Three numbers behind the Astros first loss since May

So, the Astros won’t finish the season with a 146-16 record. Bummer.

It’s amazing how an eleven-game winning streak can surround a team with an aura of invincibility. We basically viewed the Astros as gods amongst men.

Then a 7-1 advantage inexicably turned into a 9-7 loss. Oh, I refuse to use the word “crushing”. A disappointing end? Sure. Last night just proved that the Astros are, in fact,  mortal. The only detail that I do not care for besides the actual loss was that it came from the Royals.

6 runs allowed

The Astros bullpen surrendered the final six runs of the game in the eighth and ninth innings combined. Over the course of these two innings, the Astros win expectancy dropped from 95.4% in the middle of the eighth to 0%. Quite the steep decline, isn’t it?

Ken Giles, Reymin Guduan and James Hoyt will catch some heat for this game. And that is understandable. But we must realize that the Astros were going to lose sooner or later. It just came in a fashion in which we did not want to witness.

44 Game Score

David Paulino started in place of an injured Joe Musgrove yesterday and the end result was a mixed bag.

On one hand, Paulino did only pitch 5.2 innings, which forced Houston to resort to the bullpen sooner. However, the young right-hander only surrendered three earned runs with one walk and four strikeouts. It’s easy to see, though, why Paulino’s game score came in at a 44. And his heatmap indicates he was having issues staying out of the strike zone.

Essentially, he was slightly above replacement level, which is about all you can ask from the young pitcher.

14 hits

Even though the game ended with an Astros loss, you can’t necessarily pin this loss on the offense. Sure, there were missed opportunities in the later innings. But the offense did its job overall with 14 hits and seven runs scored.

The top of the lineup in particular was fairly productive. Josh Reddick finished the night with three hits. He would’ve finished with four hits if it wasn’t for a certain fly out early in the game.

Next: Astros Rumors: How much is Jose Quintana worth?

George Springer went 2-for-5 and Jose Altuve drove in a run. Carlos Beltran keeps reminding people that he can hit home runs with a second blast in his last four games. Carlos Correa and Yulieski Gurriel also added a combined five hits and three RBI. At the end of the day, though, it just wasn’t the Astros night.

**Statistics courtesy of Baseball Reference, Baseball Savant, Fangraphs and MLB.com**