Astros news & notes for Wednesday 7/2

The Seattle Mariners completed a 3-game sweep of the Astros earlier today with a 5-2 win at Minute Maid Park. The Astros offensive struggles continued. Homeruns by Marwin Gonzalez and Kike Hernandez accounted for two of the Astros three hits in the game. Houston manager Bo Porter said he was happy to see the Mariners leaving town.

Prior to the game, the Astros activated reliever Anthony Bass from the disabled list and returned Kevin Chapman to AAA Oklahoma City. Bass got into the game, throwing 25 pitches in 1 & 2/3 innings of work. It appears as though the righty will be asked to fill the role of “multiple inning reliever”. Chapman’s stay in Houston was short-lived. The lefty allowed two runs on three hits and a pair of walks in his only appearance after being called up earlier this week.

The club is now headed to Anaheim, where they will open up a 7-game road trip with three games against the Angels. Brett Oberholtzer is scheduled to start tomorrow and Dallas Keuchel is slated to return to the rotation on Friday. That gives the Astros six starters and only six relievers on the current roster. That is likely to change before the road trip comes to an end next Wednesday in Arlington.

More from Astros News

The International signing period started today and, so far, the Astros have announced the signing of three young players from Venezuela. The club is also expected to sign one or more international players within the next few days.

The Chronicle’s David Barron reports that the Astros and CSN Houston were back in court again on Wednesday as well. It looks like there could be an offer to buy the failing RSN, but details were not released to the public. Don’t expect to see any Astros games on ATT-Uverse, Dish, or DirecTV any time soon. The bankruptcy reorganization period has been extended to August 7.