The Astros comeback yesterday was one for the ages

While the world witnessed the Astros historic comeback yesterday, I sat oblivious in a movie theater.

The Astros partook in a baseball game yesterday in Minnesota. And they won by the score of 16-8. It is a simple narrative that is easy to believe.

However, the in-between is by far the most interesting part of the game. The win just happened to be the end result.

First, I have to set the scene. For the Astros, Brad Peacock was the team’s starting pitcher. He pitched relatively until the fifth inning. At one point, the Astros held a 2-0 lead. So far this was a good start for the Astros.

The fifth inning is when the wheels fell off the wagon. The Twins managed to score seven runs that inning. Peacock was charged with four of those runs. Jordan Jankowski allowed the other three runs. Then he allowed his last run in the seventh inning. The score at this point was 8-2. That’s simply not conducive to victory making.

Fast forward to the eighth inning, and the Astros were on the verge of dropping their first game of their lengthy road trip. Sure, a loss would be disappointing. But you can’t win them all. Maybe you just take the loss and move on.

The Astros didn’t live by such a rule yesterday.

In an unexpected fashion, the lineup managed to score 11 runs. The team also sent 14(!) batters to the plate in the inning. Marwin Gonzalez drove in two runs on a long single to left field. Evan Gattis beat out an infield grounder. Carlos Beltran, in his second at-bat that inning, blasted a three-run homer. Josh Reddick also had a two-run double before the Beltran home run. Reddick’s double actually dropped the Twins win expectancy from 76% to 27.3%. It was an inning that was conducive to winning. So much for that rain delay.

Yesterday’s eighth inning was quite the sight to behold if you weren’t watching aliens consume their human victims on the silver screen. Oh, wait, that was me. Don’t worry, I’ll survive this disappointment of not watching this comeback firsthand. Thank goodness for the Root Sports game replay!

Anyway, the Twins had a 99.1% chance of winning the game before the eighth inning. Courtesy of Fangraphs, you have this cool visual representation of the Astros turnaround.

This was quite simply a comeback for the ages. You won’t be seeing this kind of comeback every day. Or every year. In fact, this is the first time in franchise history that the Astros rallied back from a deficit of six-runs or more as late as the eight inning to win the game.

Next: How should the Astros proceed with the starting rotation?

For good measure, the Astros added three more runs in the ninth inning. By then the damage was already done. And the team now has a 36-16 record, which is best in baseball. But I must say that an 1-659 record in such situations like yesterday never felt so good. But not as good as 36-16.

**Statistics and information courtesy of Fangraphs and MLB.com**