After twelve victories in a row, the Houston Astros have once again suffered a defeat. In a 2-1 draw with the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday, only Pitching Ace Justin Verlander convinced.
Verlander was strong as usual and had ten strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings. His only mistake, however, was promptly punished – C.J. Cron beat a solo Homun against the Astros Ace in the second inning.
When Verlander had to leave the seventh inning, it was 1:1, because Blake Snell also had an excellent day (7 IP, 3 H, ER), but also gave seven walks without being punished for that.
On the other hand, Hector Rondon, who handed over the decisive RBI single to Rays-Catcher Wilson Ramos in the eighth inning, was punished and thus sealed the bankruptcy.
But the Astros won’t be thrown off course, as Catcher Max Stassi said: “Even after this defeat our group is simply fun. We’ll be back tomorrow and the guys will be joking and we’ll have a lot of fun. Then we’ll go out and play rough. We’ll be okay.”
The Astros have a balance of 49-26 and are thus only slightly worse than in the previous year, when they started the season with a balance of 50-25.
This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.