Astros 5, Tigers 4: McCann and Castellanos can’t save the day

The hits just kept on coming in today’s game, both off the bat and between players.

In the top of the second inning, outfielders Christin Stewart and Niko Goodrum had a nasty collision in the outfield (Stewart help on to the ball, but Goodrum was on the ground for a pretty long time and was ultimately replaced by Ronny Rodriguez).

Speaking out outfield moves, holy heck Victor Reyes made a jaw-dropper of a catch in centerfield in the top of the fifth. Like DAMN SON levels of good. Stewart also robbed a Gurriel home run, so yeah, this outfield might be a lot of fun in the future.

As for the pitching, Daniel Norris looked pretty good initially, but things sort of went off the rails in the fifth, and he was replaced by Sandy Baez. For the day, Norris had 4.2 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 3 K on 89 pitches. Not the best day, certainly, but it’s nice to see him pitching into the fifth looking healthy, if uneven. Hopefully he tightens things up by the end of the month.

Astros’ Alex Bregman led things off with an RBI single in the third, and the Tigers responded in the bottom of the inning with a Mikie Mahtook RBI single. The Tigers too a brief lead in the fourth off a James McCann solo home run, and then the Astros started piling on, with another Bregman hit, this time an RBI double, a sac fly from White, and an RBI double from Gonzalez. The Astros were up 5-2 by the middle of the fifth.

Ronny Rodriguez, himself an injury replacement, almost forced the Astros to go to their bench for a replacement catcher.

A two-run bomb by Nicholas Castellanos (his 21st of the year) brought the Tigers back to within one run.

Sandy Baez had a great outing, going 2 ¹⁄₃ IP and giving up only a single hit, no runs, and no walks. He was replaced by Zac Reininger in the eighth.

The Tigers lost a base-runner when a review call showed Mikie Mahtook was out at first, but the very next batter saw Jim Adduci make it to first anyway. Naturally, this being the Tigers, no one scored.

Unfortunately the Tigers were unable to make any late-inning magic and the Astros took the win, and the series.