Astros notes: Osuna back on track, Greinke 4-0 as an Astro, Toro’s first hit

Three thoughts from the Astros win. Roberto Osuna is back, Zack Greinke is undefeated since his arrival, and Abraham Toro gets his first hit in the Majors.

There were a few observations I noticed from the Astros defeat of the Los Angelos Angels 5-4 last night. Roberto Osuna has shown that he’s still worthy of being the closer. Although not real pretty, Zack Greinke has a perfect record as an Astro. Finally, Abraham Toro gets his first Big League hit in the second game of his career.

A couple of weeks ago, Osuna was getting skewered by a lot of Houston fans following a bad outing. Back on Aug. 11, he surrendered three runs in the bottom of the ninth against the Baltimore Orioles that spoiled an Astros comeback. He took the loss and the blown save. I saw fans all over social media calling for him to be removed as the closer, he can’t handle it.

Well, ever since that game, Osuna has been back to his old self closing out games with ease. Last night’s game was a prime example of that. With the Astros up by just one run, in comes Osuna to finish it out, he gets the Angels out in 1-2-3 fashion, including a strikeout of pinch hitter Brian Goodwin.

He has pitched in six games since that blown save and hasn’t allowed one single run. In fact, he has only given up two hits and one walk while striking out six. Osuna has lowered his ERA from 3.04 to 2.73 in that span. It looks like he’s performing his duties as a closer just fine to me.

Zack Greinke has now donned the Houston uniform for a little over three weeks and he has done all that we can ask of him, win games. He may not do it in the flashy way as teammates Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole do, but he’s getting the wins nonetheless.

As in last night’s game, Greinke is allowing quite a few batters on base, either by way of hits or walks. He gave up ten hits in his 6.2 innings of work last night but still allowed just two earned runs. Greinke hasn’t surrendered more than two earned runs in any of his four appearances for the Astros.

He’s not racking up the strikeouts and completely dominating the opposing teams but Greinke is getting the job done, winning all four of the games he’s started since coming over to the Astros. You can’t ask for more than that.

Abraham Toro made his second start as a Major Leaguer last night and garnered his first hit as an Astro. He ended up the night going 2-for-4 on two singles. He would have logged his first stolen base if it wasn’t for a challenge and an overturned call. I’m sure there will be plenty more hits to come from Toro as his career progresses.

On a final note. I’m sure glad the Astros are wearing these “Players Weekend” uniforms for just a few days. They are absolutely horrid. But at least they get to wear the white ones, the black uniforms are even worse.