As promoted by the Astros on social media prior to the game, it was #JVDay in Houston and their starter did not disappoint. Justin Verlander carried a no-hitter into the seventh and was nothing short of dominant. He had the Sox offense swinging at anything and everything near the zone. Here’s a breakdown of tonight’s key players.
Jose Abreu: 1-4, HR, RBI, run
Tonight’s Player of the Game award goes to Pito. With Verlander’s no-hitter still in tact during the seventh, Jose Abreu crushed a 95 MPH fastball 416-feet to dead centerfield for the team’s lone hit of the game.
CANCEL THE POSTGAME SHOW!
— Sox On 35th (@SoxOn35th) May 22, 2019
Thank god.
Dylan Covey: 4.0 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 1 K, 1 HR | 86 pitches – 55 strikes 31 balls
Every now and then, Dylan Covey has a start that really makes you stand back and say, “wow.” We saw it last year when he out-dueled Chris Sale at Fenway and again when he threw 8.1 shutout innings at Seattle. Early in the game, it looked like we’d be getting a repeat of that Dylan Covey. His sinker looked very good and he was hitting his spots consistently. Then, the wheels started to fall off.
In the fourth inning, Yuli Gurriel hit a 350 foot home run to right field to give the Astros the lead. Since it likely would have been a fly out at nearly any other stadium, I’ll give Covey the benefit of the doubt as the ball barely got out. But then, the top of the fifth was a different story.
Dylan issued two-straight walks to start off the inning before falling behind 2-0 to Josh Reddick. He completely lost his command that he had all night, leading to Ricky racing out of the dugout to bring in Bummer from the ‘pen.
Aaron Bummer: Disaster
Well, he lived up to his last name and then some. The lefty came in with a 2-0 count on Reddick in the fifth after barely having any time to warm up. Naturally, he issued a walk to load the bases. A wild pitch then allowed Tony Kemp to score before Bummer gave up a second walk to Alex Bregman. That’s when the wheels fell completely off the bus and the bus exploded.
Michael Brantley doubled on a line drive to left field, driving in two. Immediately following was Carlos Correa who singled to left and made it a 5-0 game out of nowhere. Luckily the inning came to an end after Tim Anderson spun a double play to halt the downward spiral.
The Defense: Very nice
There were several great catches by the Sox throughout the game. The first came from Leury Garcia who covered 81 feet to make the diving grab. His sprint speed was 28.1 ft/s on the robbery which can be seen below. For reference, the MLB average is 27.5 ft/s. Not too shabby.
CLEAR FOR TAKEOFF! pic.twitter.com/I5m57kzkCE
— Sox On 35th (@SoxOn35th) May 22, 2019
Next up was Eloy who had a rough time in the field during the first game of the series. However, he made up for it with this sliding grab to get the third out of the inning.
Eloy makes the sliding grab in LF pic.twitter.com/TdeIqVplj8
— Sox On 35th (@SoxOn35th) May 22, 2019
As mentioned earlier, Tim Anderson helped spin a nice double-play in the 5th to end the fifth inning madness. He also would’ve had another later in the game but it got washed away thanks to catcher’s interference from Welington Castillo.
The Offense: One-hit. Not good.
Ricky Renteria
What are we doing? Not to hate on the lineup, but I have to hate on the lineup. Leaving James McCann out of the game against a pitcher he caught during a good portion of his career in Detroit? I know he was probably due for a day off, but putting him in the lineup here is a given.
Listen, I know Verlander has somewhat reinvented himself since he came to the Astros, and I know what I’m about to say wouldn’t change the result at all. But Ricky didn’t see ANY value in putting McCann in the lineup? You know, the Catcher that’s caught 57 of Verlander starts?
— Jordan Lazowski (@jlazowski14) May 22, 2019
There were plenty of other issues with the lineup, but that’s a discussion for a different article. Serenity now.
Justin Verlander: 8.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 12 K, 1 HR | 101 pitches – 74 strikes, 27 balls
For the box score from tonight’s game, click here.
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Featured Photo: Getty Images