Astros Drop Series to Rangers

Jordan Lyles took the mound for the Astros today in the rubber match against Colby Lewis and the Rangers. Lyles start may have been the worst of his young career thus far as he took the loss 6-1. In the first inning, the Rangers batted around and scored five runs. Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz and the pitcher, Colby Lewis, all had RBI’s in the first inning. Rangers LF, David Murphy, later added a solo home run in the fifth inning adding to the thirteen total hits the Rangers would record today. Jed Lowrie added a solo shot in the ninth inning for the Astros first and only run of the game. Jordan Lyles final line was: 5 IP, 9 H, 6R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 117 pitches. His ERA now sits at 5.29 through 3 starts. He is likely headed back to AAA.

The Astros managed five hits, two of which came from Jose Altuve, who now has seventeen multi-hit games on the year, while the other hits came from Travis Buck, Carlos Lee and Jed Lowrie. Brian Bogusevic and Jason Castro continued to look absolutely dreadful at the plate. Why in the world Bogusevic was hitting in the three hole is beyond me. He has no power, limited gap power and it seems like he grounds out more than the rest of the team combined. This came against Colby Lewis, who does have a respectable 3.26 ERA coming into this game, however, he also leads MLB in home runs allowed with twelve. The Astros only managed only four hits, including the one homer by Lowrie, off of Lewis.

The good news is that the Astros bullpen, nicknamed “The Regulators”, continued to regulate today as they pitched a combined four innings, while allowing three hits and no runs. Bud Norris takes the mound against Matt Garza tomorrow night at Minute Maid Park as the Astros welcome the Chicago Cubs in for a three games series. Let’s see if Norris can continue his great start to the season tomorrow!