Momentum lost! The Astros played well against the RedSox and had leads in two of the three games they lost, they just couldn't get it done. The Astros got blown out in the first game but had a chance to win three straight to close out the series.
The missed a prime chance to pick up a road series win and against a good team, this might haunt them in games to come.
Below are three takeaways from the RedSox series.
Wait, they can score now?
In game one the Astros only scored one run, and you began to think, ok this is going to be a really rough series. They did redeem themselves, scoring on average seven runs a game.
Production came from just about everywhere, in each game someone different took the spotlight.
Game Two - Jose Altuve and George Springer did most the damage with 6 hits and 5 RBI's between them.
Game Three - Springer again came through with 4 RBI's and Carlos Correa and Colby Rasmus pitched in 2 hits a piece.
Game Four - Luis Valbuena had himself a day with 2 hits and 5 RBI's
If this is a sign of things to come, maybe things might be able to turn it around. The biggest problem for the Astros has been the offense, and if that comes around maybe, the darkness is starting to fade and the sun might be about to raise.
Will the real Dallas please stand up?
Dallas Keuchel has not looked like his old self, there are flashes but on the whole, he's been bad. So far this year his ERA is just a shade under 6, a mighty far cry from the Cy-Young year he had just months before.
A part of me wants to say that, Keuchel just ran into a buzz saw that was the rolling RedSox who were scoring 10 plus runs a game. The other part looks at his advanced stats and notices maybe something has changed.
Keuchel is getting plenty of swinging strikes, so he's still getting movement. One of the problems this year is his velocity is down across the board. His fastball is the slowest since breaking into the league (2016, 88.4 MPH, 2012, 88.1 MPH). Another even bigger differance this season, 20% of his pitches had been cutters, the past two seasons he threw around 5-6%.
Some games it feels like he is having a hard time trying to find himself. Others it feels like the umpires are squeezing him.
Whatever the problem, please come back to us Dallas Keuchel.
Tucker had his chance
After the final game of the series, the Astros made a few moves. Evan Gattis has been recalled and will replace Eric Kratz on the roster, they also moved Preston Tucker to AAA.
When they sent Gattis down to the minors to get in work at catcher, the guy primed to take his place at DH was Tucker. The problem was he wasn't able to take advantage.
Tucker in the month of May bat .147, while he didn't strikeout at a crazy high rate, he also didn't walk very much. The bottom of the lineup has not been very productive, Carlos Gomez and Tucker have been the prime culprits. There's nothing you can do with Gomez, so Tucker is the guy that has to go.
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