Astros Live Game Feed: Game 50 Preview-Angels

The Astros will look to rebound from last night’s disappointing 7-2 defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Angels.

Mike Fiers surrendered seven runs in just 3.2 innings while the offense only mustered two runs off of the Angels pitching staff. On the bright side, Chris Devenski pitched 4.1 innings of scoreless relief, allowing just one hit while walking two. He also struck out four Angels hitters.

The offense, though, left little to enthused about as the team still searches for the right lineup combination. However, Colin Moran did drive in the first two runs of his career last night. It is just unfortunate that it came in a losing effort. The offense as whole left 13 on-base and struck out 13 times. So needless to say that the combination of Matt Shoemaker and Cam Bedrosian had the Astros bats figured out for at least one night. But this was just one game, an ugly mind you, but still just one game. Hopefully the Astros can take a step in the right direction again tonight.

GAME 2: Dallas Keuchel (2-6, 5.92) vs Jered Weaver (4-3, 5.33)

Dallas Keuchel will look to rebound from yet another bad outing. Keuchel has already given up 41 runs this season, which is dramatic increase from his previous two seasons that saw him only give up 65 and 64 runs respectively in 2014 and 2015. So far this month, Keuchel has alternated between bad and good outings, so if the trend continues, we should see a “better” Dallas Keuchel tonight.

For his career, Keuchel is 4-1 in seven starts at Angels Stadium with a 3.65 ERA, and is 7-2 against the Angels overall. Last season saw Keuchel dominate the Angels going 3-1 with a 1.71 ERA. Keuchel will almost certainly not achieve numbers he saw a year ago, but to enable the Astros to get back in the division race, he must be able to at least keep his team in games, and not give up the big inning. In the loss against Texas, he gave up five runs in the third inning, and has given up at least three runs in one inning in three other games this year. Avoiding the big inning and limiting walks (3.8 BB/9) will be key for Keuchel tonight.

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Current Angels hitters are batting a combined .252 against Keuchel with Mike Trout having the most success versus the southpaw batting .323 with a home run. Yunel Escobar is also 5/9 against Keuchel.

The 33-year-old Weaver is in his 11th campaign with the Angels. Weaver has had a rough start to the year and has struggled to find consistency this season, much like Keuchel. However, his last two starts have been encouraging, turning in quality starts against the Dodgers and Orioles.

Weaver has given up at least one home run in all but one of his starts this season, and going up against the Astros who live off the long ball, will give him a true test to keep the ball in the yard tonight.

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Weaver is 5-3 against the Astros over his career with a 2.98 ERA. Current Astros are batting a combined .270 against Weaver, with Jose Altuve hitting .345 against him. Jason Castro, George Springer, Evan Gattis, and Carlos Correa have all homered versus Weaver.

**Statistics provided by Baseball-Reference**