
E.Escobar SS 2 0 0 0 .225 P.Tucker LF 3 0 0 0 .214
K.Suzuki C 3 0 1 0 .271 M.Gonzalez 1B 2 0 0 0 .194
E.Rosario LF 3 0 0 0 .274 A-C.Rasmus PH 1 0 0 0 .145
B-T.White 1B 0 0 0 0 .154
J.Castro C 3 0 0 0 .246
Totals 31 0 6 0 Totals 28 1 4 1
A-Pinch Hit For Gonzalez In 7th Inning
B-Subbed Defensively (1B) For Rasmus In 8th Inning
Twins........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 6 0
Astros.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 - 1 4 0
Twins (10-16) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
P.Hughes LOSS(1-4) 6 3 1 1 1 5 0 82 3.19
T.May 2 1 0 0 2 3 0 43 2.14
Totals 8 4 1 1 3 8 0
Astros (15-11) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
M.Fiers 6 2/3 5 0 0 1 5 0 91 1.96
W.Harris WIN(2-0) 1 1/3 1 0 0 0 1 0 14 5.40
K.Giles SAVE(2nd) 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 17 5.68
Totals 9 6 0 0 1 8 0
The screen for play is cluttered with a bunch of letters and numbers that I don't understand but I am trying to figure them out in hopes of not making a dumb managerial move. For example, next to a players' name is a figure expressed as #L, #R or E. This detects how much the player's results are better versus righties or lefties or if there's no difference (E). The higher the number before the L or R, the stronger the player's results are against lefties or righties. Colby Rasmus is an E. From both sides, he draws a bunch of walks and hasn't hit for high average. Although the screen is cluttered with numbers that mean nothing to me, I'd really like to see the line score superimposed on the playing field in one of the two open corners. The font makes it difficult for me to see the difference between a 5 and a 6. A radar gun with pitch count would also be a nice touch. Let's see if either Astros put together some wins with a home series against the Rangers. The real ones were swept in Arlington while the fake ones took two out of three.
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The true Astros are making small progress towards being a contender, winning two of
three series in May, but the Ersatz Astros are also treading water. After a 4-3 week,
they've dropped a game further back of Oakland in the AL West. It's too early to be
thinking about Wild Card but the Astros are in a virtual tie for the final wild card
spot with Cleveland, behind by percentage points:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 Major League Daily AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 23 11 .676 ---- 127 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 19 13 .594 3.0 2016 Baltimore BAA 14 21 .400 9.5 2016 Toronto TOA 13 22 .371 10.5 2016 New York (AL) NYA 10 22 .313 12.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 22 10 .688 ---- 127 2016 Cleveland CLA 18 14 .563 4.0 2016 Minnesota MNA 16 17 .485 6.5 2016 Detroit DEA 15 18 .455 7.5 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 15 20 .429 8.5 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Oakland OAA 21 14 .600 ---- 127 2016 Houston HOA 19 15 .559 1.5 2016 Seattle SEA 16 17 .485 4.0 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 14 18 .438 5.5 2016 Texas TEA 15 20 .429 6.0 Jose Altuve and Carlos Gomez, the best two hitters to date, have been cooling off but Carlos Correa is heating up while Luis Valbuena is continuing to outproduce his real-life self. Just as the Astros' starting pitching seems to be stablizing, so are my starting pitchers while Scott Feldman, exiled to the bullpen, has been pitching like someone who wants to win a job there if he can't win one every fifth day. The difference I see in the fake Astros and the real ones is that the real ones were snakebit in April, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory several times. The Ersatz Astros have been steadier with fewer meltdowns although a lack of great relief work and clutch hitting sometimes plagues this squad too. For the Game of the Week, this extra-inning thriller takes the prize. Doug Fister pitched well enough to win but the offense also struggled to score. Adam Lind drilled two bombs to right to account for all Seattle's runs. Finally, Correa homered in the eighth to tie it then Jake Marisnick spanked a walk-off double against the Crawfords to win it:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Seattle Mariners At 2016 Houston Astros 5/8/2016
Mariners AB R H RBI AVG Astros AB R H RBI AVG
N.Aoki LF 3 0 2 0 .261 J.Altuve 2B 4 0 2 0 .311
S.Smith RF 5 0 1 0 .272 G.Springer RF 4 0 2 0 .240
R.Cano 2B 5 0 0 0 .299 C.Gomez CF 4 0 0 0 .308
N.Cruz DH 5 0 0 0 .203 L.Valbuena 3B 5 1 1 1 .250
K.Seager 3B 5 0 1 0 .231 C.Correa SS 5 2 3 1 .248
A.Lind 1B 3 2 2 2 .367 C.Rasmus LF 5 0 2 0 .172
C.Iannetta C 4 0 0 0 .241 P.Tucker DH 2 0 0 0 .231
K.Marte SS 4 0 1 0 .262 A-J.Marisnick PH,DH 3 0 1 1 .240
L.Martin CF 4 0 1 0 .313 M.Gonzalez 1B 3 0 1 0 .202
J.Castro C 4 0 0 0 .200
Totals 38 2 8 2 Totals 39 3 12 3
A-Pinch Hit For Tucker In 6th Inning
Mariners........ 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 - 2 8 0
Astros.......... 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 - 3 12 1
Mariners (16-15) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
H.Iwakuma 5 1/3 8 1 1 1 6 1 96 3.23
V.Nuno 1 2/3 1 0 0 1 4 0 19 3.72
S.Cishek L(1-3) BS(4th) 2 1/3 3 2 2 2 4 1 47 8.10
Totals 9 1/3 12 3 3 4 14 2
Astros (17-15) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
D.Fister 7 5 1 1 4 5 1 109 2.89
M.Feliz 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 17 4.50
W.Harris 1 1/3 2 0 0 0 1 0 16 4.76
T.Sipp WIN(2-0) 0 2/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 2.53
Totals 10 8 2 2 4 7 2
A rough week lies ahead for both Houston teams so we'll see how it shakes out. The real Astros *must* get some W's or they will start to find themselves too far behind to seriously catch up.
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A day off to end the week for the Ersatz Astros leaves them 2-3 and flying into
Chicago from my last update. It will be interesting to see how Strat-o-Matic rates
Tony Kemp and Colin Moran after never warming up to Tyler White (.132 batting
average, no homers) and only marginally embracing Chris Devenski (0-3, 7.64 ERA).
Michael Feliz (1-0, 2.63 ERA) has blossomed into a dependable reliever as has
Scott Feldman (0-0, 4.70 ERA) since moving to the bullpen as a multi-inning swingman.
The mediocre week seems to have left them unchanged in the overall standings, 2nd in the AL West and one game out of the Wild Card race:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 American League AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 27 13 .675 ---- 121 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 22 15 .595 3.5 2016 Baltimore BAA 17 23 .425 10.0 2016 New York (AL) NYA 14 24 .368 12.0 2016 Toronto TOA 13 27 .325 14.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 25 13 .658 ---- 122 2016 Cleveland CLA 21 16 .568 3.5 2016 Minnesota MNA 20 18 .526 5.0 2016 Detroit DEA 17 22 .436 8.5 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 16 23 .410 9.5 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Oakland OAA 23 17 .575 ---- 122 2016 Houston HOA 21 18 .538 1.5 2016 Seattle SEA 19 18 .514 2.5 2016 Texas TEA 19 21 .475 4.0 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 17 21 .447 5.0 The real-life White Sox haven't been the success the real ones have seen this spring so it will be interesting to see how the Daily Game fares. Carlos Gomez (.303, 2 homers, .754 OPS) is only now beginning to cool off and Luis Valbuena (.265, 7 homers, .888 OPS) has been carrying his weight and more than making up for the lack of production from White. Evan Gattis, (.271, 6 homers, 22 RBIs, .920 OPS) when playing, has not only been a top performer but a clutch one. I've allowed Preston Tucker (.284, 1 homer, .684 OPS) to take a lot of ABs from him in the DH slot but that will obviously change now that Tucker is back in Fresno. The Daily Game is catching up with real-life Dallas Keuchel (5-3, 2.97 ERA) after a great 5-1 start. Doug Fister (3-1, 2.72), Mike Fiers (1-3, 3.63) and Collin McHugh (3-2, 4.60) make up the rest of the rotation while Lance McCullers goes through the feeling-out process. Our Game of the Week takes us to Fenway Park and a high-scoring duel with the Red Sox. Check out the video-game-like batting averages the Sox are carrying. Oh, wait. Their real numbers are just as daunting:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Houston Astros At 2016 Boston Red Sox 5/14/2016 Astros AB R H RBI AVG Red Sox AB R H RBI AVG J.Altuve 2B 5 1 1 2 .291 M.Betts RF 5 0 2 1 .352 G.Springer RF 4 1 2 3 .248 D.Pedroia 2B 5 0 0 0 .333 C.Gomez CF 5 1 1 0 .305 X.Bogaerts SS 5 1 2 0 .300 L.Valbuena 3B 3 2 2 2 .273 D.Ortiz DH 5 1 2 2 .308 C.Correa SS 3 1 1 0 .244 H.Ramirez 1B 4 1 1 1 .287 P.Tucker DH 5 0 1 0 .284 T.Shaw 3B 4 0 1 0 .261 C.Rasmus LF 5 1 1 1 .185 B.Holt LF 4 2 2 0 .294 M.Gonzalez 1B 5 2 3 1 .208 R.Hanigan C 4 1 3 1 .288 J.Castro C 4 1 1 0 .205 J.Bradley Jr CF 4 2 3 3 .302 Totals 39 10 13 9 Totals 40 8 16 8 Astros.......... 0 1 0 8 1 0 0 0 0 - 10 13 0 Red Sox......... 3 0 0 2 0 2 0 1 0 - 8 16 0 Astros (21-17) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA C.McHugh 3 1/3 10 5 5 0 2 3 46 4.60 S.Feldman 3 2/3 4 2 2 0 2 0 54 4.86 T.Sipp 0 2/3 2 1 1 0 1 0 17 3.00 P.Neshek WIN(2-1) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 14 7.62 W.Harris SAVE(1st) 0 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 4.61 Totals 9 16 8 8 0 5 3 Red Sox (25-13) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA R.Porcello LOSS(3-4) 3 1/3 6 7 7 4 1 0 69 4.25 H.Hembree 4 1/3 5 3 2 1 5 0 80 2.00 C.Smith 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 19 0.00 J.Tazawa 0 1/3 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0.96 Totals 9 13 10 9 6 7 0 Luis Valbuena hit 2 doubles and had 2 RBI as the Houston Astros defeated the Boston Red Sox by a score of 10 to 8 at Fenway Park. Pat Neshek(2-1) was brilliant in relief and registered the victory. No one was able to reach base in his 1 inning. The Boston batters didn't put up a fight in the bottom of the 9th. Will Harris was credited with his 1st save. Rick Porcello(3-4) was given the loss. He was hit hard and gave up 6 hits and 4 walks in 3 and 1/3 innings. Despite an 8-run fourth where they batted around, McHugh was fooling nobody and was pulled before he could get the win. I probably would have given the win to Feldman but the official scorer handed it to Neshek. As was spoken by a famous politician almost 50 years ago, "now it's on to Chicago and let's win there."
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The real Astros had a down and up week, getting swept by the Rangers (0-6) while
sweeping the Orioles for their first series sweep all year. They are still with the
also-rans as they head to the Memorial Day weekend.
Meanwhile, the Ersatz Astros swept the White Sox and took 2-of-3 from the Rangers (4-2 on the year) to vault into first place in the American League West. This adds to my theory that the Astros are simply psyched by the Rangers and the talent gap isn't all that different. After a 5-1 week heading into the Baltimore Series, here's how the Daily Standings look:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 Major League Daily AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 31 15 .674 ---- 116 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 26 16 .619 3.0 2016 New York (AL) NYA 19 25 .432 11.0 2016 Baltimore BAA 19 27 .413 12.0 2016 Toronto TOA 15 31 .326 16.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 28 16 .636 ---- 116 2016 Cleveland CLA 24 19 .558 3.5 2016 Minnesota MNA 24 20 .545 4.0 2016 Detroit DEA 18 26 .409 10.0 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 16 29 .356 12.5 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Houston HOA 26 19 .578 ---- 117 2016 Seattle SEA 23 20 .535 2.0 2016 Oakland OAA 23 23 .500 3.5 2016 Texas TEA 22 23 .489 4.0 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 21 23 .477 4.5 Somehow, Jose Altuve leads the Astros in homers (12), the same number David Ortiz has. Altuve also leads the league in doubles (15) and is second behind Mike Trout in total bases (107). Still, he's not at or near the top in some of the stats you'd expect for him, such as hits and batting average. Dallas Keuchel continues as the ace of the staff and A.J. Hinch is spreading around the saves with Luke Gregerson, Ken Giles, Tony Sipp and Will Harris all getting chances as closer. A little bit beyond the quarter pole and these Astros are making a surge generating some buzz. Our Game of the Week was an extra-inning thriller that resembled lost year's magic. I gave Altuve the day off only to have him smash the game-winning homer into the stands in right-center. Houston trailed by two in the ninth when a wild pitch plated the first run and a two-out single by Jason Castro tied it up:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Houston Astros At 2016 Chicago (AL) White Sox 5/19/2016
Astros AB R H RBI AVG White Sox AB R H RBI AVG
M.Gonzalez 2B,3B 6 0 1 0 .221 A.Eaton RF 3 1 2 1 .228
G.Springer RF 6 0 1 0 .254 J.Rollins SS 5 0 2 1 .156
E.Gattis DH 4 1 0 0 .259 J.Abreu 1B 3 0 1 0 .231
C.Correa SS 4 0 0 0 .233 T.Frazier 3B 4 0 1 0 .252
L.Valbuena 1B 5 1 2 1 .260 M.Cabrera LF 6 0 0 0 .257
C.Rasmus CF 4 0 0 0 .182 B.Lawrie 2B 6 0 0 0 .299
J.Castro C 5 0 2 1 .209 A.Garcia DH 5 1 2 0 .311
C.Moran 3B 3 0 0 0 .000 B-A.Avila PH 1 0 0 0 .113
A-J.Altuve PH,2B 2 1 1 1 .299 D.Navarro C 6 0 1 1 .303
T.Kemp LF 4 1 1 0 .250 A.Jackson CF 4 1 1 0 .214
Totals 43 4 8 3 Totals 43 3 10 3
A-Pinch Hit For Moran In 9th Inning
B-Pinch Hit For Garcia In 12th Inning
Astros.......... 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 - 4 8 1
White Sox....... 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 3 10 0
Astros (24-18) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
D.Fister 5 7 3 3 3 1 1 92 2.96
M.Feliz 2 0 0 0 3 3 0 34 2.30
K.Giles 2 0 0 0 1 4 0 26 3.74
P.Neshek 1 1/3 1 0 0 0 1 0 16 6.91
T.Sipp WIN(3-0) 0 2/3 2 0 0 2 1 0 19 2.84
L.Gregerson SAVE(9th) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 10 3.55
Totals 12 10 3 3 9 11 1
White Sox (16-26) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
M.Gonzalez 5 3 1 1 1 3 0 63 1.64
Z.Putnam HOLD(1st) 1 2/3 2 0 0 0 2 0 32 6.75
N.Jones HOLD(4th) 1 1/3 0 0 0 0 1 0 16 2.38
D.Robertson L(1-3)B(4th) 4 3 3 3 3 6 1 81 8.35
Totals 12 8 4 4 4 12 1
The Houston Astros and the Chicago (AL) White Sox locked up in an exciting one-run
game at US Cellular Field. The final score was the Houston Astros 4, the Chicago
(AL) White Sox 3 in 12 innings.
The score was knotted at 3 after nine innings. Houston was victorious in the 12th
inning. Jose Altuve smashed a solo-shot out of the park. The Chicago (AL) bats
were silent in the bottom of the 12th.
Tony Sipp(3-0) picked up the victory, allowing no runs in 2/3 of an inning. Luke
Gregerson earned his 9th save. David Robertson(1-3) absorbed the loss in relief.
Houston now has a record of a division leading 24-18. Chicago (AL) continued
their losing ways and their record is now 16-26, worst in the division. They are
2-8 in their last ten games.
Just like in real life, the Astros' bullpen is starting to round into form. The loss this week was when I reached for Chris Devenski when I probably shouldn't have. You can pin that one on me.
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The real Astros put together a nice week in Anaheim and Phoenix but the Ersatz Astros are cooling off after plowing into the AL West lead. Given an extra day to make my updates easier, the Daily Game version of Houston had a 4-4 week which still leaves them 2-1/2 games in front of the division:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 American League AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 38 16 .704 ---- 104 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 30 21 .588 6.5 2016 New York (AL) NYA 21 31 .404 16.0 2016 Toronto TOA 19 35 .352 19.0 2016 Baltimore BAA 19 35 .352 19.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 34 19 .642 ---- 106 2016 Cleveland CLA 29 23 .558 4.5 2016 Minnesota MNA 28 24 .538 5.5 2016 Detroit DEA 23 29 .442 10.5 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 21 34 .382 14.0 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Houston HOA 30 23 .566 ---- 108 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 27 25 .519 2.5 2016 Seattle SEA 26 25 .510 3.0 2016 Oakland OAA 27 27 .500 3.5 2016 Texas TEA 25 28 .472 5.0 As you can see, Boston and Kansas City are running away with the league while the Astros benefit from the fact that neither is in our division. Even Tampa Bay has a slightly better record. While most Astros fans were actually happy to see Carlos Gomez out of the lineup, the Ersatz Astros were not. He's a .297 batter with a .741 OPS who is among the league leaders in doubles. Batting him third instead of Carlos Correa has been a big lift. Correa got off to a slow start and has worked himself back up to a .228 hitter (.663 OPS) and just a shell of his Rookie of the Year self. The real Colby Rasmus (.224 average, .717 OPS) has been slipping to the point where he's catching up to the fake Rasmus (.188 average, .642 OPS) where I had also dropped him lower in the lineup for the fake Luis Valbuena (.247 average, .799 OPS) who is only now starting to catch fire in real life. Just to prove that my Game of the Week is not always rose-colored, I decided to showcase a game the Astros were blown out of in the first inning. I tend to accuse simulation games of having occasional results like this to help their fake results balance out against the real-life results. Unfortunately, Strat-o-matic picked on Lance McCullers to be the victim of this avalanche:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Houston Astros At 2016 Los Angeles(AL) Angels 5/28/2016
Astros AB R H RBI AVG Angels AB R H RBI AVG
G.Springer RF 4 0 2 1 .254 Y.Escobar 3B 3 4 2 2 .267
J.Altuve 2B 5 0 1 0 .298 K.Calhoun RF 6 3 4 3 .301
C.Correa SS 5 0 1 0 .234 M.Trout CF 5 3 3 2 .337
L.Valbuena 1B 3 0 0 0 .257 A.Pujols DH 5 1 1 2 .200
C.Rasmus CF,LF 4 0 0 0 .197 C.Cron 1B 5 2 3 3 .200
E.Gattis DH 4 0 2 0 .257 J.Giavotella 2B 6 1 2 1 .263
C.Moran 3B 3 1 1 0 .176 R.Ortega LF 5 2 2 2 .292
J.Castro C 4 2 2 0 .200 C.Perez C 4 2 2 2 .221
T.Kemp LF 2 0 1 0 .250 G.Petit SS 5 1 2 1 .368
A-J.Marisnick PH,CF 2 1 1 3 .189
Totals 36 4 11 4 Totals 44 19 21 18
A-Pinch Hit For Kemp In 6th Inning
Astros.......... 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 - 4 11 0
Angels..........10 0 2 1 4 0 0 2 - 19 21 0
Astros (29-21) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
L.McCullers LOSS(1-1) 0 2/3 8 10 10 3 1 0 48 7.90
C.Devenski 3 1/3 5 5 5 4 4 0 69 7.82
S.Feldman 4 8 4 4 0 4 0 74 5.02
Totals 8 21 19 19 7 9 0
Angels (25-24) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
J.Weaver WIN(4-2) 5 1/3 7 1 1 2 6 0 102 5.32
G.Mahle 2 2/3 4 3 3 0 4 1 39 4.50
D.Guerra 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 5.40
Totals 9 11 4 4 2 10 1
Right fielder Kole Calhoun had 4 hits and 3 RBI as the Los Angeles(AL) Angels
ballclub embarrassed the Houston Astros by the count of 19 to 4.
The game started off with Los Angeles(AL) taking the lead in the first as they
creamed Houston blasting them with 10 runs on 8 hits. That scoring would be
all that was needed. Los Angeles(AL) kept the scorekeepers busy in the 1st
inning when they had 10 runs on 8 hits and the 5th inning with 4 runs on 4 hits.
For the game Los Angeles(AL) out-hit Houston 21 to 11.
The win went to Jered Weaver(4-2) who allowed 1 run in 5 and 1/3 innings.
Lance McCullers(1-1) was given the loss. Los Angeles(AL) continued their
winnings (sic) ways improving their record to 25-24. They are 8-2 in their
last ten games. Houston has a record of 29-21 after the loss.
The coming week has division foes Oakland and Arlington on the agenda. The results will have some serious consequences for both Houston clubs but, moreso, the real ones who seems to be completely intimidated now by their neighbors to the north. Something drastic will need to change for their seasons to turn around.
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The real Astros swept Oakland to jump into third place in the division then ran into the Buzzsaw at Arlington. The Fake Astros also swept the A's and split the first two games with the Rangers (5-3 in their season series) to post a 6-1 week and reach a .600 winning percentage. They also put a four-game lead over second-place Seattle and you can see Houston and Texas practically flip-flopped in the league standings from reality:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 American League AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 42 18 .700 ---- 96 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 33 25 .569 8.0 2016 New York (AL) NYA 25 34 .424 16.5 2016 Toronto TOA 23 37 .383 19.0 2016 Baltimore BAA 22 39 .361 20.5 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 37 23 .617 ---- 100 2016 Cleveland CLA 33 26 .559 3.5 2016 Minnesota MNA 29 29 .500 7.0 2016 Detroit DEA 27 32 .458 9.5 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 23 37 .383 14.0 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Houston HOA 36 24 .600 ---- 100 2016 Seattle SEA 31 27 .534 4.0 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 30 28 .517 5.0 2016 Texas TEA 28 31 .475 7.5 2016 Oakland OAA 28 31 .475 7.5 Among the highlights of the week was a 4-0 blanking of the Rangers, buoyed by six shutout innings from Doug Fister and home runs from Luis Valbuena and Colby Rasmus. Coincidentally, Fister beat the real Rangers, 3-1, to break Houston's abysmal eight-game losing streak to Arlington. However, the Game of the Week has to be the series finale against Oakland. How often do you get to see back-to-back-to-back homers (Jason Castro, George Springer and Jose Altuve) in the same game as a grand slam (Rasmus)? The fans at that game got their money's worth:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Oakland Athletics At 2016 Houston Astros 6/5/2016
Athletics AB R H RBI AVG Astros AB R H RBI AVG
B.Burns CF 5 0 0 0 .246 G.Springer RF 4 2 2 1 .262
J.Lowrie 2B 4 1 1 1 .301 J.Altuve 2B 4 1 2 1 .311
S.Vogt DH 4 0 1 0 .249 C.Gomez CF 3 1 0 0 .273
D.Valencia 3B 4 1 1 1 .255 L.Valbuena 3B 4 0 0 0 .247
K.Davis LF 4 1 2 0 .245 C.Correa SS 3 1 1 0 .234
Y.Alonso 1B 3 0 0 0 .273 C.Rasmus LF 4 1 2 4 .183
M.Semien SS 4 0 0 0 .240 E.Gattis DH 2 0 0 0 .252
C.Coghlan RF 3 0 1 0 .212 M.Gonzalez 1B 4 0 0 0 .218
A-C.Crisp PH 1 0 0 0 .150 J.Castro C 4 1 1 1 .198
J.Phegley C 4 0 3 1 .255
Totals 36 3 9 3 Totals 32 7 8 7
A-Pinch Hit For Coghlan In 9th Inning
Athletics....... 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 - 3 9 0
Astros.......... 0 0 3 0 4 0 0 0 - 7 8 0
Athletics (28-30) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
J.Hahn LOSS(3-2) 4 2/3 8 7 7 2 3 4 101 5.01
F.Rodriguez 3 1/3 0 0 0 2 6 0 46 2.77
Totals 8 8 7 7 4 9 4
Astros (35-23) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
M.Fiers WIN(3-4) 5 8 3 3 0 5 2 89 3.28
C.Devenski 2 1 0 0 1 1 0 32 6.75
S.Feldman 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 23 4.80
Totals 9 9 3 3 1 6 2
At Minute Maid Park the Houston Astros easily handled the Oakland Athletics by
the score of 7 to 3. Houston scored 4 runs in the 5th inning when they came
up with 3 base hits. The crucial at-bat was provided by Colby Rasmus who thrilled
the crowd when he cleared the bases with a Grand Slam homerun.
Houston totaled 8 hits on the afternoon. Mike Fiers(3-4) got the win allowing
3 runs in 5 innings. Jesse Hahn(3-2) suffered the loss. He allowed 4 homeruns
in 4 and 2/3 innings of work.
Wth the win Houston now has a record of a division leading 35-23. With the
loss Oakland now has a record of 28-30.
Time for some team leaders as we pass the 1/3rd mark. Altuve leads the club in batting average (.306), hits (75), doubles (17), home runs (13), total bases (131), slugging (.535) and OPS (.933). Springer leads the teams in runs (45) and steals (17). Valbuena and Altuve are tied for the lead in RBIs (32). Among pitchers, Dallas Keuchel leads the club in wins (7). Tony Sipp leads in ERA (1.83 while also 4-0 in relief). Luke Gregerson sets the save pace with 13. The real Astros finish the week's road trip with the dangerous Tampa Rays and the struggling St. Louis Cardinals. There's also a day off after each series.
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With a couple of off-days, the Fake Astros had an abbreviated 3-2 week, taking the
final two in Arlington (now 7-3 for the year) before dropping two of three in Tampa.
It allowed them to maintain the same four-game lead over Seattle as the week before
while they lead the A.L. West:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 American League AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 45 19 .703 ---- 92 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 36 26 .581 8.0 2016 New York (AL) NYA 28 36 .438 17.0 2016 Toronto TOA 25 40 .385 20.5 2016 Baltimore BAA 25 41 .379 21.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 39 25 .609 ---- 96 2016 Cleveland CLA 36 28 .563 3.0 2016 Minnesota MNA 30 33 .476 8.5 2016 Detroit DEA 29 34 .460 9.5 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 27 38 .415 12.5 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Houston HOA 39 26 .600 ---- 95 2016 Seattle SEA 34 29 .540 4.0 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 31 32 .492 7.0 2016 Oakland OAA 30 33 .476 8.0 2016 Texas TEA 29 35 .453 9.5 As you can see, they are now just a 1/2-game behind Kansas City for the second-best record in the league, still 6-1/2 back of Boston (I'm starting to guess the programmers are closet Red Sox fans). Part of what has fueled the Astros' resurgence is the bullpen has become more dependable. As you'll see below, the Strat-O-Matic Astros are also seeing their bullpen round into shape. I began turning to Will Harris as the closer around the same time that A.J. Hinch did but, honestly, I am willing to give the ball in the ninth to any of Harris, Ken Giles or Luke Gregerson depending on the situation and the workload each pitcher has had. Harris is more successful against lefties and Giles is the one I call on to get strikeouts when needed. When one needs a rest, the others can fill in - even Michael Feliz, Tony Sipp or Pat Neshek. Because of my trust in the bullpen, I am not overextending the starting pitchers. Six or seven innings is just fine judging on pitch counts and effectiveness. Unlike Hinch, when the starters get into trouble, I'm headed right to the relief corps if it is past the sixth inning. One unrealistic aspect to this game is that I don't have to warm up pitchers before bringing them in so I can literally make last-second decisions on who to send into the game. The simulation does rate pitchers on fatigue so I try to look for one that is rested. The Game of the Week is the Sunday finale in Arlington where Mike Fiers gave the Astros a proper send-off, outpitching Cole Hamels:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Houston Astros At 2016 Texas Rangers 6/9/2016
Astros AB R H RBI AVG Rangers AB R H RBI AVG
G.Springer RF 5 1 2 1 .273 R.Odor 2B 4 0 0 0 .258
J.Altuve 2B 4 0 0 0 .306 I.Desmond CF 4 1 0 0 .279
C.Gomez CF 4 1 2 2 .277 N.Mazara RF 4 0 0 0 .274
E.Gattis DH 3 1 2 0 .261 A.Beltre 3B 3 0 1 0 .289
C.Correa SS 4 0 0 0 .223 P.Fielder DH 3 0 1 1 .285
M.Gonzalez 3B 4 0 0 0 .223 E.Andrus SS 3 0 0 0 .246
T.White 1B 3 0 0 0 .146 B-J.Profar PH 1 0 0 0 .152
J.Castro C 3 1 1 1 .194 M.Moreland 1B 4 0 0 0 .241
J.Marisnick LF 3 0 0 0 .208 J.Hoying LF 1 0 1 0 .316
A-R.Rua PH,LF 2 0 0 0 .267
B.Wilson C 3 0 1 0 .273
Totals 33 4 7 4 Totals 32 1 4 1
A-Pinch Hit For Hoying In 7th Inning
B-Pinch Hit For Andrus In 9th Inning
Astros.......... 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 - 4 7 2
Rangers......... 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 4 0
Astros (38-24) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
M.Fiers WIN(4-4) 6 3 1 0 4 3 0 96 3.01
T.Sipp HOLD(6th) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 1.74
K.Giles HOLD(6th) 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 15 2.79
L.Gregerson 0 2/3 0 0 0 1 1 0 13 2.45
W.Harris SAVE(5th) 0 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3.09
Totals 9 4 1 0 5 5 0
Rangers (28-33) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
C.Hamels LOSS(4-6) 6 1/3 6 3 3 3 5 0 86 4.62
T.Wilhelmsen 2 2/3 1 1 1 0 4 1 39 5.40
Totals 9 7 4 4 3 9 1
In a game at Globe Life Park the Houston Astros got by the Texas Rangers by the score
of 4 to 1.
Texas never recovered after Houston took the lead in the top of the 2nd inning plating
one baserunner. After an out was recorded, Jason Castro drew a walk. Jake Marisnick
followed next and he laid down a sacrifice bunt. George Springer then doubled scoring
the run. That was all Mike Fiers(4-4) needed. Texas was out-hit by Houston, 7 hits
to 4.
Will Harris recorded his 5th save. Cole Hamels(4-6) ended up with the loss. Houston
remained hot, improving their record to a division leading 38-24. They now have a
record of 8-2 in recent days. With this loss, Texas has a 4-6 record of late, 28-33
overall.
Doesn't Houston's ERAs look pretty? Yes, Harris' is better in relief but, overall, this group looks able to take them deep into the postseason if needed. The real Astros have already swept the Cardinals in a two-game series. Let's see if the fake club can do the same. Both will have the Reds and Angels at home before yet another day off.
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It has been rare this season for the real Astros to outperform my fake Astros but this past week, happily, this has been the case. The true Astros swept the Angels after winning two of three from Cincinnati. Meanwhile, the Ersatz Astros slogged through a 3-3 week which allowed second-place Seattle a chance to crawl back into the race:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 American League AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 48 23 .676 ---- 86 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 40 29 .580 7.0 2016 Toronto TOA 31 41 .431 17.5 2016 New York (AL) NYA 30 40 .429 17.5 2016 Baltimore BAA 26 47 .356 23.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 45 26 .634 ---- 86 2016 Cleveland CLA 39 32 .549 6.0 2016 Minnesota MNA 35 35 .500 9.5 2016 Detroit DEA 33 38 .465 12.0 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 28 44 .389 17.5 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Houston HOA 42 29 .592 ---- 90 2016 Seattle SEA 39 31 .557 2.5 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 36 34 .514 5.5 2016 Texas TEA 34 38 .472 8.5 2016 Oakland OAA 32 38 .457 9.5 The fake Astros are adjusting to this year's Dallas Keuchel after enjoying a month or so of last year's Keuchel who was flashing Cy Young credentials. Overall, he's 8-5 with a 3.05 ERA while the real one has been struggling from the first game (3-9, 5.32). Meanwhile, Lance McCullers is the weak link of the rotation with a 1-3 record and 7.14 ERA since returning from the Disabled List while, fortunately, the real McCullers has been better (3-2, 4.24) although there is definitely room for improvement. The real Astros have had some dramatic finishes lately, winning most of them, but the drama seems to have settled down for the Strat-o-Matic version. There seems to be quite a bit of first-inning scoring that sets the tone for the rest of the game, win or lose. Such was the case in my Game of the Week against the Reds. Houston scored early and often led by Carlos Gomez and Luis Valbuena and featuring the solid pitching of Doug Fister (now 6-3):
BOXSCORE: 2016 Cincinnati Reds At 2016 Houston Astros 6/18/2016
Reds AB R H RBI AVG Astros AB R H RBI AVG
Z.Cozart SS 4 0 0 0 .266 G.Springer RF 3 1 0 0 .265
J.Votto 1B 4 0 0 0 .244 A-J.Marisnick RF 1 0 0 0 .200
B.Phillips DH 4 0 1 0 .243 J.Altuve 2B 4 3 3 1 .305
J.Bruce RF 4 0 0 0 .263 B-M.Gonzalez 2B 0 0 0 0 .237
A.Duvall LF 3 1 1 1 .226 C.Gomez CF 4 3 3 4 .267
E.Suarez 3B 4 0 1 0 .241 L.Valbuena 1B 5 1 2 4 .263
B.Hamilton CF 4 0 1 0 .234 E.Gattis DH 4 0 1 0 .247
R.Cabrera C 3 0 0 0 .171 C.Correa SS 4 0 1 0 .216
J.Peraza 2B 3 0 3 0 .414 J.Castro C 4 1 0 0 .208
D.Worth 3B 4 1 1 1 .333
T.Kemp LF 3 1 1 1 .277
Totals 33 1 7 1 Totals 36 11 12 11
A-Subbed Defensively (RF) For Springer In 7th Inning
B-Subbed Defensively (2B) For Altuve In 7th Inning
Reds............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 1 7 0
Astros.......... 2 0 2 1 1 5 0 0 - 11 12 1
Reds (24-46) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
D.Straily LOSS(1-7) 4 8 6 6 1 4 1 93 5.53
A.Simon 4 4 5 5 3 4 2 78 5.10
Totals 8 12 11 11 4 8 3
Astros (42-27) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
D.Fister WIN(6-3) 7 7 1 1 1 4 1 94 3.54
S.Feldman 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 25 4.24
Totals 9 7 1 1 1 5 1
The Cincinnati Reds endured an embarrassing pasting as a potent Houston Astros
lineup tallied 11 runs while Doug Fister(6-3), with relief help from Scott Feldman,
held Cincinnati to 1 run.
Carlos Gomez provided much of the offense. He delivered a one-base hit in the 1st
inning, slapped a base-hit resulting in a run in the 5th inning and belted a three-run
homer in the 6th inning. Houston out-hit Cincinnati for the game, 12 hits to 7.
Dan Straily(1-7) was the losing pitcher. Houston knocked him around a bit, as he
gave up 6 runs in 4 innings.
The real Astros made big strides and it is hoped that the train keeps rolling during a road trip through Kansas City and Anaheim this week. After that, they'll have a 10-game homestand before the All-Star Break.
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While the real Astros have been as hot as a Fourth of July firecracker, the fake
Astros have hit the skids this week, losing four of six, including getting swept
in Kansas City whom they were about to overtake for the second best record in
the league.
The ersatz Astros were due for a letdown and they showed with a comeback win over the Angels that they still have control of the AL West. Here's how they stand:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 Major League Daily AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 53 25 .679 ---- 77 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 43 33 .566 9.0 2016 Toronto TOA 36 42 .462 17.0 2016 New York (AL) NYA 33 43 .434 19.0 2016 Baltimore BAA 29 50 .367 24.5 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 49 28 .636 ---- 80 2016 Cleveland CLA 43 34 .558 6.0 2016 Minnesota MNA 38 38 .500 10.5 2016 Detroit DEA 36 41 .468 13.0 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 28 50 .359 21.5 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Houston HOA 44 33 .571 ---- 85 2016 Seattle SEA 42 34 .553 1.5 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 41 36 .532 3.0 2016 Texas TEA 37 41 .474 7.5 2016 Oakland OAA 34 43 .442 10.0 You can see that Seattle is creeping back into the picture as well, even with a 3-3 week. Jose Altuve has been stepping it up in the stolen base department, now leading the league with 29 thefts. His real-life numbers look like they came from a video game so it is really difficult for a video game to keep pace with it (oh, the irony). In the opener at Anaheim, the Astros pounded five home runs on their way to an 8-5 victory. Fans were treated to another back-to-back-to-back home run display, courtesy of Carlos Gomez, Evan Gattis and Carlos Correa. We're happy to report also that A.J. Reed had his first hit in the big leagues here before he actually got one in real life. It was Jason "Clutch" Castro who came up with a pinch-hit two-run homer in Reed's spot to seal the win. Castro's over all numbers don't look that great (nor do they in real life) but the backstop seems to be the right man in the right spot more often than logic tells you he should. Here's the box:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Houston Astros At 2016 Los Angeles(AL) Angels 6/27/2016
Astros AB R H RBI AVG Angels AB R H RBI AVG
G.Springer RF 5 0 0 0 .252 K.Calhoun RF 5 0 0 0 .291
M.Gonzalez DH 4 1 1 0 .237 M.Trout CF 5 1 2 1 .342
J.Altuve 2B 4 1 2 2 .311 A.Pujols DH 3 1 2 0 .246
L.Valbuena 3B,1B 4 0 0 0 .252 C.Cron 1B 3 1 2 1 .259
C.Gomez CF 4 1 1 1 .264 J.Giavotella 2B 2 0 0 0 .271
E.Gattis C 3 2 2 1 .254 A-G.Petit 2B 1 0 0 0 .377
C.Correa SS 4 2 2 2 .228 J.Marte 3B 2 0 0 2 .184
A.Reed 1B 3 0 1 0 .200 D-Y.Escobar PH 1 0 0 0 .269
B-J.Castro PH 1 1 1 2 .220 D.Nava LF 3 0 0 1 .216
C-D.Worth 3B 0 0 0 0 .300 C.Perez C 4 1 2 0 .238
J.Marisnick LF 4 0 0 0 .183 A.Simmons SS 4 1 1 0 .280
Totals 36 8 10 8 Totals 33 5 9 5
A-Subbed Defensively (2B) For Giavotella In 8th Inning
B-Pinch Hit For Reed In 9th Inning
C-Subbed Defensively (3B) For Castro In 9th Inning
D-Pinch Hit For Marte In 9th Inning
Astros.......... 1 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 3 - 8 10 0
Angels.......... 0 0 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 5 9 0
Astros (44-33) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
L.McCullers 4 5 4 4 6 4 0 102 7.36
C.Devenski 2 2/3 2 1 1 3 1 0 44 5.40
P.Neshek WIN(4-2) 1 1/3 0 0 0 0 2 0 14 4.85
W.Harris SAVE(8th) 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 14 3.30
Totals 9 9 5 5 9 8 0
Angels (41-36) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
H.Santiago 4 5 4 4 0 7 4 66 5.45
F.Salas 3 1 0 0 0 2 0 37 2.56
M.Morin HOLD(5th) 0 2/3 1 1 1 0 2 0 10 4.44
H.Street L(0-1) BS(2nd) 0 2/3 2 2 2 1 0 0 17 4.09
D.Guerra 0 2/3 1 1 1 0 2 1 9 7.45
Totals 9 10 8 8 1 13 5
Shortstop Carlos Correa blasted a homerun and had 2 RBI as the Houston Astros
topped the Los Angeles(AL) Angels by a score of 8 to 5 at Angel Stadium.
Houston scored the winning runs in the top of the 9th inning plating 3 runs
on 2 hits. After an out was recorded, Evan Gattis began the rally when he
drew a walk. Correa came next and he doubled scoring a run. Jason Castro
then smashed a two-run homer. Houston managed 10 hits in their victory.
Pat Neshek(4-2) went 1 and 1/3 innings allowing no runs for the victory.
Neshek got help from Will Harris who was credited with his 8th save.
Huston Street(0-1) was tagged with the loss in relief.
Houston closes out the pre-All-Star-Break schedule with AL West opponents other than the three-game home set with the Chicago White Sox. The ChiSox and Mariners are involved in the wild card chase in the AL. For the fake club, as long as the Astros lead the division, there's no need to pay attention to the wild card race until September.
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The Ersatz Astros had an excellent week, sweeping the Angels and posting a 5-1 mark.
The real Astros swept the Mariners but lost 2-of-3 to the White Sox and still sit
just outside the wild card spots although they've made some ground on the Rangers
for the division lead (6-1/2 GB). The fake Astros opened up their division lead
they've held most of the season:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 American League AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 56 28 .667 ---- 71 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 47 36 .566 8.5 2016 Toronto TOA 42 43 .494 14.5 2016 New York (AL) NYA 33 50 .398 22.5 2016 Baltimore BAA 31 55 .360 26.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 53 31 .631 ---- 73 2016 Cleveland CLA 47 37 .560 6.0 2016 Minnesota MNA 38 45 .458 14.5 2016 Detroit DEA 38 46 .452 15.0 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 33 52 .388 20.5 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Houston HOA 49 34 .590 ---- 77 2016 Seattle SEA 46 37 .554 3.0 2016 Texas TEA 44 41 .518 6.0 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 42 41 .506 7.0 2016 Oakland OAA 39 45 .464 10.5 Just beyond the mathematical halfway point of the season and team leaders look this way. Dallas Keuchel (10-5) became the team's first 10-game winner and still narrowly leads starting pitchers with a 2.89 ERA. Tony Sipp (4-0) leads in bullpen ERA with 1.61 while Luke Gregerson (4-0) leads the club with 14 saves followed by Will Harris (2-0) with ten. Offensively, it's the Jose Altuve Show as he leads the club in average (.320), hits (108), runs (61), doubles (19), home runs (16), steals (32) and OPS (.892). Luis Valbuena tops the team in RBIs (47). Carlos Correa is the team leader in triples (2). Do you remember the game this week where the Astros topped Seattle, 9-8, despite allowing four homers? The fake Astros had the same sort of game against the White Sox to be our Game of the Week. While it was Luis Valbuena who struck the game-winning two-run homer in real life, it was Evan Gattis who came off the bench to pinch-hit for Valbuena that won it here against the ChiSox:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Chicago (AL) White Sox At 2016 Houston Astros 7/1/2016
White Sox AB R H RBI AVG Astros AB R H RBI AVG
T.Anderson SS 5 0 0 0 .274 G.Springer RF 4 0 1 1 .251
A.Eaton RF 4 1 1 0 .249 J.Altuve 2B 5 2 3 1 .319
J.Abreu DH 4 1 1 0 .237 C.Gomez DH 5 1 2 0 .278
A.Avila 1B 4 3 2 2 .226 L.Valbuena 3B 2 2 1 3 .257
D.Navarro C 3 2 2 3 .287 B-E.Gattis PH 1 1 1 2 .253
B.Lawrie 2B 4 0 2 1 .263 C-D.Worth 3B 0 0 0 0 .300
J.Shuck CF 4 0 1 0 .185 C.Correa SS 3 1 1 3 .234
A.Garcia LF 4 0 1 1 .262 C.Rasmus LF 4 0 1 0 .209
T.Saladino 3B 4 1 1 1 .248 A.Reed 1B 2 1 1 0 .200
A-M.Gonzalez PH,1B 2 0 0 0 .237
J.Castro C 4 1 1 0 .228
J.Marisnick CF 4 1 2 0 .196
Totals 36 8 11 8 Totals 36 10 14 10
A-Pinch Hit For Reed In 4th Inning
B-Pinch Hit For Valbuena In 8th Inning
C-Subbed Defensively (3B) For Gattis In 9th Inning
White Sox....... 0 2 0 3 1 1 1 0 0 - 8 11 2
Astros.......... 0 0 1 5 0 2 0 2 - 10 14 0
White Sox (31-51) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
J.Shields 3 2/3 10 6 6 2 4 1 89 9.64
D.Jennings 2 0 1 1 3 1 0 31 5.36
C.Beck LOSS(0-1) BS(1st) 1 2/3 3 2 2 0 2 1 31 6.43
Z.Duke 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 6 5.48
N.Jones 0 2/3 0 0 0 0 2 0 9 2.28
Totals 8 14 10 10 5 9 3
Astros (47-33) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
C.McHugh 5 7 6 6 1 3 4 72 3.70
M.Feliz 1 1/3 3 2 2 2 1 0 24 2.86
T.Sipp BS(1st) 0 2/3 1 0 0 1 0 0 11 1.61
K.Giles WIN(4-3) 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 12 2.87
W.Harris SAVE(10th) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 13 3.09
Totals 9 11 8 8 4 7 4
In a close game the Houston Astros got by the Chicago (AL) White Sox by the score of
10 to 8.
Ken Giles(4-3) slammed the door shut in an excellent relief performance. He performed
flawlessly in relief in his 1 inning. The score went back-and-forth with the lead
changing 5 times.
Giles was helped out by Will Harris who recorded his 10th save. Chris Beck(0-1) was
the losing pitcher in relief. He pitched 1 and 2/3 innings giving up 3 hits and no
walks.
This week will be dominated by the All-Star Break but the real Astros still have three games left hosting Oakland while the Ersatz club (normally a series behind) ends with the Mariners and Athletics. Congratulations to Altuve and Harris for making the All-Star Game in San Diego. It appears Strat-o-Matic has already assigned All-Stars for the Daily League and Houston's representatives are Altuve and Keuchel.
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Welcome to the special All-Star Edition of the Daily Game recap. Time to compare
how well Strat-o-Matic is able to recreate the 2016 Astros while adding daily
updates to the database with which to form a truer model of predictive realism.
Keep in mind, the season is a smidge over halfway done but it's been three months,
enough time to make course corrections on the profiles of players league-wide.
As you'll see, the game gets some things pretty darn close while others they seem
to miss the mark badly.
After a good closing week, the Ersatz Astros have opened up a six-game lead on their closest division rivals which are the Texas Rangers:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 Major League Daily AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 59 30 .663 ---- 63 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 48 41 .539 11.0 2016 Toronto TOA 46 45 .505 14.0 2016 New York (AL) NYA 37 52 .416 22.0 2016 Baltimore BAA 34 57 .374 26.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 56 34 .622 ---- 67 2016 Cleveland CLA 50 40 .556 6.0 2016 Minnesota MNA 40 49 .449 15.5 2016 Detroit DEA 40 50 .444 16.0 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 36 54 .400 20.0 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Houston HOA 54 35 .607 ---- 67 2016 Texas TEA 49 42 .538 6.0 2016 Seattle SEA 47 42 .528 7.0 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 46 43 .517 8.0 2016 Oakland OAA 41 49 .456 13.5 Now, contrast this with the real AL West standings:
Genuine LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 Major Leagues AL West WON LOST PCT GB 2016 Texas 54 36 .600 ---- 2016 Houston 48 41 .539 5.5 2016 Seattle 45 44 .506 8.5 2016 Oakland 38 51 .427 15.5 2016 Los Angeles (AL) 37 52 .416 16.5 Clearly, the division is stronger than in real-life and Houston's fortunes in this game have been more like the Rangers have been in real-life, fending off an early challenge from Seattle and holding onto the division lead for most of the first half. What made my Astros better than the real thing? Start with the 7-3 record posted by the fake Astros head-to-head against the Rangers compared to the 1-9 mark the real club produced. This could be the answer right there. But, in addition, I was able to spot quickly certain trends and adjust to them so that I steered clear of the disaster of the first month. I was fortunate in some ways that players like Dallas Keuchel and Luke Gregerson were performing at 2015 levels before Strat-o-Matic could adjust to new realities. Early in the season, my batting lineups looked very similar to A.J. Hinch's but, in the fake reality, I noticed that Carlos Gomez and Luis Valbuena were hitting while the real-life players were not and that Carlos Correa and Colby Rasmus were not living up to the numbers 3 and 4 spots in the lineup, thus, I switched. For most of the first half, my regular lineup has been Springer and Altuve (or Altuve and Springer earlier) followed by Gomez and Valbuena, Evan Gattis if appropriate, then Correa and Rasmus hitting in the 6 and 7 spots. This sustained more rallies and Correa has started to rebound so he may hit higher in the second half of the season. Below is a list of all the primary batters and pitchers with their real-life stats on the left and their Strat-o-Matic stats on the right:
2016 Actual vs Daily Game comparison at All-Star Break Player Real Avg. HR RBI OBP SLG OPS Daily Avg. HR RBI OBP SLG OPS Altuve, Jose .341 14 51 .413 .542 .954 .322 17 44 .374 .519 .893 Valbuena, Luis .269 12 37 .364 .474 .838 .260 16 52 .354 .473 .827 Springer, George .262 19 51 .359 .473 .833 .267 18 46 .327 .452 .780 Correa, Carlos .260 14 55 .354 .459 .812 .236 7 37 .338 .367 .705 Gonzalez, Marwin .251 6 24 .295 .394 .688 .246 3 16 .297 .322 .619 Rasmus, Colby .245 11 42 .325 .401 .726 .204 11 38 .311 .360 .671 Gomez, Carlos .217 4 23 .282 .332 .614 .294 6 37 .333 .416 .749 Gattis, Evan .215 13 36 .281 .421 .702 .263 16 40 .329 .513 .843 White, Tyler .211 7 20 .296 .386 .682 .140 0 7 .263 .150 .413 Castro, Jason .210 6 21 .330 .385 .715 .233 9 22 .304 .427 .731 Marisnick, Jake .189 1 7 .248 .262 .510 .208 3 13 .256 .317 .572 FULL TEAM .244 112 384 .324 .415 .738 .254 110 380 .324 .406 .730 Pitcher Real ERA W L SV BB K IP Daily ERA W L SV BB K IP Harris, Will 1.62 1 1 9 6 39 39.0 3.00 2 0 11 8 26 33.0 Devenski, Chris 2.30 0 2 1 14 47 58.2 5.23 1 4 0 25 38 51.2 Neshek, Pat 2.54 2 1 0 8 24 28.1 4.34 5 2 0 6 29 29.0 Feldman, Scott 2.56 5 3 0 13 36 52.2 3.84 1 4 1 14 36 63.1 Gregerson, Luke 3.43 3 1 14 11 48 39.1 2.33 2 0 14 8 31 27.0 Fister, Doug 3.55 8 6 0 36 66 106.1 3.82 8 3 0 36 59 110.2 McCullers, Lance 3.79 4 3 0 34 72 57.0 6.20 3 3 0 26 38 45.0 Feliz, Michael 4.28 6 1 0 11 57 40.0 2.67 2 1 0 11 27 30.1 Fiers, Mike 4.35 6 3 0 21 64 93.0 3.17 4 7 0 24 83 105.0 Giles, Ken 4.38 1 3 1 11 50 37.0 2.61 4 3 4 13 47 41.1 McHugh, Collin 4.50 5 6 0 30 94 102.0 3.62 7 3 0 24 83 104.1 Keuchel, Dallas 4.80 6 9 0 37 104 120.0 2.81 10 5 0 25 104 128.1 Sipp, Tony 5.32 1 2 1 7 23 23.2 1.46 5 0 1 14 28 24.2 FULL TEAM 3.87 48 41 26 242 744 813.2 3.52 54 35 33 240 641 805.0 It's easy to pick out the players who were way off (Gomez, Gattis, for example), but look how close the offense is in team stats to the real thing. The batting average is 10 points better (.254 to .244) but the home run, RBI numbers are very close and the team OBP is an exact match. For the pitchers, clearly the Keuchel and McHugh numbers are quite different and, though the team walks is almost spot-on, the fake club is way behind in strikeouts compared to the real club. Yet the ERA is 0.35 better. For realism, I'd give this game a C+ so far - true to form in some ways yet not in others. For our Game of the Week, here's a pitchers duel between Keuchel and Oakland's Sonny Gray where the contest went to extra innings and Houston won in the 11th on a passed ball. Sometimes, you just have to be lucky.
BOXSCORE: 2016 Oakland Athletics At 2016 Houston Astros 7/9/2016
Athletics AB R H RBI AVG Astros AB R H RBI AVG
C.Crisp CF 5 0 1 1 .161 G.Springer RF 5 1 2 2 .267
J.Lowrie 2B 5 0 1 0 .289 M.Gonzalez 2B 5 0 1 0 .243
J.Reddick RF 5 0 0 0 .274 C.Gomez CF 5 0 1 0 .294
D.Valencia 3B 5 0 0 0 .264 L.Valbuena 3B 3 0 0 0 .256
K.Davis DH 5 0 2 0 .230 E.Gattis DH 5 0 0 0 .264
B.Butler 1B 5 0 0 0 .245 C.Correa SS 4 1 1 0 .236
M.Semien SS 5 1 3 1 .264 A.Reed 1B 5 1 2 0 .294
J.Smolinski LF 4 1 1 0 .242 J.Castro C 5 0 2 0 .228
M.McBride C 4 0 2 0 .344 J.Marisnick LF 3 0 1 0 .207
A-J.Altuve PH 0 0 0 0 .323
Totals 43 2 10 2 Totals 40 3 10 2
A-Pinch Hit For Marisnick In 11th Inning
Athletics....... 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 - 2 10 1
Astros.......... 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 3 10 1
Athletics (41-48) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
S.Gray 6 2/3 9 2 2 3 5 1 116 5.36
R.Dull 3 0 0 0 0 5 0 33 3.05
A.Triggs LOSS(1-2) 0 2/3 1 1 0 1 1 0 20 2.78
Totals 10 1/3 10 3 2 4 11 1
Astros (53-35) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
D.Keuchel 7 9 2 1 0 5 1 94 2.81
K.Giles 2 1 0 0 0 2 0 19 2.61
L.Gregerson 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 11 2.33
P.Neshek WIN(5-2) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 7 4.34
Totals 11 10 2 1 0 10 1
45,596 fans watched an exciting game at Minute Maid Park. The Houston Astros topped
the Oakland Athletics by the slimmest of margins, 3 to 2.
The game was deadlocked at 2 after nine full innings. Finally, Houston pulled the
game out in the 11th inning. Carlos Correa drew a walk. A.J. Reed followed and he
slapped a single. Jason Castro dug into the batters box next, but he struck out.
Andrew Triggs then threw a high and inside pitch that got by the catcher; it was
ruled a passed ball making Houston victorious to the delight of the the home town
crowd. Both teams ended up with 10 hits on the afternoon.
Pat Neshek(5-2) allowed no runs in 1 inning, and picked up the victory. Triggs(1-2)
was the losing pitcher in relief. He allowed 1 hit and 1 walk in 2/3 of an inning.
Due to scheduling and the way I play 2-3 days behind reality, the next report will come in two weeks on July 29th.
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The real Astros have gone 7-5 since the All-Star Break and continue to linger just
outside the top five playoff spots while creeping just a little closer to them.
The ersatz Astros, with the additional delay from the Break, have gone 6-3 going
into the home series with the Yankees. The Daily Game Astros increased their hold
on the AL West and pushed past Kansas City into the second-best record in the
American League behind the steamrolling Red Sox:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 American League AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 67 31 .684 ---- 49 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 52 47 .525 15.5 2016 Toronto TOA 51 48 .515 16.5 2016 Baltimore BAA 41 60 .406 27.5 2016 New York (AL) NYA 40 59 .404 27.5 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 59 40 .596 ---- 60 2016 Cleveland CLA 55 44 .556 4.0 2016 Detroit DEA 49 51 .490 10.5 2016 Minnesota MNA 42 57 .424 17.0 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 37 63 .370 22.5 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Houston HOA 60 38 .612 ---- 57 2016 Seattle SEA 52 46 .531 8.0 2016 Texas TEA 53 47 .530 8.0 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 50 48 .510 10.0 2016 Oakland OAA 46 54 .460 15.0 A.J. Reed had a better debut with the fake Astros - a .255 batting average in 51 at bats plus a .321 OBP and .333 SLG. Not eye-popping but a solid start. Still, the Ersatz squad are happy to welcome back Preston Tucker who broke out with a 5-for-7 return, making his overall numbers a .316 average and a .763 OPS. In my next report, we'll see how Strat-o-Matic views Alex Bregman. In the Game of the Week, the Astros strung together 16 hits, including four by George Springer and three from Luis Valbuena but a three-run homer in the first by Carlos Gomez was actually the only runs the Astros would need to subdue the Athletics:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Houston Astros At 2016 Oakland Athletics 7/19/2016
Astros AB R H RBI AVG Athletics AB R H RBI AVG
G.Springer RF 5 1 4 0 .276 R.Healy 3B 3 0 1 0 .200
J.Altuve 2B 4 1 1 0 .326 J.Lowrie 2B 4 0 1 0 .280
C.Gomez CF 5 1 2 3 .292 J.Reddick RF 4 0 1 0 .276
L.Valbuena 3B 4 2 3 0 .260 D.Valencia DH 4 0 1 0 .266
E.Gattis DH 5 0 2 0 .257 K.Davis LF 4 0 2 0 .240
C.Correa SS 4 0 1 2 .235 S.Vogt C 3 1 0 0 .299
M.Gonzalez 1B 5 0 2 0 .248 M.Semien SS 4 0 0 0 .249
J.Castro C 5 0 0 0 .222 Y.Alonso 1B 3 0 0 0 .276
J.Marisnick LF 5 0 1 0 .205 J.Smolinski CF 3 1 2 2 .250
Totals 42 5 16 5 Totals 32 2 8 2
Astros.......... 3 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 - 5 16 1
Athletics....... 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 - 2 8 1
Astros (57-37) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
D.Fister WIN(9-3) 7 7 2 2 2 5 1 99 3.75
L.Gregerson HOLD(3rd) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 11 2.17
C.Devenski SAVE(1st) 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 8 5.20
Totals 9 8 2 2 2 7 1
Athletics (44-51) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
D.Overton LOSS(0-2) 4 1/3 10 5 5 1 6 1 87 7.20
P.Schuster 1 2/3 4 0 0 0 3 0 33 1.50
M.Rzepczynsk 1 2/3 1 0 0 1 0 0 35 4.43
A.Triggs 1 1/3 1 0 0 0 2 0 22 4.13
Totals 9 16 5 5 2 11 1
Center fielder Carlos Gomez left the yard and had 3 RBI as the Houston Astros
defeated the Oakland Athletics by the score of 5 to 2 at O.co Coliseum.
Houston set the tone of the game in the first inning when they tallied 3 runs
on 4 hits. That early run support was all that Doug Fister(9-3) required.
Houston had 16 hits for the night while Oakland had 8.
Chris Devenski got the save, his 1st. The loss was charged to Dillon Ray
Overton(0-2). Houston scored big getting 5 runs off him in 4 and 1/3 innings.
Next week, a report on how the fake Astros handled the Yankees and Tigers. Meanwhile, the real Astros work on the Tigers and Blue Jays.
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It's been a very rough week for the real Astros what with a rash of injuries and
an offensive slump that has been truly offensive. They've won just two of their
last ten games.
The fake Astros of the Start-o-Matic Daily Game were 3-3 for the week heading into the Toronto series but hold a relatively comfy 7-1/2 game lead still in the AL West:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 Major League Daily AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 72 33 .686 ---- 41 2016 Toronto TOA 55 50 .524 17.0 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 54 50 .519 17.5 2016 Baltimore BAA 46 62 .426 27.5 2016 New York (AL) NYA 44 61 .419 28.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 62 44 .585 ---- 56 2016 Cleveland CLA 59 45 .567 2.0 2016 Detroit DEA 51 55 .481 11.0 2016 Minnesota MNA 44 61 .419 17.5 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 40 67 .374 22.5 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Houston HOA 63 41 .606 ---- 50 2016 Texas TEA 57 50 .533 7.5 2016 Seattle SEA 53 50 .515 9.5 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 53 52 .505 10.5 2016 Oakland OAA 47 59 .443 17.0 Honestly, the Astros have been relatively lucky on the injury front all year. Early setbacks to Evan Gattis and Lance McCullers were part of a 7-17 April downslide but, in the past ten days, McCullers, Luis Valbuena and Luke Gregerson have hit the disabled list while Marwin Gonzalez, Carlos Gomez, Colby Rasmus, Evan Gattis and Jason Castro have been fighting pains that have caused them to miss time. Scott Feldman was also traded away. The Daily Game maintains a 25-man roster that changes whenever the actual 25-man changes. While you can dip into the minors for whomever you wish when a player lands on the DL, I chose to let real world events dictate my 25-man although the game is normally a day behind reality. So, when a player was sent down or lost to the waiver wire, I no longer had him available. However, if a player sat out a few games with injury but stayed on the roster, I used him as if he was available. For gamers, this was closer to realism than, say, playing Preston Tucker all year when the real Tucker spent much of the season in AAA ball. My Game of the Week was another last-minute drama that cheated death and survived extra innings. Evan Gattis' three-run homer gave the Astros the early lead but Doug Fister and the bullpen gave it up late, putting the Astros behind, 4-3, in the bottom of the ninth. Jake Marisnick drove home Carlos Correa to tie then Castro's sacrifice fly won it in the 13th inning, 5-4:
BOXSCORE: 2016 New York (AL) Yankees At 2016 Houston Astros 7/25/2016
Yankees AB R H RBI AVG Astros AB R H RBI AVG
B.Gardner LF 5 0 0 0 .249 G.Springer DH 6 1 1 0 .266
J.Ellsbury CF 6 0 2 0 .251 J.Altuve 2B 5 1 2 0 .328
C.Beltran DH 6 1 1 1 .274 C.Gomez CF 6 0 1 0 .282
B.McCann C 3 0 1 0 .194 L.Valbuena 3B 4 1 0 0 .254
D-R.Torreyes PR 0 1 0 0 .296 E.Gattis C 2 1 1 3 .264
E-A.Romine C 2 0 0 0 .245 B-J.Castro C 2 0 0 1 .215
S.Castro 2B 5 0 0 0 .267 C.Correa SS 4 1 0 0 .240
D.Gregorius SS 5 0 0 0 .276 P.Tucker LF 2 0 0 0 .309
M.Teixeira 1B 5 0 1 1 .115 C-J.Marisnick LF 2 0 1 1 .206
C.Headley 3B 4 2 2 2 .232 C.Rasmus RF 5 0 0 0 .196
A.Hicks RF 2 0 0 0 .237 M.Gonzalez 1B 5 0 2 0 .253
A-R.Refsnyder PH,RF 2 0 0 0 .300
Totals 45 4 7 4 Totals 43 5 8 5
A-Pinch Hit For Hicks In 8th Inning
B-Subbed Defensively (C ) For Gattis In 9th Inning
C-Subbed Defensively (LF) For Tucker In 9th Inning
D-Pinch Ran For McCann In 9th Inning
E-Subbed Defensively (C ) For Torreyes In 9th Inning
Yankees......... 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 - 4 7 1
Astros.......... 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 - 5 8 0
Yankees (40-60) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
N.Eovaldi 7 4 3 0 3 5 1 105 4.56
D.Betances 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 14 1.70
A.Chapman BS(6th) 3 2 1 1 2 6 0 48 2.83
A.Miller LOSS(3-5) 1 2/3 2 1 1 0 1 0 31 4.31
Totals 12 2/3 8 5 2 5 14 1
Astros (61-38) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
D.Fister 8 4 2 2 1 2 2 98 3.65
T.Sipp BS(3rd) 1 3 2 2 0 1 1 19 1.88
K.Giles 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 16 2.38
L.Gregerson 2 0 0 0 1 2 0 25 2.23
P.Neshek WIN(6-2) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 3.94
Totals 13 7 4 4 3 6 3
Jose Altuve had 2 base hits as the Houston Astros defeated the New York (AL)
Yankees in 13 innings by the score of 5 to 4 at Minute Maid Park.
Both teams were tied at 4 runs apiece after nine innings. Houston was victorious
in the 13th inning. Altuve stroked a one-base hit. Carlos Gomez stepped up next
and he banged out a single. Luis Valbuena then laid down a sacrifice bunt. Jason
Castro came up and he hit a sacrifice fly giving Houston the win and sending the
home town fans into a frenzy. Houston banged out 8 hits on the night.
The win went to Pat Neshek(6-2) who allowed no runs in 1 inning. Andrew Miller(3-5)
was the losing pitcher in relief. He pitched 1 and 2/3 innings allowing 2 hits
and no walks.
The coming week for the Ersatz Astros brings the Blue Jays and the Rangers. The real ones get the Rangers this weekend and that could be Doomsville for them if they are swept. A road trip to Minnesota and Toronto starts after that.
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The Astros' nosedive finally stopped with a three-game winning streak in Minnesota.
The Ersatz Astros had a plunge not as severe but still noticeable. The fake club had
a 3-4 homestand against Toronto and Arlington, splitting with the Jays and dropping
two-of-three to the Rangers:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 Major League Daily AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 74 38 .661 ---- 36 2016 Toronto TOA 59 53 .527 15.0 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 56 55 .505 17.5 2016 New York (AL) NYA 47 65 .420 27.0 2016 Baltimore BAA 47 67 .412 28.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 66 47 .584 ---- 50 2016 Cleveland CLA 64 47 .577 1.0 2016 Detroit DEA 54 58 .482 11.5 2016 Minnesota MNA 47 65 .420 18.5 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 45 68 .398 21.0 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Houston HOA 66 45 .595 ---- 45 2016 Texas TEA 61 52 .540 6.0 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 58 53 .523 8.0 2016 Seattle SEA 56 54 .509 9.5 2016 Oakland OAA 51 61 .455 15.5 Early in the season, projecting Boston, Houston and Kansas City as division winners did not seem at all unreasonable. Now, as the predictive tool that Strat-o-Matic suggests the Daily Game can be, it seems grotesque. Houston and Kansas City would miss the playoffs in real life and the Red Sox currently cling to the final playoff spot. Baltimore seems considerably underrated. The departure of Carlos Gomez was not the least unexpected yet Gomez was my #3 hitter for most of the season, a consistent .273 batter with a .717 OPS. He wasn't the Milwaukee All-Star Jeff Luhnow traded for in Start-o-Matic life, but he wasn't the .210-hitting flop that he was for the real Astros. He'll be missed in the Daily Game. My Game of the Week is a classic. Joe Musgrove was pressed into his big league debut and was blasted for two-run homers by Carlos Beltran and Adrian Beltre. It was 5-1 Rangers after five. Then George Springer cracked a three-run shot to tie the game at five and warrant extra innings. In the 11th, Marwin Gonzalez drilled an opposite field homer into the Crawfords for a thrilling 6-5 walk-off winner.
BOXSCORE: 2016 Texas Rangers At 2016 Houston Astros 8/6/2016
Rangers AB R H RBI AVG Astros AB R H RBI AVG
J.Profar LF,CF,SS 4 1 1 0 .243 G.Springer RF 5 1 1 3 .254
I.Desmond CF,SS,CF 5 0 0 0 .309 J.Altuve 2B 4 1 2 1 .314
C.Beltran DH 4 2 2 2 .412 C.Gomez CF 5 1 1 0 .273
A.Beltre 3B 5 1 1 2 .297 E.Gattis DH 3 0 1 1 .255
R.Odor 2B 5 1 3 0 .244 C.Correa SS 5 0 0 0 .233
J.Lucroy C 4 0 2 1 .286 M.Gonzalez 1B 5 1 1 1 .249
A-D.Deshields Jr PR 0 0 0 0 .221 A.Bregman 3B 4 1 2 0 .389
B-R.Chirinos C 1 0 0 0 .272 J.Castro C 4 0 0 0 .209
N.Mazara RF 5 0 1 0 .297 J.Marisnick LF 2 1 0 0 .204
M.Moreland 1B 5 0 1 0 .254 E-P.Tucker PH,LF 1 0 0 0 .293
E.Andrus SS 3 0 0 0 .230
C-S.Choo PH 1 0 0 0 .254
D-R.Rua LF 1 0 0 0 .234
Totals 43 5 11 5 Totals 38 6 8 6
A-Pinch Ran For Lucroy In 8th Inning
B-Subbed Defensively (C ) For Deshields Jr In 8th Inning
C-Pinch Hit For Andrus In 9th Inning
D-Subbed Defensively (LF) For Choo In 9th Inning
E-Pinch Hit For Marisnick In 9th Inning
Rangers......... 2 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 5 11 0
Astros.......... 0 0 1 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 1 - 6 8 1
Rangers (60-52) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
M.Perez 6 1/3 4 3 2 3 3 1 94 3.06
A.Claudio HOLD(1st) 0 1/3 0 1 1 1 0 0 5 4.50
K.Kela BS(1st) 3 1/3 3 1 1 0 3 1 48 1.44
M.Bush LOSS(5-3) 0 2/3 1 1 1 0 0 1 8 3.82
Totals 10 2/3 8 6 5 4 6 3
Astros (66-44) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
J.Musgrove 4 1/3 7 4 4 2 4 2 81 8.31
M.Feliz 1 2/3 2 1 1 0 4 0 26 3.83
C.Devenski 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 5.23
W.Harris 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 19 2.30
P.Neshek 2 1 0 0 0 2 0 21 3.38
K.Giles WIN(5-3) 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 12 2.25
Totals 11 11 5 5 2 14 2
49,923 fans watched an exciting game at Minute Maid Park. The Houston Astros
topped the Texas Rangers by the slimmest of margins, 6 to 5.
Both teams had scored 5 runs after nine full innings. Finally, Houston pulled the
game out in the 11th inning. After two were out Marwin Gonzalez ripped a solo
home run resulting in a mighty exciting win for Houston and the 49,923 home town
fans in attendance. Although they lost, Texas did out-hit Houston 11 to 8.
Ken Giles(5-3) got credit for the victory, pitching 1 inning and allowing no runs.
Matt Bush(5-3) was tagged with the loss in relief.
The real Astros take on the Blue Jays then back home for a brief two-game homestand against the Cardinals. The fake Astros start a road trip in Minnesota then follow to Toronto. The fake Rangers have pulled within six and have wriggled into the final wild card spot for the time being.
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The real Astros 2016 season is being left for dead, its bones picked apart by the
birds (Blue Jays, Cardinals, Orioles). They are a longshot now to make the
playoffs and would need a miracle run just to grab a wild card berth. The Ersatz
Astros were affected by all the roster upheaval but survived a 3-4 week by
winning 2-of-3 at Toronto. They are having to fend off the hard-charging Rangers
who have closed the gap to four games in the AL West. Their overall playoff odds
are better, with a 6-1/2 game edge over the Jays for the final wild card berth.
Still, it's been a rough month. The fake Astros are 6-8 for August while the Rangers are 9-4. Yet it's better than the 6-11 month the real Astros have put together:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 American League AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 77 41 .653 ---- 30 2016 Toronto TOA 62 56 .525 15.0 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 57 60 .487 19.5 2016 New York (AL) NYA 53 65 .449 24.0 2016 Baltimore BAA 49 72 .405 29.5 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Cleveland CLA 68 49 .581 ---- 45 2016 Kansas City KCA 69 50 .580 ---- 2016 Detroit DEA 56 62 .475 12.5 2016 Minnesota MNA 52 67 .437 17.0 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 46 73 .387 23.0 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Houston HOA 69 49 .585 ---- 40 2016 Texas TEA 66 54 .550 4.0 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 59 58 .504 9.5 2016 Seattle SEA 58 58 .500 10.0 2016 Oakland OAA 57 62 .479 12.5 It's interesting to note that Cleveland seems to be overtaking Kansas City in the Central, something that happened months ago in the real world, while nothing appears to be stopping the Red Sox. It does seem like the top five teams in the Daily Game have separated themselves out (Boston, Houston, Cleveland, KC and Texas) for the home stretch but computer sims are notorious for course correction at the end of the season to make the end results match closer to reality. You would think the Game of the Week would be easy to pick in a bad week but the final two games in Toronto were both comeback thrillers. After Will Harris blew the save, the Astros scrapped back to win in extras, 6-4, on a sacrifice fly by Alex Bregman and a pinch-hit homer by Tony Kemp. Teoscar Hernandez was 2-for-5 in his debut but also committed two errors in center. The next night, however, Evan Gattis launched two three-run bombs, including his 20th homer of the season, to drive in six as part of a 10-3 triumph. In reality, the first Gattis homer was all the scoring Houston did for the first eight innings then they exploded for seven runs in the ninth to salt it away. I shook up the batting order, dropping George Springer to the three spot where he responded with three hits.:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Houston Astros At 2016 Toronto Blue Jays 8/14/2016
Astros AB R H RBI AVG Blue Jays AB R H RBI AVG
M.Gonzalez 1B 4 2 1 1 .253 D.Travis 2B 4 0 1 0 .356
J.Altuve 2B 4 1 0 0 .314 J.Donaldson 3B 4 2 3 1 .290
G.Springer RF 4 2 3 2 .249 E.Encarnacion DH 4 0 1 0 .276
E.Gattis C 5 2 2 6 .251 M.Saunders RF 3 0 0 1 .287
C.Correa SS 4 1 1 0 .232 T.Tulowitzki SS 4 0 0 0 .233
A.Bregman 3B 4 0 0 0 .269 R.Martin C 4 0 1 0 .215
A.Reed DH 3 0 1 0 .253 J.Smoak 1B 3 0 0 0 .218
A-T.White PH,DH 1 0 1 0 .174 M.Upton Jr CF 2 1 0 0 .182
T.Hernandez LF 4 1 1 1 .333 D.Ceciliani LF 3 0 1 1 .308
J.Marisnick CF 4 1 0 0 .206
Totals 37 10 10 10 Totals 31 3 7 3
A-Pinch Hit For Reed In 9th Inning
Astros.......... 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 7 - 10 10 0
Blue Jays....... 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 - 3 7 1
Astros (69-49) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
C.McHugh 7 7 3 3 1 7 1 96 3.45
L.Gregerson WIN(5-0) 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 15 1.95
Totals 9 7 3 3 1 9 1
Blue Jays (62-56) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
R.Dickey 4 1/3 3 0 0 1 3 0 62 3.98
R.Tepera 1 1 3 3 2 1 1 25 7.04
J.Grilli LOSS(3-3) 3 0 1 0 1 4 0 37 3.07
B.Cecil 0 1/3 3 4 4 1 0 0 12 7.33
S.Feldman 0 1/3 3 2 2 0 1 1 15 11.57
Totals 9 10 10 3 5 9 2
Evan Gattis launched 2 homeruns and had 6 RBI as the Houston Astros topped the
Toronto Blue Jays by a score of 10 to 3 at Rogers Centre.
The difference in the game was the offensive outburst by Houston in the top of the
9th inning as they showed no mercy on Toronto blasting them for 6 hits and plating
7 runs. The critical plate appearance was by Gattis who deflated the mood of the
partisan fans when he lost the ball over the fence for three runs. Houston
finished with 10 hits while Toronto ended up with 7.
Luke Gregerson(5-0) got the win allowing no runs in 2 innings. Jason Grilli(3-3)
ended up with the loss in relief. He was pinned with the loss despite not
allowing an earned run in his 3 innings of work.
Next up for the Fake Astros is a week with the Cardinals and Orioles while the real ones finish their series with Baltimore before travelling to Pittsburgh for three with the Buccos. I can only imagine how little motivation I'd have to finish the season if I were out of contention in the Daily Game. I don't know if that gets factored into the gameplay. While the real team sorts out their problems, the Ersatz Astros tries to beat out the Rangers over the final month-and-a-half of the season. Keep in mind that their fake opponent added Lucroy and Beltran just as the real ones did while the Astros are trotting out a bunch of undependable kids.
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The real life Astros won five-of-seven on the road between Baltimore and Pittsburgh
to remain on the outer edge of playoff possibilities in the AL West and, more
plausibly, as a wild card contender. In contrast, the Start-o-Matic Astros had
their worst week of the season, dropping five-of-six to St. Louis and Baltimore
to cling to a narrow one-game lead in the AL West over the Rangers. At one point
in the season, the Astros owned a nine-game division lead:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 American League AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 80 45 .640 ---- 23 2016 Toronto TOA 64 60 .516 15.5 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 59 64 .480 20.0 2016 New York (AL) NYA 57 67 .460 22.5 2016 Baltimore BAA 54 73 .425 27.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Cleveland CLA 74 50 .597 ---- 34 2016 Kansas City KCA 71 55 .563 4.0 2016 Detroit DEA 59 66 .472 15.5 2016 Minnesota MNA 55 70 .440 19.5 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 46 79 .368 28.5 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Houston HOA 70 54 .565 ---- 37 2016 Texas TEA 70 56 .556 1.0 2016 Seattle SEA 64 59 .520 5.5 2016 Oakland OAA 62 63 .496 8.5 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 60 64 .484 10.0 There hasn't been one particular cause for the slump, although losing Carlos Gomez and Luis Valbuena stung the fake Astros much harder than the real ones. George Springer and Jose Altuve have hit less often of late with Altuve's batting average dropping to .310 whereas the real one continues to hit in the .360s. The young call-ups have played better in the Ersatz world than they have for the real club. A.J. Reed bats .263 (.702 OPS) instead of .180 (.603). Preston Tucker hits .275 (.716) rather than .164 (.550), although Alex Bregman and Teoscar Hernandez have hit slightly worse. It must be a real challenge for the Strat-o-Matic folks to rate players who had never before played in the major leagues. A certain percentage are going to flop and a certain percentage will come charging out of the gate like Tyler White and it is impossible to guess which ones will do which. The Astros have now had nine players make their big league debuts this season and, in the fake leagues, Yulieski Gurriel is a day away from his debut. The Game of the Week was an easy choice. Staring a second series sweep in the eye against them, the Astros trailed Baltimore, 2-0, going into the eighth. A two-run double by Altuve and a two-run homer by Evan Gattis turned it around quickly for a 5-2 victory that let them hang onto first for another day:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Houston Astros At 2016 Baltimore Orioles 8/21/2016
Astros AB R H RBI AVG Orioles AB R H RBI AVG
M.Gonzalez DH 4 1 1 1 .261 A.Jones CF 5 1 1 0 .263
G.Springer RF 4 1 2 0 .243 H.Kim LF 3 0 1 0 .271
J.Altuve 2B 4 1 2 2 .310 M.Machado 3B 2 0 0 1 .232
E.Gattis C 4 1 1 2 .254 M.Trumbo RF 4 0 1 0 .265
A.Reed 1B 4 0 1 0 .263 C.Davis 1B 2 1 1 1 .218
A.Bregman 3B 4 0 0 0 .230 J.Schoop 2B 4 0 0 0 .278
C.Correa SS 4 0 1 0 .234 P.Alvarez DH 4 0 0 0 .233
T.Hernandez LF 4 0 0 0 .241 J.Hardy SS 3 0 1 0 .270
J.Marisnick CF 4 1 1 0 .211 A-S.Pearce PH 1 0 0 0 .259
C.Joseph C 3 0 0 0 .208
B-R.Flaherty PH 1 0 1 0 .259
Totals 36 5 9 5 Totals 32 2 6 2
A-Pinch Hit For Hardy In 9th Inning
B-Pinch Hit For Joseph In 9th Inning
Astros.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 - 5 9 1
Orioles......... 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 - 2 6 0
Astros (70-54) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
M.Fiers 6 5 2 1 3 4 1 86 3.14
C.Devenski WIN(2-6) 2 2/3 1 0 0 1 3 0 27 4.73
L.Gregerson SAVE(16th) 0 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 1.83
Totals 9 6 2 1 4 7 1
Orioles (54-73) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
W.Miley 7 1/3 5 1 1 0 9 0 89 2.45
V.Worley L(2-4) BS(4th) 1 2/3 4 4 4 0 2 1 25 4.52
Totals 9 9 5 5 0 11 1
In an entertaining game at Camden Yards the final score was the Houston Astros 5,
the Baltimore Orioles 2.
Houston plated all the runs they needed in the 8th inning when they scored 5 runs
on 5 hits. The biggest moment was provided by Evan Gattis who disappointed the
partisan crowd when he cleared the fences for a two-run home run. Houston out-hit
Baltimore for the game, 9 hits to 6.
Chris Devenski(2-6) went 2 and 2/3 innings allowing no runs for the win. Devenski
got help from Luke Gregerson who was credited with his 16th save. The losing
pitcher was Vance Worley(2-4) in relief.
'It felt really nice to get this win,' Devenski said. 'I kind of dictated the
game. It's what I get paid to do. It worked out this time.'
Wow. Strat-o-Matic is pulling out all the stops, finding a quote machine like Chris Devenski to include in their recap but, then again, it's what they get paid to do. The real Astros try to keep the momentum going with a homestand that begins with Tampa Bay and Oakland. They'll need to play with urgency and get hot in order to realize their long playoff odds. The fake Astros stand in a much better position but will need to overcome Pittsburgh and Tampa to hold their narrow lead. If they fall into second, they still would have some wiggle room in the wild card watch.
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I now know that my sister Barbara reads this column from time to time so, with
one known reader, I will endeavor to take you through the pennant stretch of
the Daily Game season.
Both the real Astros and the fake Astros have pulled out of their slumps and are steaming into the final month on a positive note although neither is in a very comfortable spot at the moment. The real Astros finished August on a 10-2 run to get back within one game of the final wild card spot although their hopes of catching the Rangers in the AL West still remain dismal. At 71-62 through 133 games, they are on a pace to win 86 games which was also their record last year. Looking ahead, they will have a difficult first half of September (Rangers, Indians and Cubs) followed by an easier second half (Mariners, Athletics and Angels). If they don't get blown out the next couple of weeks, they still have a shot of pulling out a playoff spot. The Ersatz Astros spent most of the week in second place in the AL West after leading the division all summer. A 10-16 month (with three games to play) caused them to fall behind the Rangers who went 17-8 in the Strat-o-Sphere. The fake Astros do have a comfortable lead for the final wild card spot if they can't hang on to outlast the Arlingtonians but they would rather not have to play the postseason as the road team however far they travel:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 American League AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 85 47 .644 ---- 12 2016 Toronto TOA 64 66 .492 20.0 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 61 69 .469 23.0 2016 New York (AL) NYA 60 70 .462 24.0 2016 Baltimore BAA 56 78 .418 30.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Cleveland CLA 77 54 .588 ---- 28 2016 Kansas City KCA 74 58 .561 3.5 2016 Detroit DEA 64 67 .489 13.0 2016 Minnesota MNA 58 73 .443 19.0 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 50 81 .382 27.0 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Houston HOA 73 57 .562 ---- 32 2016 Texas TEA 74 58 .561 ---- 2016 Seattle SEA 66 64 .508 7.0 2016 Oakland OAA 65 66 .496 8.5 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 64 66 .492 9.0 AL Wild Card Standings WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Houston HOA 73 57 .562 ---- 32 2016 Texas TEA 74 58 .561 ---- 31 2016 Kansas City KCA 74 58 .561 ---- 31 2016 Seattle SEA 66 64 .508 7.0 2016 Oakland OAA 65 66 .496 8.5 The principle cause for the downturn has been the infusion of call-ups to take the place of veterans who were either injured or displaced. Alex Bregman's numbers have fallen in line with real life. Teoscar Hernandez is overperforming somewhat while Tony Kemp is underperforming reality. Cuban import Yulieski Gurriel calls into question how Start-o-Matic deals with players just signed off the boat. So far, he is 0-for-9 in the Daily Game and hitting worse than an NL pitcher. In real life, he was batting .400 with a pair of doubles at this point. Meanwhile, somebody found the Kryptonite for Jose Altuve. Mighty Mouse has hit just .202 for the month of August and is in danger of falling below .300 for the season. Meanwhile, the real Altuve slumped to a .333 average in August to bring his overall average to .351. As well as leading the AL in batting average, Altuve is on pace to finish with 25 homers and 100 RBIs or more in what might be an MVP season depending on his finishing kick. Our Game of the Week is an extra-inning comeback thriller over the Pirates where Bregman doubled home Marwin Gonzalez for the game-winner after Jake Marisnick delivered the tying run in the ninth. Notice how much busier the box score looks when pitchers have to hit. Yes, that's Collin McHugh pinch-hitting after I'd run out of position players:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Houston Astros At 2016 Pittsburgh Pirates 8/24/2016
Astros AB R H RBI AVG Pirates AB R H RBI AVG
T.Kemp LF 4 0 1 0 .222 A.Frazier 2B 5 0 1 1 .292
G.Springer RF 5 1 2 1 .248 M.Joyce RF 3 0 0 0 .283
J.Altuve 2B 5 0 1 0 .306 A.McCutchen CF 5 0 1 0 .257
E.Gattis C 5 0 2 0 .255 G.Polanco LF 5 0 1 0 .279
M.Gonzalez 1B 5 1 2 0 .260 D.Freese 3B 4 1 0 0 .228
A.Bregman 3B 5 0 1 1 .212 J.Bell 1B 4 1 2 0 .400
C.Correa SS 5 1 1 0 .234 F.Cervelli C 4 1 3 0 .293
T.Hernandez CF 4 0 1 0 .225 G-J.Harrison PH 1 0 0 0 .288
W.Harris P 0 0 0 0 ---- J.Mercer SS 4 0 1 1 .259
F-C.McHugh PH 1 0 0 0 .200 G.Cole P 2 0 1 1 .176
L.Gregerson P 0 0 0 0 ---- B-S.Rodriguez PH 1 0 1 0 .182
D.Fister P 1 0 0 0 .000 N.Feliz P 0 0 0 0 .000
A-A.Reed PH 1 0 0 0 .243 D-S.Marte PH 1 0 0 0 .296
M.Feliz P 0 0 0 01.000 T.Watson P 0 0 0 0 .000
C-J.Castro PH 1 1 1 1 .220 J.Hughes P 0 0 0 0 .000
K.Giles P 0 0 0 0 ----
E-J.Marisnick PH,CF 1 0 1 1 .218
Totals 43 4 13 4 Totals 39 3 11 3
A-Pinch Hit For Fister In 5th Inning
B-Pinch Hit For Cole In 6th Inning
C-Pinch Hit For Feliz In 7th Inning
D-Pinch Hit For Feliz In 8th Inning
E-Pinch Hit For Giles In 9th Inning
F-Pinch Hit For Harris In 10th Inning
G-Pinch Hit For Cervelli In 10th Inning
Astros.......... 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 - 4 13 0
Pirates......... 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 3 11 0
Astros (71-56) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
D.Fister 4 7 3 3 4 3 0 89 3.65
M.Feliz 2 2 0 0 0 4 0 29 4.61
K.Giles 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 21 2.45
W.Harris WIN(4-0) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 15 2.32
L.Gregerson SAVE(17th) 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 12 1.79
Totals 10 11 3 3 4 9 0
Pirates (61-67) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
G.Cole 6 6 1 1 0 6 1 84 3.30
N.Feliz HOLD(12th) 2 2 1 1 0 3 1 27 2.91
T.Watson L(7-3) BS(2nd) 1 1/3 5 2 2 1 3 0 40 3.66
J.Hughes 0 2/3 0 0 0 0 1 0 6 4.64
Totals 10 13 4 4 1 13 2
George Springer cracked a homer at PNC Park as the Houston Astros beat the
Pittsburgh Pirates in 10 innings by the count of 4 to 3.
Both teams had scored 3 runs after nine full innings. Houston won the hard
fought contest in the 10th inning. After an out was recorded, Marwin Gonzalez
lined a base-hit. Alex Bregman followed next and he doubled scoring the run.
Houston managed 13 hits in their victory.
Will Harris(4-0) was the winner allowing no runs in 1 inning. Luke Gregerson
preserved the game for Harris, recording his his 17th save. Tony Watson(7-3)
was the losing pitcher in relief. He allowed 2 runs and 5 hits in 1 and 1/3
innings.
While the real Astros have a seven-game road gauntlet in Arlington and Cleveland, the Ersatz team finishes up with Oakland before taking on the Rangers in the Broilpark.
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The week that the Astros had and the week the fake Astros of Strat-o-Matic had
were strikingly similar, including one important fact. Both teams were clubbed
by the Rangers. For the real Astros, it means the AL West race is out of reach.
They'll have to hang on to the hope of making another wild card slot as they
did last year. For the Ersatz Astros, it now means a three-game deficit to
the Arlingtonians which they will need to overcome if they want an AL West title.
The fake Astros swept Oakland before being swept by the Rangers but they maintain an 8-8 record this season in head-to-head play with three to go. The real Astros have a 3-13 record against the Rangers:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 American League AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 87 51 .630 ---- 7 2016 Toronto TOA 67 69 .493 19.0 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 65 71 .478 21.0 2016 New York (AL) NYA 64 72 .471 22.0 2016 Baltimore BAA 58 82 .414 30.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Cleveland CLA 82 55 .599 ---- 20 2016 Kansas City KCA 77 61 .558 5.5 2016 Detroit DEA 66 71 .482 16.0 2016 Minnesota MNA 60 78 .435 22.5 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 55 83 .399 27.5 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Texas TEA 80 58 .580 ---- 23 2016 Houston HOA 76 60 .559 3.0 2016 Seattle SEA 69 67 .507 10.0 2016 Oakland OAA 67 70 .489 12.5 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 64 72 .471 15.0 AL Wild Card Standings WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Houston HOA 76 60 .559 ---- 20 2016 Kansas City KCA 77 61 .558 ---- 19 2016 Seattle SEA 69 67 .507 7.0 2016 Toronto TOA 67 69 .493 9.0 The real Astros have major trouble getting starting pitchers to last through six innings. The fake Astros aren't having that bad a problem but the lack of dependable pitching is becoming an issue. Nobody on the ersatz squad have won more than 11 games. The bullpen has survived rather well in the Daily Game but the reinforcements from the minors haven't helped much. Carlos Correa has been a disappointment most of the year in the Strat-o-Matic game but he came alive in August (.308 batting average, .865 OPS) and it has continued the first few days of September (.545, 1.545) which may be the best sign going into the final weeks. More good news! Yulieski Gurriel not just got his first hit of the season, he got his first three hits in one game. That's my Game of the Week, a 16-2, 22-hit slaughter of Oakland. Every batter except Evan Gattis got into the act. Joe Musgrove won his first big league game:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Oakland Athletics At 2016 Houston Astros 8/30/2016
Athletics AB R H RBI AVG Astros AB R H RBI AVG
C.Crisp LF 4 0 0 0 .181 M.Gonzalez 1B 5 1 1 3 .262
D.Valencia RF 4 0 1 0 .264 J.Altuve 2B 6 2 4 3 .307
S.Vogt C 3 0 0 0 .283 G.Springer RF 4 1 3 4 .251
K.Davis DH 3 1 0 0 .244 E.Gattis C 5 0 0 0 .254
R.Healy 3B 4 1 2 2 .213 A.Bregman 3B 5 1 2 0 .259
Y.Alonso 1B 3 0 0 0 .274 C.Correa SS 5 4 4 0 .246
M.Semien SS 3 0 0 0 .241 Y.Gurriel DH 5 3 3 0 .214
J.Smolinski CF 3 0 0 0 .251 T.Hernandez LF 5 1 2 1 .281
M.Muncy 2B 3 0 0 0 .222 J.Marisnick CF 5 3 3 2 .239
Totals 30 2 3 2 Totals 45 16 22 13
Athletics....... 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 - 2 3 3
Astros.......... 1 1 1 1 0 3 4 5 - 16 22 1
Athletics (65-68) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
R.Detwiler LOSS(1-2) 4 1/3 8 4 4 1 2 1 74 2.31
J.Wendelken 1 2/3 6 4 4 1 2 0 51 10.29
R.Dull 0 1/3 3 3 2 0 0 0 21 5.73
D.Coulombe 1 1/3 4 5 1 0 2 0 24 4.39
L.Hendriks 0 1/3 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 3.17
Totals 8 22 16 11 2 6 1
Astros (75-57) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
J.Musgrove WIN(1-3) 5 1/3 2 2 2 2 2 1 76 5.47
P.Neshek HOLD(6th) 1 2/3 1 0 0 0 1 0 12 2.98
B.Peacock 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 23 0.00
Totals 9 3 2 2 2 4 1
George Springer slammed a homerun and had 4 RBI as the Houston Astros really laid
it on the Oakland Athletics 16 to 2.
Springer enjoyed a fine evening at the plate. He smashed a bases-empty 'big-fly'
in the 1st inning, doubled resulting in a run in the 3rd inning and ripped a
single scoring two baserunners in the 8th inning. Houston lit up the scoreboard
in the 7th inning which saw them plate 4 runs on 4 hits and the 8th inning which
saw them plate 5 runs on 5 hits. The Houston offense man-handled the Oakland
pitching staff as they scored in 7 of the 9 innings.
Joe Musgrove(1-3) went 5 and 1/3 innings allowing 2 runs for the win. Ross
Detwiler(1-2) was the losing pitcher.
The real Astros wind through the second have the gauntlet with three games against the NL-leading Chicago Cubs and three against the AL-leading Rangers. They went 3-4 in the first half of that September minefield which leaves them still in striking distance of the wild card. The final part of the schedule will be division games against the Mariners, Angels and Athletics. The fake Astros are one series behind so they will have four against Cleveland then three with the Cubs this week.
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As poorly as the real Astros played through the schedule "gauntlet" of early
September (5-8), the fake Astros have been even worse. They went 1-6 for the
week, are 1-9 so far for the month and have fallen six games behind the Rangers
with three head-to-head games left before their Lone Star Series is over. While
the genuine Astros could win only four games all year against Arlington, the
Ersatz club has gone 8-8 which included a recent three-game sweep at the hands
of our northern neighbors.
The fake Astros still hold a three-game lead over Seattle for the final wild-card spot but still have six left to play with them. So far, the season series gives Houston an 8-5 advantage:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 American League AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 91 53 .632 ---- *WON* 2016 New York (AL) NYA 70 73 .490 20.5 2016 Toronto TOA 69 73 .486 21.0 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 69 74 .483 21.5 2016 Baltimore BAA 58 88 .397 34.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Cleveland CLA 87 57 .604 ---- 12 2016 Kansas City KCA 80 64 .556 7.0 2016 Detroit DEA 70 73 .490 16.5 2016 Minnesota MNA 63 81 .438 24.0 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 58 86 .403 29.0 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Texas TEA 84 61 .579 ---- 13 2016 Houston HOA 77 66 .538 6.0 2016 Seattle SEA 74 69 .517 9.0 2016 Oakland OAA 68 75 .476 15.0 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 67 75 .472 15.5 AL Wild Card Standings WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 80 64 .556 ---- 14 2016 Houston HOA 77 66 .538 ---- 17 2016 Seattle SEA 74 69 .517 3.0 2016 New York (AL) NYA 70 73 .490 7.0 2016 Detroit DEA 70 73 .490 7.0 2016 Toronto TOA 69 73 .486 7.5 After owning a large lead during the summer, Strat-o-Matic seems to be engaged in heavy course correction to make their results better match the real results. Houston and Kansas City were hot teams through July but, beginning in August, Cleveland and Texas caught fire while both the two division leaders slipped constantly. The fake Astros now have 77 wins at the same point the real version had 75. Among American League teams, only Boston (way overperforming) and Baltimore (way underperfoming) seem to be immune from the correction. The Astros have won only once recently so, of course, that's my Game of the Week. It was a 2-1 squeaker over Cleveland where Evan Gattis banged his 25th homer in the seventh inning then singled home Jose Altuve in the ninth for the game-winner:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Houston Astros At 2016 Cleveland Indians 9/7/2016
Astros AB R H RBI AVG Indians AB R H RBI AVG
M.Gonzalez LF 3 0 0 0 .253 C.Santana DH 4 0 1 0 .250
F-C.Rasmus LF 0 0 0 0 .184 J.Kipnis 2B 3 0 0 0 .300
J.Altuve 2B 4 1 1 0 .311 F.Lindor SS 4 0 0 0 .279
G.Springer RF 4 0 2 0 .251 M.Napoli 1B 4 1 2 0 .257
C.Correa SS 3 0 0 0 .254 J.Ramirez 3B 4 0 1 0 .328
E.Gattis DH 4 1 2 2 .253 L.Chisenhall RF 3 0 0 0 .258
A.Bregman 3B 3 0 0 0 .243 C.Crisp LF 3 0 1 0 .333
E-A.Reed PH,1B 1 0 0 0 .252 T.Naquin CF 3 0 0 0 .271
T.Hernandez CF 2 0 0 0 .262 R.Perez C 2 0 0 0 .238
A-T.Kemp PH 1 0 0 0 .216 C-M.Martinez PR 0 0 0 0 .268
B-J.Marisnick CF 0 0 0 0 .236 D-C.Gimenez C 0 0 0 0 .262
Y.Gurriel 1B,3B 3 0 0 0 .130
J.Castro C 3 0 0 0 .212
Totals 31 2 5 2 Totals 30 1 5 0
A-Pinch Hit For Hernandez In 8th Inning
B-Subbed Defensively (CF) For Kemp In 8th Inning
C-Pinch Ran For Perez In 8th Inning
D-Subbed Defensively (C ) For Martinez In 9th Inning
E-Pinch Hit For Bregman In 9th Inning
F-Subbed Defensively (LF) For Gonzalez In 9th Inning
Astros.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 - 2 5 0
Indians......... 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 5 0
Astros (77-62) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
M.Fiers 6 5 1 1 1 3 0 75 3.18
J.Hoyt WIN(1-0) 2 0 0 0 1 2 0 30 6.55
L.Gregerson SAVE(19th) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 1.65
Totals 9 5 1 1 2 5 0
Indians (84-56) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
T.Bauer 6 2/3 1 0 0 2 5 0 78 3.83
B.Shaw BS(4th) 0 1/3 1 1 1 0 0 1 7 4.42
A.Miller LOSS(5-2) 1 2/3 3 1 1 0 2 0 28 0.86
Z.McAllister 0 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 4.15
Totals 9 5 2 2 2 7 1
Evan Gattis connected with a 'big fly' and had 2 RBI at Progressive Field where
the Houston Astros beat the Cleveland Indians 2 to 1.
The game was won by Houston when they scored a run in the top of the 9th inning.
After an out was recorded, Jose Altuve ripped a single. George Springer
stepped up next and he lined a one-base hit. Carlos Correa got his chance to
keep things going, but he went down on strikes. Gattis came up and he lined
a single scoring the run. Luke Gregerson relieved and was untouched by
Cleveland as he recorded the save, his 19th.
The winning pitcher was James Hoyt(1-0) who allowed no runs in 2 innings. The
losing pitcher was Andrew Miller(5-2) in relief. 'We really needed this win'
said A.J. Hinch. 'That first drink of water at the end of a drought sure does
taste good!'
The genuine team will make one last run at a wild card spot with road games at Seattle and Oakland before their final homestand. The fake Astros must finish up with the Rangers at home before travelling to Seattle in what will be a very telling week for them.
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While the real Astros are on the outside looking in to the final playoff berth
and sitting 1-1/2 games but seemingly a hail-mary pass away from the post-season,
the Ersatz Astros, after a 3-3 week, are on the inside looking out. They once
had a big lead in the AL West but a disastrous August and September has reduced
them to five games behind the Rangers with 13 games to play. Now, they cling to
the final wild card spot, two games behind Kansas City and four games ahead of
Seattle.
Suffice it to say they are well-entrenched in the fifth spot unless they make a major surge or a major slip:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 American League AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 97 54 .642 ---- *WON* 2016 Toronto TOA 73 76 .490 23.0 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 73 77 .487 23.5 2016 New York (AL) NYA 71 79 .473 25.5 2016 Baltimore BAA 62 91 .405 36.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Cleveland CLA 93 58 .616 ---- 2 2016 Kansas City KCA 83 68 .550 10.0 2016 Detroit DEA 74 76 .493 18.5 2016 Minnesota MNA 65 86 .430 28.0 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 59 92 .391 34.0 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Texas TEA 86 65 .570 ---- 8 2016 Houston HOA 80 69 .537 5.0 2016 Seattle SEA 76 73 .510 9.0 2016 Oakland OAA 74 76 .493 11.5 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 69 80 .463 16.0 AL Wild Card Standings WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 83 68 .550 ---- 7 2016 Houston HOA 80 69 .537 ---- 10 2016 Seattle SEA 76 73 .510 4.0 The expanded rosters mean players who are normally put on the disabled list remain on the active roster so I took Dallas Keuchel out of mothballs to snap the long losing streak and beat the Rangers. Colby Rasmus and Alex Bregman are among those still at my disposal although the real player has been shut down. Conversely, Yuli Gurriel is useless in the Strat-O-Matic world so I've been using other options in the lineup instead. Naturally, the Game of the Week is Keuchel's gem that ended the head-to-head season with the Rangers at a 9-10 mark. Rasmus came off the bench to deliver a pinch-hit homer to give Ken Giles some breathing room in registering his eighth save:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Texas Rangers At 2016 Houston Astros 9/14/2016
Rangers AB R H RBI AVG Astros AB R H RBI AVG
D.Deshields Jr LF 4 0 1 0 .210 M.Gonzalez 1B 4 0 1 0 .253
I.Desmond CF 3 0 0 0 .294 J.Altuve 2B 4 0 2 0 .307
D-J.Gallo PH,1B 1 0 0 0 .118 G.Springer RF 2 0 0 0 .246
C.Beltran DH 4 0 0 0 .345 C.Correa SS 4 0 0 0 .252
A.Beltre 3B 2 0 2 0 .305 E.Gattis C 3 0 0 0 .245
R.Odor 2B 4 0 0 0 .258 C-J.Castro C 1 0 0 0 .209
J.Lucroy C 4 0 0 0 .240 A.Bregman 3B 3 1 1 0 .230
M.Moreland 1B 1 0 0 0 .274 T.Hernandez LF 3 0 1 1 .237
A-R.Rua PH,1B,CF 1 0 0 0 .226 T.White DH 3 1 1 0 .175
E-N.Mazara PH 1 0 0 0 .279 J.Marisnick CF 2 0 0 0 .236
C.Gomez RF 3 0 0 0 .200 B-C.Rasmus PH,CF 1 1 1 2 .184
E.Andrus SS 3 0 0 0 .228
Totals 31 0 3 0 Totals 30 3 7 3
A-Pinch Hit For Moreland In 7th Inning
B-Pinch Hit For Marisnick In 7th Inning
C-Subbed Defensively (C ) For Gattis In 8th Inning
D-Pinch Hit For Desmond In 8th Inning
E-Pinch Hit For Rua In 9th Inning
Rangers......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 3 0
Astros.......... 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 - 3 7 1
Rangers (86-62) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
C.Lewis LOSS(6-5) 6 4 1 1 2 5 0 102 3.97
T.Barnette 1 3 2 2 0 0 1 16 2.37
K.Kela 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 12 2.23
Totals 8 7 3 3 2 6 1
Astros (78-68) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
D.Keuchel WIN(12-11) 7 1/3 2 0 0 3 9 0 96 2.90
P.Neshek HOLD(7th) 0 2/3 1 0 0 0 1 0 8 3.17
K.Giles SAVE(8th) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 10 3.03
Totals 9 3 0 0 3 11 0
While the true Astros try to build a final charge during a homestand against the Angels and Mariners, the fake Astros will take on the Athletics and Angels. The home stretch is fast approaching where the mindset becomes more like a playoff series than the more laid-back attitude of the regular season.
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Due to some scheduling quirks at the office, this week's recap is coming a day
early. I still played a full week's schedule and came out with a 4-3 week for
the fake Astros. They swept the A's in Oakland and lost 3-of-4 to the Angels
at home (sound familiar?). The real Astros had a dismal week of 2-5 to all but
close the curtain on their season.
Unlike the real Astros, the Ersatz squad probably has a postseason in their future, either as the first or second wild card, with six games left to play. The Rangers have not clinched the AL West, but they're almost there:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 American League AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 101 57 .639 ---- *WON* 2016 Toronto TOA 76 79 .490 23.5 2016 New York (AL) NYA 75 80 .484 24.5 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 74 81 .477 25.5 2016 Baltimore BAA 66 94 .413 36.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Cleveland CLA 96 61 .611 ---- *WON* 2016 Kansas City KCA 86 72 .544 10.5 2016 Detroit DEA 78 79 .497 18.0 2016 Minnesota MNA 68 90 .430 28.5 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 62 95 .395 34.0 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Texas TEA 89 68 .567 ---- 2 2016 Houston HOA 84 72 .538 4.5 2016 Seattle SEA 79 76 .510 9.0 2016 Oakland OAA 77 79 .494 11.5 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 72 84 .462 16.5 AL Wild Card Standings WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 86 72 .544 ---- 1 2016 Houston HOA 84 72 .538 ---- 3 2016 Seattle SEA 79 76 .510 4.5 2016 Detroit DEA 78 79 .497 6.5 As the season gets longer, downloading and zipping files in the game is also getting longer. If I get impatient, funky things happen. I ran Thursday's schedule and my team came out as the Tampa Rays, not the Houston Astros. I had to cancel the Astros game and the Rays game they had on the scheduler and then replay the Astros game as a make-up doubleheader game on Saturday. I didn't bother replaying the Yankees-Rays game I lost as it will have no impact on the playoffs. Such a sad loss for the Miami Marlins with the death of Jose Fernandez. He'll still live on in baseball sims and it will be interesting to see if the Daily Game removes him from the Miami roster for the final week or if a Miami player could pitch him posthumously. I know those are rather tawdry thoughts but veteran baseball sim players are used to such considerations. The make-up game was the lone win over the Angels and thus becomes my Game of the Week. Houston rode a three-run homer from Evan Gattis and a two-run single by Jose Altuve to victory as Chris Devenski was the timely winner after the Angels came back to tie against Doug Fister. If you see the "C Rasmus" in the pitching line for the Angels, you are not imagining things. That's Colby's brother Cory who was acquired from the Braves:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Los Angeles(AL) Angels At 2016 Houston Astros (2) 9/24/2016
Angels AB R H RBI AVG Astros AB R H RBI AVG
Y.Escobar 3B 5 1 3 0 .269 G.Springer RF 4 2 2 0 .242
K.Calhoun RF,1B 5 1 1 3 .276 Y.Gurriel 3B 3 0 0 0 .143
M.Trout CF 4 0 2 0 .342 D-C.Moran PH,3B 1 1 1 0 .241
A.Pujols DH 4 0 1 0 .274 J.Altuve 2B 4 0 2 2 .314
C.Cron 1B 3 0 0 0 .265 C.Correa SS 3 1 1 0 .257
C-R.Ortega PR,RF 0 0 0 0 .234 E.Gattis DH 4 1 1 3 .240
A.Simmons SS 4 0 2 0 .305 M.Gonzalez 1B 4 0 0 0 .252
N.Buss LF 3 0 0 0 .282 T.Kemp LF 3 0 0 0 .213
C.Perez C 3 1 1 0 .243 J.Castro C 1 0 0 0 .212
E-J.Marte PH 1 0 1 0 .213 T.Hernandez CF 2 0 0 0 .211
C.Pennington 2B 4 0 0 0 .217 A-A.Reed PH 1 0 0 0 .239
B-J.Marisnick CF 0 0 0 0 .232
Totals 36 3 11 3 Totals 30 5 7 5
A-Pinch Hit For Hernandez In 7th Inning
B-Subbed Defensively (CF) For Reed In 8th Inning
C-Pinch Ran For Cron In 8th Inning
D-Pinch Hit For Gurriel In 8th Inning
E-Pinch Hit For Perez In 9th Inning
Angels.......... 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 - 3 11 2
Astros.......... 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 - 5 7 0
Angels (71-84) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
D.Wright 0 2/3 2 3 3 1 0 1 23 9.39
C.Rasmus 5 1 0 0 1 2 0 56 1.38
J.Ramirez LOSS(3-5) 1 1/3 2 2 2 1 0 0 34 3.99
J.Valdez 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 9.92
A.Achter 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 13 7.15
Totals 8 7 5 5 3 3 1
Astros (84-71) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
D.Fister 5 9 3 3 1 1 1 97 3.70
C.Devenski WIN(4-6) 3 1 0 0 1 0 0 40 4.22
L.Gregerson SAVE(22nd) 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 16 1.72
Totals 9 11 3 3 2 2 1
In a close game it was the Houston Astros 5, the Los Angeles(AL) Angels 3 at Minute
Maid Park.
Chris Devenski(4-6) came through for A.J. Hinch with an excellent relief stint.
He gave up just 1 hit and 1 walk in 3 innings. Although they lost,
Los Angeles(AL) did out-hit Houston 11 to 7.
Devenski got relief help from Luke Gregerson who gained credit for his 22nd save.
J.C. Ramirez(3-5) was the loser in relief.
Although the real Astros have just three games before they all go home to hit the links, REMEMBER that this little blog will have at least two more updates - one for the end of the regular season and another for the postseason and year-end thoughts. Once the playoffs get here, who knows what the sim will do?
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Ironically, on the same calendar day the Astros lost their last chance at the
postseason without actually playing, the Ersatz Astros learned they had clinched
the final wild card spot with Seattle's loss to Oakland on their off-day. No
champagne wasted here. The Astros had three pointless games in Anaheim to finish
the season just as the real Astros did.
The results were an 87-75 record, three better than the real-life counterparts and a one-game improvement over the 2015 actual results. They were quickly dismissed from the playoffs, however, in a 4-1 loss at Kansas City where Yordano Ventura tossed seven shutout innings and Dallas Keuchel was ambushed for four runs in the fifth. Here are the final standings:
LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2016 American League AL East WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Boston BOA 104 60 .634 ---- *WON* 2016 Toronto TOA 81 81 .500 22.0 2016 New York (AL) NYA 77 85 .475 26.0 2016 Tampa Bay TBA 76 86 .469 27.0 2016 Baltimore BAA 69 97 .416 36.0 AL Central WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Cleveland CLA 99 67 .596 ---- *WON* 2016 Kansas City KCA 91 73 .555 7.0 2016 Detroit DEA 82 84 .494 17.0 2016 Minnesota MNA 70 94 .427 28.0 2016 Chicago (AL) CHA 68 96 .415 30.0 AL West WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Texas TEA 92 71 .564 ---- *WON* 2016 Houston HOA 87 75 .537 4.5 2016 Seattle SEA 84 78 .519 7.5 2016 Oakland OAA 78 85 .479 14.0 2016 Los Angeles(AL) LAA 76 86 .469 15.5 AL Wild Card Standings WON LOST PCT GB MAGIC# 2016 Kansas City KCA 91 73 .555 ---- *WON* 2016 Houston HOA 87 75 .537 ---- *WON* 2016 Seattle SEA 84 78 .519 3.0 2016 Toronto TOA 81 81 .500 6.0 You may notice not all teams played 162 games. I don't have a ready answer for this except to say that the game tried to play one extra contest for the Astros in Minnesota because of the rain-out and I cancelled that out so other teams may have extra games because I wasn't watching their results as closely. A more complete statistical comparison between real-life and Strat-o-Matic life will be done next week but, for now, the Astros coasted to a 3-3 final week and gave some play to Colin Moran who was hitting better than Yulieski Gurriel. It was only after the season was over that I noticed the "injury" option of the game had been turned off the whole time. That's probably a good thing because I had to endure some of the team's injuries (Gomez, Valbuena, McCullers) because the roster I was using mirrored the Astros' daily 25-man roster. Toss in a computer-generated injury to, say, Jose Altuve or Carlos Correa for a month and I think it unfairly hinders the game player. I could benefit from expanded rosters in September because players aren't disabled, just benched, making guys like Keuchel, Rasmus and Bregman available. My Game of the Week is the final game so you can see some year-end stats. Collin McHugh won his team-leading 13th game, much like in real life:
BOXSCORE: 2016 Houston Astros At 2016 Los Angeles(AL) Angels 10/2/2016
Astros AB R H RBI AVG Angels AB R H RBI AVG
T.Kemp LF 5 1 1 0 .203 Y.Escobar 3B 4 0 1 0 .265
J.Altuve 2B 4 1 2 0 .315 K.Calhoun RF 4 0 0 0 .278
C.Correa SS 5 0 2 1 .261 M.Trout DH 3 0 0 0 .337
E.Gattis DH 4 0 0 0 .236 C.Cron 1B 4 0 0 0 .262
A.Reed 1B 3 0 0 0 .231 J.Marte LF 3 0 0 0 .205
G.Springer RF 4 1 1 1 .236 A.Simmons SS 4 2 2 1 .300
C.Moran 3B 4 0 1 0 .231 R.Ortega CF 2 0 0 0 .236
J.Castro C 4 0 1 0 .211 C-A.Pujols PH 1 0 0 0 .272
J.Marisnick CF 3 0 1 0 .227 J.Graterol C 2 0 1 0 .125
A-N.Buss PH 1 0 0 0 .277
B-C.Perez C 1 0 0 0 .240
K.Cowart 2B 2 0 1 1 .382
Totals 36 3 9 2 Totals 31 2 5 2
A-Pinch Hit For Graterol In 7th Inning
B-Subbed Defensively (C ) For Buss In 8th Inning
C-Pinch Hit For Ortega In 9th Inning
Astros.......... 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 3 9 1
Angels.......... 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 2 5 1
Astros (87-75) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
C.McHugh WIN(13-9) 6 4 1 1 2 3 0 92 3.75
L.Gregerson HOLD(5th) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 1.82
K.Giles HOLD(11th) 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 14 3.34
J.Gustave HOLD(1st) 0 1/3 1 1 1 0 0 1 8 3.60
W.Harris SAVE(15th) 0 2/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 2.47
Totals 9 5 2 2 3 4 1
Angels (76-86) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
D.Wright LOSS(1-3) 6 2/3 8 3 3 0 1 1 95 6.75
A.Achter 1 2/3 1 0 0 1 3 0 36 7.11
J.Valdez 0 2/3 0 0 0 2 1 0 13 8.68
Shortstop Carlos Correa had 2 base hits at Angel Stadium as the Houston Astros
beat the Los Angeles(AL) Angels by the count of 3 to 2.
Collin McHugh(13-9) had a solid outing for Houston. He allowed 4 hits and 2 walks
in 6 innings. Los Angeles(AL) threatened in the 9th but their rally came up
short.
Will Harris recorded the save, his 15th. Daniel Wright(1-3) ended up with the
loss. He pitched 6 and 2/3 innings and surrendered 8 hits and no walks.
As a close, I will post a statistical comparison between the Strat-o-Matic sim season and the real Astros stats for the year.
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