Astros split doubleheader, Gerrit Cole scratched after warm-up

The Astros hoped to sweep a doubleheader with Zack Greinke and Gerrit Cole slated to start, but had to grind it out to get the split against the White Sox.

After Monday night’s rainout, the Astros were facing three games in 24 hours with the doubleheader Tuesday and an afternoon game today. Everything was looking positive with Zack Greinke, Gerrit Cole, and Wade Miley penciled in to start. Possibly eyeing a sweep and the starters eating up some innings to avoid overworking the pen with the three quick games.

That all changed when Cole felt discomfort in his right leg while warming up for the second game. He ended up being a last-minute scratch and A.J. Hinch had to scramble to put together another one of his relief-by-committee pitching lineups for game two. The Astros ultimately ended up using seven relief pitchers between both games and came out splitting the doubleheader.

All we can do is hope that it’s nothing serious with Cole’s leg. There hasn’t been a pitcher on a better roll than he’s been on the last couple of months. They’ll do some tests on him this morning to see what they’re up against. Hinch was just glad that Cole notified him when he did and hopefully it was caught early enough to avoid missing too much time.

“I’m glad he told us, because it’s important for him not to try to work through that,” Hinch said. “It’s his back leg, so we’ll see how he feels tomorrow.” via Brian McTaggart of MLB.com.

In game one, Greinke seemed to labor through his six innings of work allowing ten batters to reach base on seven hits, two walks, and a hit batsman. But he seemed to work his way out of trouble for the most part, only surrendering two runs. Will Harris, Ryan Pressly, and Collin McHugh each pitched perfect innings to secure the 6-2 victory for Greinke and the Astros.

Chris Devenski was the relief pitcher called on to quickly get ready for game two in place of Cole. Devenski ended up getting the loss with the White Sox scoring three runs in the second inning, turning out to be all they needed for the win. Devinski’s own fielding error with two outs accounted for two of those runs.

Joe Biagini, Hector Rondon, and Joe Smith took over after Devinski’s three innings and did well to try and keep the Astros in it. The only other run the White Sox scored was in the fourth inning off of Biagini. Unfortunately, Houston’s bats just couldn’t get anything going in game two and ended up with the 4-1 loss.

Wade Miley is on the mound this afternoon up against Chicago pitcher Ross Detwiler. Hopefully, Miley will have a strong outing and give the bullpen a much-needed break to take the rubber game and win the series, before heading out to Oakland. The Astros are in a tough stretch of their schedule and are staring at 12 more games before a scheduled day off.