Star Performer of the Week: Sept. 8 – 14

The Astros put together a 3-3 week on the road against a couple of tough divisional opponents. A .500 week in Seattle and Anaheim has to be considered a success — especially the way those two clubs have been playing lately. Some of the usual suspects emerged from the pack to compete for Star Performer honors.

Jose Altuve had a typical Jose Altuve type of week, going 8 for 24. The league’s leading hitter also drove in three runs and stole a base. Not quite enough to take home the hardware this time, but definitely worth a mention.

This week came down to a difficult decision between a couple of starting pitchers. With the newly installed 6-man rotation, each starter had only one chance to shine. Collin McHugh delivered a sterling effort Wednesday in Seattle. The rookie right-hander held the Mariners to only two hits and one run in eight innings of work. McHugh struckout four and lowered his team leading ERA to 2.79 in the Astros 2-1 win.

Dallas Keuchel closed out the week with a performance quite similar to McHugh’s. But, to me, Keuchel’s seven inning 3-hit effort against a red-hot Angels team stood out as the best. The Angels came into the game on a 10-game winning streak and Dallas shut them down. Keuchel was perfect through the first five innings and carried a no-hitter into the seventh.

A bloop single off the bat of Mike Trout broke up the no-no on Keuchel’s 100th pitch of the game. But Dallas immediately induced a double-play grounder to end the inning. Keuchel ran into trouble in the eighth and had to be bailed out by Jose Veras but his performance, coupled with some offensive heroics from Gregorio Petit and Robbie Grossman sealed the Angels’ fate.

Congratulations to Dallas Keuchel on earning his eleventh win of the season and this week’s Star Performer Award.