Houston Astros Minors: Greeneville wins the Appalachian League Championship

The Astros win the championship! Not the Houston Astros, they are still a few weeks away from the playoffs. The Greeneville Astros with the Appalachian League Championship in a quick two rounds of the APL playoffs. Earlier, I wrote about the first round of the playoffs for the baby Astros; you can read it here: Astros farm report: The Greeneville Astros advance to the second round of playoffs. Then the following day, I was able to interview playoff hitting star Connor Goedert, you can find it here: Keeping up with the Houston Astros prospects: Connor Goedert.

The Greeneville Astros are doing what most of the other Houston Astros minor league teams are doing; they are winning. If I had to describe this series is a few words, I would say it was a “backs up against the wall” type of series. In both series, the Astros lost the first game in a best of three series, which meant any loss from that point would have eliminated.

Let’s take a look at the Astros three games in the series.

The Bad (Game 1)

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The first game of the series was a terrible game by the Astros, where they lost 12-2 to the Rays rookie league team. The first three pitchers Albert Abreu (4 runs in 2 2/3 innings), Carlos Hiraldo (4 runs in 1 1/3 innings), and Makay Nelson (5 runs in 2 innings). Finally someone came in to put out the fire, Cristhopher Santamaria came in for the final three innings without allowing any more runs to score. Overall, the pitchers allowed the 12 runs on 20 hits.

At the plate in game one, the bats were quiet except for Kyle Tucker (2-4 with a run), Randy Cesar (2-3 with a run), and Christian Correa (2-3). No, he is not related to Carlos Correa. They scored the two runs on seven hits while striking out eight times.

Astros trail 0-1 in series.

The Ugly (Game 2)

While the Astros won game two of the series, it wasn’t pretty, but it was a 10-8 win. For the second game in a row, the first three pitchers gave up the bulk of the eight runs allowed. The pitchers were Salvador Montano (4 runs in 3 innings), Hector Perez (2 runs in 2 innings), and Starlyng Sanchez (2 runs in 2 innings). The Astros gave up four runs in the seventh to fall behind. Samil De Los Santos continued his good pitching in the playoffs by pitching two shutout innings in the win. The pitchers allowed 11 hits and two walks.

The bats came out of hibernation with some bombs. Tucker continues his onslaught in the playoffs with a 2-4 day with a homer. After a hitless day in game one, I felt like I jinxed Goedert with the interview, he responded with a 2-5 day with his second homer of the postseason. The second baseman Rodrigo Ayarza also added a blast in addition to his 3-4 day with three runs and four RBI’s. Daz Cameron also got two hits after a hitless game one. The Astros scored ten runs on 16 hits.

Astros tied 1-1 in series.

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The Good (Game 3)

Game three was decided in the sixth inning as the Astros scored three runs but allowed a run in the bottom half of the inning to make the score 8-7 Astros, which was the final score. Instead of breaking the pitching down again that allowed seven runs on six hits, I wanted to focus Edgardo Sandoval, who pitched four innings only allowing one run on a homer and striking out seven hitters. He finished with a 1.13 ERA during the playoffs, so congrats to Sandoval for holding the scoring down at that point.

The Astros gathered 14 hits in the game with the only hitter not getting a hit was Cesar, but he still finished with a .320 batting average. While several players got hits, the star of the game has to be Tucker, who hit another home run, finishing with a .375 AVG/ 3 HR/ 6 RBI. Goedert finished with .320 Avg/ 2 HR/ 6 RBI and Correa finished batting .600.

Now that their season is over, they set their sights on their future with the Astros, where they will be next year, and reflect on the successes of the season. But like any player, the rookie league players will continue to get better, to achieve their big league dreams.

Congrats again to the Greeneville Astros, Cameron and Tucker I would like to interview you.

Next: Astros Farm Report: The JetHawks begin repeat of title run tonight