Astros: Thursday’s game to be streamed live on YouTube

If you’re one of the many unfortunate fans (like me) who don’t have the luxury of seeing the local Houston Astros’ broadcast, here’s some good news. Thursday’s series opener against the Angels at Minute Maid Park will exclusively be streamed live on YouTube. That means the usual AT&T SportsNet SW broadcast will not take place that day. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.

If you’re upset about missing out on the broadcast team of Todd Kalas and Geoff Blum, all is not lost. The Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome is reporting that the broadcast team for the YouTube stream will include Blum alongside Matt Vasgersian, Brett Dolan and Mark Gubicza. You may recall Dolan from his days on the Astros radio broadcast team from 2006-2012.

The Houston Astros series opener against the Angels will be broadcast on a different platform.

The YouTube stream will also feature a live chat in which viewers can participate, which is bound to be fun. Considering how ridiculous opposing fans have been, the live chat is sure to be filled with haters and trolls who rant incessantly about trash cans and cheating and advocate for players to be hit in the head and for another hurricane to devastate Houston.

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If you simply want to enjoy the game, disabling or muting the chat might be the wise thing to do. Although there is a part of me that hopes the Astros score 15 runs just to see the reaction from the idiots who think this team ruined the game and none of the other 29 teams did anything wrong.

Thursday’s game is the opener of a four-game series and the start of an eight-game homestand in which the Mariners also come to town. Dusty Baker hasn’t announced his starting pitcher, but given that Jose Urquidy is starting Wednesday’s game in Colorado, it seems likely that Cristian Javier will take the mound in this opener against Alex Cobb of the Halos.

The Astros are in freefall, losing eight of their last nine amidst poor performances on offense, defense and in the bullpen. The Angels are 9-6 and finishing off a series against the Rangers today. It will be an important series as Houston tries to right the ship. Hopefully returning home will help them do that.