Astros lose to Rangers despite an odd play by Rougned Odor

The Astros weren’t going to win 162 games this year, but this one was a little rough.

On paper, It looked like the Astros would win easily versus Rangers with Dallas Keuchel on the mound. Especially with Doug Fister starting for the Rangers. But, that’s why you play baseball games, anything can happen.

Keuchel was not terrible, but he did give up three runs in six innings pitched. Unfortunately, Fister contained the Astros offense until the fifth inning, where Max Stassi drove in a run with an RBI double. The big blow came in the seventh inning where Joe Smith, making his Astros debut, gave up two runs to extend the score to 5-1.

The Houston offense only had five hits in the game, but they missed out on some Ranger miscues. In the sixth inning, there was a sigh of relief that Fister was out of the game. The Rangers pulled Fister out after only throwing 77 pitches. Chris Martin came into the game in relief of Fister.

The sixth inning that could have been.

Jose Altuve was the first player up, and he hit a sinking line drive into right field. Nomar Mazara appeared to have caught the ball, but the umpire signaled no catch. Of course, there was a challenge, but there was not enough to overturn the call on the field. The Astros got their first break, or so we thought.

Carlos Correa came up next. Correa has a big late double on opening day, driving in Altuve. Could he do it again tonight? No, instead Correa strikes out. That’s fine, Alex Bregman had a chance to capitalize on the opportunity. However, Bregman hit what looked to be a double play. Elvis Andrus flipped the ball to Rougned Odor, pulling him off the bag. Altuve was safe!

Meanwhile, Odor throws the ball away, allowing Bregman to reach second base. Altuve was initially signaled to advance and score. Upon further review, they sent him back to third base. Marwin Gonzalez then walks, loading the bases for Evan Gattis. Unfortunately, Gattis struck out with the bases loaded.

Then the Rangers brought in Alex Claudio to face Derek Fisher, forcing the Astros to make a move. They pinch-hit, J.D. Davis, who was the last roster addition this spring in place of Yuli Gurriel. In my opinion, I wish that A.J. Hinch brought in Jake Marisnick instead.

It was a big situation for the rookie.

While Davis is better against left-handed pitching, they should have brought in the more experienced Marisnick. None of the pitches to Davis were strikes. They were all away from the hitter. What hurt Davis was the called strike one.

Next: Astros: Four-man outfield experiment appears on Opening Day

It was a tough loss with those two miscues by the Rangers. The good thing is that Lance McCullers is on the hill today versus the Rangers. Fister worked his magic yesterday, and the Astros bats were not alive. Give it time, it’s only game two of the season. This team is built to win a lot of games this year.

***Stats from Baseball-Reference and MLB.com***