Climbing Tal's Hill
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CTH’s Houston Astros Players of the Week (June 22 – 28)

By Thomas O'Banion

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It was a week of ups and downs for your Houston Astros, as they went 3-4. Yes, they played against tough opponents, but you can’t help but feel like they let a couple of those games slip away. There were two close ones against the Angels that the Astros could’ve had wrapped up, but they wound up losing by a run in later innings (one that went deep into the 13th). And then the two losses against New York that saw the usually stout bullpen look feeble as the team allowed tying/winning runs late in the ballgame.

It was a tough week, but the Astros mostly held their own. Just have to be able to win the close ones, right? Only one loss was by more than a run.

On to the awards!

Pitcher of the Week

This is a tough choice. The Astros got strong pitching performances out of both Collin McHugh and Dallas Keuchel, and won the three games these guys started. The only time we give shared awards is to the relievers. Dallas Keuchel gets this one, but it was a really close call.

During the series opener against the New York Yankees, Keuchel brought his A-game. After getting a lead off single, the Bronx Bombers never stood a chance against the Bayou City’s bearded ace. Keuchel pitched his third complete shutout game of 2015, striking out 12 batters and only giving up six hits and one walk. It was another masterful performance for Houston’s Cy Young Award candidate.

Hitter of the Week

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    • The Houston Astros have a pretty potent offense, if you haven’t heard. And they’re getting some really solid play from this young phenom named Carlos Correa. The 20 year old shortstop is a gem of a player and you can’t help but watch him and think that he’s something very special.

    This week he was Crush City’s best hitter, as he slugged his way to getting on base or scoring runs. Here’s his line for the week:

    .333/.355/.700, 30 at bats, 10 hits, two home runs, five doubles, eight RBI, walk

    Carlos Correa is incredible. The young man is already making a strong case for himself as a rookie of the year candidate. I’m glad he’s on our team, aren’t you?

    Weekly Goat

    Chad Qualls has not been the Chad Qualls of years past. Either that or we just like to reminisce about his contributions to the strong teams from the previous decade and are hard on the veteran reliever. Nonetheless, he wasn’t very good this past week in his two appearances.

    In his first appearance against the Angels, Qualls came in with a tie game. He promptly gave up a single, and then the runner advanced to second on wild pitch during the next at bat. Qualls managed to get an out, but he was still responsible for the runner, who scored later in the inning. Qualls took the loss.

    Then in the 13 inning tilt against the Angels two days later, Qualls inherited a runner on third base with two outs. He gave up a walk and then the game-winning single that scored the runner. He never registered the final out.

    We’re hoping that Qualls returns from the disabled list soon, and returns to his old form. It’s sad when a fan base groans when a once beloved player comes in because they don’t trust him.

    Redemption Player

    Collin McHugh gets this one because he went through a very rough stretch of pitching where he was not going deep into games and he was giving up a lot of hits and earned runs. This week he was terrific, pitching eight innings in both of his starts and getting the wins. Here’s his line for the week:

    16.0 IP, 11 hits, three earned runs, three walks, 14 strikeouts. .190 batting average against

    Again, McHugh could have easily been the pitcher of the week.

    That’s it for this week. Here’s the links to previous weeks:

    Week 1 / Week 2 /Week 3 / Week 4 / Week 5 / Week 6 / Week 7 / Week 8/ Week 9/ Week 10/ Week 11

    Next: Astros Podcast: Who Is Fair Game For A Potential Trade?

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