Astros, on the right train tracks!

Most the time when you are about to hear of someone going streaking. It can usually be followed by stories about that person ripping off their clothes, dancing across some sort event only to end up being tased by police officers. Well, the Astros are streaking and it won't end in a tasing, but rather high fives and at-a-boys.

In the past 10 games, the Astros have went seven and three and they are winners of four in row for the first time all season. The mood and the feeling is the team is finally back on the right track.

This has been one of the few times all year the Astros have mixed everything together and got great results. The starting pitching has been solid (minus one start) the bullpen has kept improving and the offense is finally pulling their weight.

Since moving George Springer to leadoff, he's batted nearly .500, Jose Altuve is getting on base like he's normal self. But the offense is better not just because those two guys, while that's great and helpful, the rest of the lineup is starting to come through. Luis Valbuena who bats in the bottom half of the lineup is batting .400, and even Jake Marisnick who has been absent batting wise all year has started to turn it on.

For a while, I myself have asked, begged even, for the Astros to do some major shaking up to the lineup. While flip-flopping Altuve and Springer isn't exactly what I pictured, it's worked. The Astros have been "lit" as the young kids say, going seven and one since moving the two. Springer has just been unreal!

"He's taking some singles up the middle, he's hitting some homers, bullet doubles to start the game," A.J. Hinch said, "his job as a leadoff hitter is to be a good hitter first, and what comes with that is a better hitter."

Springer early on in the year batting second had been a little up and down but he has seemed to find a home at the head of the Astros attack.

"Whether it's mental or physical I don't really care," Hinch said trying to give reasons to why his new leadoff hitter is going bananas, "I like the look of it, and I think he's made a conscious adjustment to set the table for Altuve (and) Correa."

The pitching has also been bang up as well, outside of a Mike Fiers hiccup (7 runs in 3.2 innings), the starters have been fantastic. They have given you what you have needed to win games with each guy giving up three runs or less. With the offense doing well, only allowing three runs is a winning combo.

The bullpen has also kept stepping up, getting strong performances from all over the place. Michael Feliz is nails, hasn't allowed a run since the year 1965. Ken Giles is still a little hit or miss but the rest of the relievers have been great.

Last year the Astros had a 10 game win streak and it helped power them all the way to the playoffs at the end of the season. Right now the Astros are playing their best baseball of the season, they haven't had a 10 game win streak but seven wins in their last eight games is nothing to sneeze at.

"It's nice to see us play consistently, we could have even had a better month if it had not of been for some one-run losses, I think six of them this month, our team has played well for going on four weeks," Hinch said via MLB.com's Brian McTaggart, "we can pretend it's May tomorrow or we can move to June and continue the momentum into another good month, we've got to play consistently for month to month to month to get to where we want to get."

The Astros had a really poor April winning only seven games, but so far May has shined on them as they have more than doubled up the wins, winning 16 games. If not for such a poor start, you could be looking at the Astros being frontrunners in the A.L. West.

Three Astros takeaways from the WhiteSox series

The Astros end the road trip with a loss, but who cares. They managed to pick up their first road series of the year getting two wins off the WhiteSox. They had a small chance to pick up the sweep in game three but Chris Sale was dealing as he pitched a complete game only allowing one run to the Astros.

All and the WhiteSox series was a sign of better baseball, will see what they can do against the Rangers on Thursday.

Below are three takeaways from the WhiteSox series

Heading back to Houston, better, but not great

The Astros aren't on fire, but they are at a slow simmer. They are pretty much in the same position they were in before they left on the road trip, still seven games back of the AL West leading Mariners.

The good news is they didn't lose any more ground, so there's that. Over the past few games, the team has put together much better games. The offense pulled their weight, the pitching is hanging in there, and if not for closer Luke Gregerson losing his mind over the last week you could be looking at the road trip in a whole new light.

"Were playing well, were playing good baseball, it's just a matter of putting everything together, we said it before, we just (need to) play complete games, pitch the ball, catch the ball, get timely hits and we did that really well the first couple of games," Collin McHugh said via Root Sports after the team's 2-1 loss to the WhiteSox, "just ran into a buzz saw today (Thursday), just got to tip your hat, and move on to the next series at home, we got a big couple of series coming up, got some game we want to go there and win, just a matter of continuing to be consistent and put together complete ball games."

So now there are two good catchers?

Jason Castro, and now Evan Gattis. It's the 1-2 punch the team has been waiting for. Gattis last season's DH spent a little over a week in double-A getting back into the swing of things at catcher.

He caught his very first game in over two years on Thursday, and he did not look to bad. He framed a few pitches, he blocked a hell of a lot of balls in the dirt and called a good game. He didn't have a chance to show off his arm but by all accounts, he had more than adequate night.

"The story today is Evan Gattis, he did a really good job behind the dish I know a lot of people haven't had a chance to see him it's been a couple years since he's been back there, but he's solid, he's a big league catcher, everybody needs to understand that and recognize that," McHugh said, "he did a really phenomenal job tonight both calling the game and blocking, I didn't really give him much of a chance on a couple of stolen bases, but he can do it, he's a big league backstop back there, obviously we know what he can do what the bat, but he had a great game today."

Now that Gattis can catch, the team has some good offensive options at catcher. Gattis is what he is, a DH who will hit 20 home runs and bat .240 and that's about a million times better than any other backup catcher you will find. Castro is starting to come around too, over the past 10 games he's batting .353.

Whoever the Astros have behind the dish going forward you feel pretty comfortable with them catching and hitting.

A.J. Hinch = J.B. Bickerstaff

There is something to be said about playing to the matchups, at the same time there is something to be said about playing who's hot. Tyler White goes banana's in the first game of the series, sits out in game two and gets the start again in game three and is cold as ice (facing Chris Sale). The Astros call up Colin Moran who they consider to future and he plays one game.

The Rockets had the same problems this season, J.B. Bickerstaff would get a nice game from blank and then blank was buried on the bench in the next game. Sometimes Bickerstaff would also ride people too long because they are veterans. The Astros are starting to share in this same trend.

Is there a reason why Jake Marisnick started in two of these games? I can understand Marisnick the defensive replacement but as a starter... That dog just won't hunt.

If Carlos Correa is struggling it's not like you you are going to take him out, and that's understandable. The Astros only have a few guys like that. So if White/Marwin Gonzalez/Luis Valbuena is going bananas ride them till the wheels fall off, just stop interchanging them in and out of the lineup.

Let a player carry his momentum into the following game if he has a good game.

Bottom of the order big reason for 5-3 win over WhiteSox

The Astros winning ways continue with a 5-3 win over the WhiteSox. The Astros had a big night offensively getting 13 hits, and four hits from the back end of the lineup.

The 8-9 spots for the Astros came up big time and they were a big reason they were able to pull out their very first road series win.

Eight hitter Jason Castro in the second inning reached base with a one-out single. Nine hitter Tony Kemp would follow with his first major league hit, a double, moving Castro to third. Jose Altuve would drive in Castro with a ground out, and George Springer would end the inning with a hot liner to right field but not before the Astros took a 2-1 lead over the WhiteSox.

In the fourth inning, the bottom of the lineup came through big for the Astros again. Castro would draw a four-pitch walk, and Kemp would follow with his second hit of the night a one-out single. Altuve would drive in Castro again with a single to left giving the Astros a 3-1 lead. WhiteSox starter Matt Latos would regroup and get out of the inning putting away the next two guys in order.

The last run for the Astros would come in the sixth inning. Clearly feeling it Castro took the first pitch he saw from Latos and took it to deep right field for a solo shot putting them up 5-1.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Kemp drew a leadoff walk and Altuve followed with another walk. It started to look like they would come through again and score a few more runs. Springer would turn on the first pitch we saw and rocket a ball to Todd Frazier at third base and the WhiteSox would end up turning a triple-play.

"We can hit, we have a dangerous team, people underestimate a little bit of the quality at-bats we can put up there when we're right," Manager A.J. Hinch said via Root Sports, "we certainly have our struggles at times, but consistency is hard to find in this league."

The 8-9 hole (Castro and Kemp) for the Astros did its job with four hits, two walks, and three runs scored.

"Kemp had a good night at the bottom of the order sparking the top of he order," Hinch said, "Altuve had another good night which is commonplace, for the most part when we string together good at-bats and tonight we did it without the benefit of a crooked number in an inning, I like our offense."

Aside from the near miss at more runs in the eighth, the Astros would end up scoring one run in five different innings Wednesday night.

The pitching would do just enough to make the runs the offense gave them hold up. Starter Doug Fister gave the team six and a third innings only allowing three earned runs. He allowed nine hits, but when he was in a jam he was either able to get the strikeout he needed or the defense would make a nice play and pick him up.

"He throws quality strikes it moves in different directions there's not a lot of complaints when it comes to his time in the rotation," Hinch said of Fister's night, "you feel like your going to get 5-6-7 innings of good healthy hard work that gives you a good chance to win."

The Bullpen would come in and close the door on the WhiteSox. Luke Gregerson who has been a little shaky of late, blowing three of his last four save chances. On Wednesday Gregerson was back to his normal self sitting down the WhiteSox in order.

All and all a nice game by the Astros, one of the few nights this year they have been able to put it all together getting good pitching and good offense. When they are able to do that, they'll win more games than naught.

The Great White Returned In 6-5 Over WhiteSox

Tyler White of late has been one of the much-maligned Astros players. Now with Carlos Gomez on the DL and Preston Tucker back in the minors, the spotlight is squarely on him. It's not something spoken but with the team's recent moves, the writing is on the wall, produce, or we can't play you anymore.

In the midst of a May that has seen White bat .194, the great white (Tyler White) not only showed up, but he was a big cog in the Astros 6-5 win over the WhiteSox Monday night. He finished the night 3-4 with 2 home runs (first career multi-homer game) and he was responsible for three of the team's six runs.

In the top of the fourth, after a seven pitch battle with starting pitcher Carlos Rodon, White took the eighth pitch over the left center wall for a solo shot. White fouled off two straight 97 MPH fastballs till he was able to square one up.

White again facing Rodon in the top of the sixth blasted another solo shot. White had to reach for this one, Rodon had this fastball off the plate, but he was still able to extend and poked this one in almost the same place as his first homer.



To cap off his night, White in the eighth inning gave the team a leadoff double down the line which they would end up scoring on. Astros manager A.J. Hinch would lift White for pinch runner Tony Kemp and he would come around to score on a Jose Altuve sac-fly.

"He had a great night, it's nice him get some hits two-strike home runs were important, the leadoff double was very key for us," A.J. Hinch, "it's nice to see him not try to do too much he got rewarded with some extra base hits but he wasn't over swinging the entire time and really coming out of his swing, hopefully that's a sign of things to come."

The past couple of weeks White has looked like he was starting to put things together. He no longer was trying to make things happen and swing at bad pitches, striking out over and over. He started drawing walks and when putting the ball in play, he was squaring up the ball, it was just landing in defenders gloves.

White spoke to me a couple weeks back and he was happy with the swings he was putting on the baseball. He understood that the if he kept doing what he was doing that the line drives would start falling for hits.

White has been looking better of late, the hits might not have been there but he's looks miles better over the past couple of weeks. If Monday is a sign of what is about to come, watch out MLB.

Wait... The offense can score now?

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.

It's getting tough to watch Carlos Gomez, but is that his fault?

If you have ever watched an old school Mike Tyson fight, somewhere within the first or second round you start to really feel bad for the guy he's fighting. This poor guy is taking body blow after body blow, please god someone stop the fight, throw in the towel, I can't watch this anymore!!

I am starting to feel that same way about Carlos Gomez, it's tough seeing him swing and miss. I love Gomez, he's a nice guy, he's a fun guy and he's hella entertaining. in 2015 when the Astros traded for him, he brought some flare and some juice to the team. When he's on and you see him playing the game you can see the energy he provides the team.

This year, it has all just went off the train tracks. When looking at all the advanced stats and anything else that can be tracked, Gomez is having pretty much the same year as he always has, except in one place. Gomez is swinging and missing at an alarmingly high rate, a career high for him and among the worst in baseball.

Per FanGraphs his K% of 34.9 is the third worst in baseball this season. Before now the last person to have a higher K% in the majors was former Astros first basemen Chris Carter, in his 2013 year here he had a K% of 36.2.

Gomez's BABIP (Batting average on balls in play) is over .300 so it tells you when he can actually connect with a ball, he's an average hitter this year. Again the problem is he isn't connecting often enough.

How many times have you seen him swing out of his shoes getting fooled on a breaking pitch? How many times have you seen Gomez swing as hard as he can to try and catch up with a fastball only to miss? The answer to both of those is way too many to count.

It's getting worse too, in 24 games during April, Gomez had a .213 batting average with 24 strikeouts. 11 games into May and he's batting .132 with already 21 strikeouts. On the season, he has a little more than double the number of strikeouts as he does hits.

Below is a graph from Brooksbaseball and you can see how Gomez is doing against all types of pitches this season.

Gomez is having a very tough time at the plate, you can tell it's eating him up inside. A few games back after a strikeout he broke a bat over his thigh. During the last homestand, he was ejected from the game for arguing balls and strikes (that might not have been 100 percent on him, it was an awful game).

This is a guy who's been part of the 20-30 club (20+ homers, 30+ stolen bases) for almost three straight seasons. You may be booing him in the stands but you can bet no one is more upset about his job at the plate than Gomez.

At the moment, there are not very many things you can do with Gomez. You aren't going to DFA him, you aren't going to trade him, you could have him bat in the order higher to see more fastballs (he's batting about .350 on four seem fastballs this year), but they don't seem willing to break up the 1-2-3-4 of Jose Altuve, George Springer, Carlos Correa and Colby Rasmus.

Another option is to have Gomez ride the bench for a while so he can try and find himself. If not you are kind of doing a disservice to him and the rest of the team. Leaving him and letting him work through his problems is like letting a starter who's already given up seven earned runs in the second inning, keep on working. The team is counting on the bottom of the order to drive in runs and get on base for the top of the order. Right now, not having normal Gomez is one of many reasons the team has had problems driving in runs.

"He's had a tough go, that's been documented," A.J. Hinch said of Gomez via MLB.com's Brian McTaggart before the game Saturday, "I feel him cause he's working his tail off to make it better, he's putting in a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of energy, he cares a lot, things aren't going his way and he hasn't really gotten any luck along the way."

On Saturday, the Astros did bench/rest him because Clay Buchholz was on the mound, and he's normally a pretty tough pitcher. In the eighth inning, they did call on him to enter the game to pinch run. When the game went to extra innings, he did get an at bat, and he struck out.

You want to Gomez to do well, his energy in one of a kind. I mean how many players say they play sexy? Zero, just Gomez.

I understand the position Hinch is in. Look you got to play someone out there, but no one is really producing so why not just let Gomez keep playing? Who's better? It's not like Jake Marisnick is batting .300, .200 or even .150 (he's batting .100 as of 5-15), but he's another problem for another day.

Hinch uses the ingredient's that he has in the pantry, he isn't the one going to the story and getting what he needs. So if he doesn't have sugar, it's his job to still try and make a cake without sugar. Astros G.M. Jeff Luhnow is the guy that is shopping for the ingredients. Hinch might tell Luhnow, he needs sugar, but it's up to Luhnow whether or not he wants to go get it.

You can't be upset at Gomez, he's trying, he's working. You can't really be upset with Hinch, what else is he going to do, his hands are tied. For now, maybe the best thing is to keep running him out there, either he gets better and finds his swing, or maybe Luhnow finally decides it's time to head to the store and start shopping for sugar.

It's time for a major tweak

After the good vibes from a 16 inning walk-off win on Wednesday. The Astros followed that up scoring one run, off the RedSox losing 11-1 less than 24 hours later.

One of the big problems the Astros have had since the season started, played a big part in the loss again Thursday. Leaving men on base was an issue against David Price (who has given up his fair share of runs), the Astros got guys on base, but again could not get them in. This has been a problem for a while and even in wins it's an issue that keeps popping back up.

It's about time for the Astros to start taking a look at ways to manipulate their way to more runs. It's pretty clear drastic methods like calling a bunch of guys up or making trades is out of the question, for now at least.

What the Astros can do, is start moving the lineup around. They can start spreading some of that top of the lineup hitting wealth, to the rest of the batting order.

The Astros only have one player batting over .300, Jose Altuve's batting .326. Aside from him they only have two guys that are batting over .250, Carlos Correa batting .269 and George Springer batting .255. That's the 1-2-3 of your lineup. The rest of the batting order is .235 or lower and a few guys are even below .200.

When a Cowboy wants to take down a bunch of Outlaws, he's going to have a tough time, if he only has three bullets in his gun. He better hope the bad guys are having off days if his going to be able to come out on top.

That's a lot like the Astros now, they are winning games because the pitching most nights are doing enough to keep them close, and then when the timing is right they can put one or two guys across the plate. Some nights that is enough for a win, most nights it's not.

The Astros as a team are batting .229, only better than the Braves, the Phillies, and the Rays. All but one of the four is below .500 (Phillies are just playing out of their mind).

The Astros are getting production from four guys, Colby Rasmus, Altuve, Springer, and Correa. The rest of the lineup is hit and miss. To help get guys more fastballs and help kickstart them into gear, the Astros need to consider breaking up that four.

Spread the four throughout the order and mix in Carlos Gomez, Tyler White, and Preston Tucker higher in the lineup. I am not saying this will be the magic potion that will cure all the lineup woah's but it's worth a shot.

New lineup
1st - George Springer
2nd - Preston Tucker
3rd - Carlos Gomez
4th - Jose Altuve
5th - Carlos Correa
6th - Colby Rasmus
7th - Marwin Gonzalez
8th - Jason Castro
9th - Tyler White

The short seconded basemen is the team's best batter, you get someone on base for him you have faith he can get the run/runs home. Just think about how long innings can go with Correa and Rasmus right behind him.

Of course, that's the same thinking with them in the top of the order. The problem is the guys behind them aren't doing anything, so if you move Tucker and Rasmus in front of them they get fatter fastballs. You hope that they will be able to shake free the rust from the bats and start producing.

This would be a shake up and right now maybe that's what the bats need. The Astros have seen what this lineup has been able to do this season with minor tweaks here or there, but maybe it's time for a major tweak.